Uber-easy DIY USB ALDL Cable

[buddrow]

When you say TunerPro "sees it" what do you mean? Just because TP says there is a cable found doesnt mean it is communicating(obviously). What ecm/pcm are you using? If you don't have the correct ADX file you will never get data, or at best it will be skewed.

To start viewing data, you must...

Make sure sure youre computer recognizes(in device manager in Windows) the USB/Serial adapter you are using.
Connect interafce cable to ALDL connector. Make sure all connections are correct.
Open TPRT, Load the appropriate ADX file.
Open Tools/Preferences/Data Acq/Emulation.
Click "Configure Plug-In Component" and select the appropriate COM port for your cable.
At this point you should be able to click on the "Acquire Data/Connect/Disconnect" button.
If the Yellow "DA:Not Connected" indicator turns to "Blue" and says DA:Connected, open the dashboard and you should be viewing data. If not, rinse and repeat.

The engine doesn't have to be running but the ignition should be switched on to retrieve data.

Buddrow

[shovelhead]

I just finished this cable. I have a dash Guage setup on tunerpro. I can get it to communicate fine. O2 sensors show a equal value. The tps sensor fluctuates as it should. Now when start the car up everything goes nuts no gauge value is constant or accurate. Has anyone has this problem .could it be a Bad ground? I used a ground from under the dash. Thanks guys.
94(I'm told) lt1 from caddy into a 79 camro

[RobertISaar]

is that ground shared with anything else? i would imagine that if the ground were questionable, wiggling the connection near the bolt/screw it is fastened by should produce errors in the stream with the engine off.

if that doesn't reveal anything, you may need to reroute or shield the ALDL comms line if there is any possibility of it picking up noise from the ignition system.

[shovelhead]

Yes, I just grabbed any ground under the dash. I am at work now so I can't check it now .I'm guessing that has got to be it. I had my voltmeter hooked up under the hood and it was very steady. When I brought it into the dash I used the same ground and now it's fluttering. So I'm going to bring in a good ground in straight form the battery for both of them. I will also check where the aldl originally patched into the harness and maybe tie in there.

[91Z28L98]

Have seen the arduino converters with bluetooth, if i made a cable with the bluetooth one could i read data through it or is there more to it than that?

[RobertISaar]

can(and has been) done, but i've never attempted bluetooth anything, so i wouldn't have anything useful to contribute to such an endeavor.

[91Z28L98]

Thanks for the reply, read through all 20 pages of this post and kind of figured if it was that easy it would have been brought up. I have worked on my own cars for a long time and use to have a cable probably 10 years ago but have misplaced it. I found this thread and thought it would be cool to hard wire one in my car and truck (91 Z28, 89 K2500). Want to be able to hook to my phone and read sensor data. Maybe eventually mess with proms on the Z28. So i could get a mini usb cable and plug into my Note 2 and should work right? The other end of the module that has the 4 or 5 prongs is what gets wired to the aldl port? Thanks for the help!