To use tunerpro you need to load correct adx def file. I see you somehow skipped this step.
There is two you can try.
Make sure you remove the resistor and diode first. If it still doesn`t work try with them.
You ruled out every possible problem.
Software is the last one.
There are other programm you can try to connect like eehack and some others. They are free and easy to use, use google to find them.
Originally Posted by kur4o
I may have found a couple of my problems. First, yes I believe you're right, I never loaded the adx into tunerpro, somehow I overlooked that and it would explain why it wouldn't sync up with the PCM. I loaded the one I had and for the heck of it attempted to start data acquisition even though I'm not hooked up to the car. It attempted to connect and I saw one of the LEDs on the adapter board flash a few times before it gave up trying to connect. That's the first I've gotten that response. As of now though, when I test the adapter from tunerpro it still reports that it can't be found or isn't working. But I may hook up to the car once and just see what happens.
Also I found another thread on another forum where a guy was attempting a similar setup on a '95 Vette and described a similar condition to what I was seeing with Datamaster, it would sync up and start collecting data but would frequently disconnect and some of the data appeared to be jibberish. They finally narrowed it down to the CCM in the car interfering with the datastream from the PCM. The only other LT1 powered cars to get a CCM were, da da da, the Fleetwoods. They knew how to get it to shut up and after playing with a variety of signals and coding they eventually got it working correctly, essentially a special command has to be sent telling the CCM to go silent. Otherwise it hogs bandwidth and corrupts the datastream. Someone modified the definition files for the Vette version to correct for this, but maybe that's where my issues are coming from. Then again, maybe not, but what he described sounded awfully similar to what I was seeing on mine until the adapter stopped working at all.
Anyways, I've rolled back my drivers to an older, known working version and wiped the others from the system just to be sure, and I'll go out later and hook up to the car and see what if anything I can achieve. Part of me still thinks that somewhere along the way the chip either gave up the ghost due to it likely being a counterfeit, or I somehow fried it with my multitudes of testing variations, but either way, I absolutely won't attempt to reflash the PCM with this one, even if I can successfully datalog, I don't trust it at this point. I also downloaded the files you uploaded, I'll try them as well for good measure. And if nothing else works I'll try the serial logger and see what that captures.
Corvette ALDL line is very busy and it needs fine tune of timings.
I guess the situation is the same on this specific d-body.
When you try to connect with tunerpro you can play with timing setting untill you get solid connection.
You may need comm logger for perfect timing.
It is good idea with all that traffic to try off car flash even with other verified adapter.
I used one of these to build a cable to talk to a 16197427:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9716
Also bought a USB cable and 6 pin header to plug into the board. Soldered a length of wire to the TX and RX pins and another to the Ground pin. Windows 10 picked it right up, installed drivers, and it passes the TunerPro cable test.
1990 Chevrolet K2500, RCLB, Blueprint 383 TBI (16197427 ECM / 61 lb/hr / 16 psi FP), NV4500, NP241C, 4.10
Been busy with other repairs and tuneup related items, but I decided in the interim to break down and just order a commercially available ALDL to USB adapter. Good news, it seems much happier than my homemade one. Bad news, I still can't datalog, read my stock tune, or do pretty much anything else. However, the results are maddeningly similar and yet also so completely different from my homemade adapter that I'm starting to think I'm just losing my mind. Datamaster passes adapter check and PCM check every time. Datamaster will not actually sync or acquire any data of any kind, not even the VIN, but I still need to play with the timing settings. (It actually suggested in one of the errors that I try changing one of them, I fiddled with the one it indicated to no avail so far). I messed with a few other settings, basically just turned off CCM handshake, dashboard refresh, and both at the same time. No real difference except when both are disabled, literally nothing happens. It won't connect, but it doesn't bounce back and forth between errors.
I do believe there may be something to the issue of timing settings, so I'm going to see what I find out about that and play with it some more tomorrow. In tunerpro rt it will pass cable check every time, and almost every time it will acquire a data signal, which I couldn't do with the old one. However when I brought up the data lists virtually all the data it was receiving was total gibberish just like datamaster was with my homemade adapter. I recorded a little bit of the stream just for the hell of it, but I haven't even bothered to review it yet. I believe I'm still using the same xdf and adx files I started with, so I might try changing those out with some alternates for the sake of ruling them out. I'm also not certain if I can change timing settings directly in tunerpro or not, haven't looked into it.
TunerCats RT seemed to be able to find the adapter, but that was as far as it got. However I've messed with that program very little so I have no idea what I'm doing in there yet. For lack of anything better to do I decided to take my multimeter and probe my ground and data pins in the ALDL port to see if maybe I was getting some voltage spikes or something weird. It held pretty constant at 3.3v which I guess is good, but I thought the datastream transmitted at 5v. I could be wrong on that though, I need to double check.
Only other thing I can think of worth mentioning is in TunerPro, while it was connected near the bottom it has a frequency display that mostly like to go back and forth between 3.33hz and 4.99hz, but I saw other values as low as 1.66hz and as high as 8.32hz. Having not had a successful encounter with any of this stuff yet I don't know if that's normal or not. I may play around some more over the next few days, or I may finally break down and pull the PCM out and attempt a bench test to see what's what. While bench testing will offer some useful information, it's pointless from tuning aspect since I obviously can't datalog and that's the primary reason for doing this.
I guess if I get really desperate I could try unplugging my CCM to see if that really is causing my issues, although I'm not certain how happy the car will be if I do that. I'll look into what exactly that system runs, and while I know it's tied in with the PCM and most everything inside the car will stop working, if the damn thing is a least driveable without it and allows me to datalog without drama, I'd be happy. As usual, I'm long-winded, but if you guys have any thoughts or insight, feel free to enlighten me.
Last edited by schlicky13; 04-21-2016 at 04:37 AM.
Ultimately it turns out I may not have been doing anything wrong, Fleetwoods are apparently just stupid. Finally received some credible information from another user on here and a couple new threads on the Impala SS forum that indicates the Fleetwoods have way too much chatter on the ALDL port from all the different modules in the car. (Something that I'd begun to suspect, and that the normal Impala/Caprice and Camaro/Firebird guys have never encountered since those cars don't use all these other computer modules.) The easy, temporary fix is reportedly to just pull all the fuses that power those other modules. That will allow a clean connection to the PCM so that you can back up your stock tune and flash new tunes to it. I haven't tried it yet myself, but will do so shortly.
So in the end, it seems my troubles had nothing to do with whether or not I had the right FTDI chip, the right drivers, the right harness, etc., etc., the car itself is just difficult to work with. Obviously I can also still just pull the PCM and do bench tunes, but ultimately none of this solves the issues of being able to datalog so that I can fine tune the car, but at least I can do some stuff. I doubt this will be the end of my saga, but at least it's a start, and I appreciate the help and ideas that I got from everyone who responded.
Hey has anybody tried the new integrated chip + USB cables that are for sale on Ebay now? If these work right, all you have to do is wire them up to your OBD1 ALDL plug and you're good to tune, or solder it directly to the ALDL port on your car and instant USB tuning connection for $5. Am I missing anything?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FTDI-FT232RL...EAAOSwv-NWYE0M
That should work fine. I think I posted way back in this thread about using a Sparkfun FTDI based FT232R USB breakoutborad wired directly to an ALDL port and it worked fine. The cable you linked to looks to be a very similar design just in a different form factor.
The man who says something is impossible, is usually interrupted by the man doing it.
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