FAO anyone with aftermarket management

[Adam]

Do me a favour and have a look what your pc serial port settings are to.
Trying to get my laptop to "talk to" my ecu but its having none of it!!
And seeing as the last time i used the serial port was about 10 year ago, im a bit stuck lol

Device Manager>Com ports...... :thumb:

Cheers :)

[peester]

.. and here starts the long and winding road lol..

no idea. on the laptop its not showing a COM port..

on desktop its 9600 8 none 1 none

[phazer]

9600, 8 ,1 Though you'll find that most will work with differing speeds.

Anyway, it's more than likely the COM port number that's the problem. You got a genuine serial port or using a USB->Serial job?

[Adam]

Its set to Com Port 2,
9600,data bits 8, stop bits 1, parity-none, flow control-none

Im using a proper serial port

[peester]

wheres COM 1?
are there advanced options?

[phazer]

Looks good, so what's the prob?

[Adam]

The Gotech software just doesnt pickup the ecu :confused:

Its powered up off a spare battery, whether that makes a difference or not i dont know. It is putting out less than 12v though. Power LED is on.
Might have to try it on another battery.

[phazer]

If the battery isn't giving 9v plus it won't be enough.

You got all relevant earths connected to the battery? DTA has two earths that have to be connected before it'll power up.

I've had mine running off a PC power supply for a long time while I did some errm investigating of it's comms protocol.

[Adam]

Might try a better battery then.
Yeah the earths/12v's are fine as the ecu light is powered up.

[Adam]

Tried it another battery, still nothing,hmmm. Giving me grief already!!!!

The serial cable is untested, but is new so i doubt its that.

[phazer]

You sure it needs a standard RS232 cable?

[Adam]

Nope im not sure lol

Theres nothing in the manual/wiring diagrams about having a "special" cable like MBEs etc use.....

[phazer]

Hmm odd, nothing in the manual. I would bet it's not standard, though without any info lol

[Adam]

I PM'd Linch on here though as hes got the same ecu, and sure he said standard cable works on his. Maybe the cable is faulty, unlikely though IMO

[phazer]

Yes just found some info that said it's a standard cable. Not great that it's not mentioned anywhere on their site.

I agree, cable fault unlikely. Where the batteries you tried known good? I.e fresh off a car that's used? Only thing it leaves is faulty ECU, again unlikely or the PC.

[phazer]

I've just installed the software to have a nosey and it's trying to connect to the serial port at 192000kbps not 9600.

Another aftermarket ECU with VB6 software - fairly robust COM stuff though so you shouldn't have too much bother assuming no faults.

[Adam]

Well ive never used the serial port on my laptop but theres no reason why it wont be working.
Yeah i tried the speed at 192000 (it flashes up when you first start the software/try to connect to the ecu)

The battery is a bit old, but was showing over 12v. Might hook it up to the nova battery and see if that gives any joy, but it aint looking good.

[peester]

visual basic 6? ugh lol

i got my mbe cable today so ill have serial cable laptop frollics tommorow myself

[phazer]

lol have fun!

Adam: You could try using Hyper terminal (as the laptop has a serial port I'm guessing it's fairly old so running XP at the latest?). Set the port etc and connect and try issuing AT as a command and see if you get a response. Will confirm connectivity or not.

Failing that post up pics of your com port configs (from device manager etc).

[Adam]

How do i go about using HT???

Yeah its running XP Pro SP2. Going try the ecu on the nova battery in a bit, will post back.

[Welsh Dan]

Get the meter out on your cable to make sure its not a null modem cable or apcc ups crossover cable instead of a straight through jobby.

[Adam]

I'll check the ebay ad see what kind of cable it was.
Christ, give me USB anyday!! lol

[Adam]

Its a "SERIAL NULL MODEM CABLE" lol

DOH! wtf does null modem mean?

Is that explaining my issues then?

[Welsh Dan]

Yeah some of the wires cross over to different pins each end. If you wanted a "normal" one then you've got the wrong one.

[Adam]

Bollox :( lol

Ive ordered a "straight" cable now off ebay.
Hopefully thats problem solved.

[peester]

ive discovered today my 'serial port' on the laptop isnt a 9 pin serial port, .. it has more.. totally didnt realise.
:-(

[Adam]

Are you sure its a serial port and not a parralel port?

[peester]

its deffo NOT a serial port lol.

[Adam]

Be a printer parralel port then! lol

[peester]

be a loads of bollocks all this i tell theeo

[Adam]

lol

[phazer]

I'll bet it's 15 pins.....external monitor port lol

You'll now have the joy of USB to serial adapters. Some of the cheapest on ebay work best.

[Adam]

Normal serial cable arrived today, and all is well!!!! :d

Managed to have a look at the current map on the ecu and make a backup of it :)

Off work next week so starting to get the inlet etc off the nova :cool:

[phazer]

Nice one!