another cable question

[jim_in_dorris]

I think what you really want is a OBD1 to usb cable. Robert is being modest, he builds and sells one on this forum at a very reasonable price.

[EagleMark]

http://www.gearhead-efi.com/Fuel-Inj...uy-ALDL-Cables!

and helps the more electronic type geeks build them from cheap china parts...

http://www.gearhead-efi.com/Fuel-Inj...USB-ALDL-Cable

On the home page of ALDL cables it says "If you have an ancient laptop that does not have a USB interface, buy our Serial ALDL Cable"

Just as you would buy 8 tracks if that was the media player you had...

There's tons of parallel cables at thrift stores too! But nothing left to use them on... I even see floppy disks brand new for sale, whens the last time you saw a computer with that?

I remember having one of those cables and when I got a newer laptop used at a garage sale because it was old... it didn't have serial, so I got a converter cable like yours and spent WAY to many hours and bought WAY to many other adapters but did get it to work, I think it was my first windows 98 PC, wish I could remember how, that was so long ago, before gray hair!

From the prices of USB to serial adapters with FTDI chip your almost at buying price of a new USB cable.

Buy a cable and get on with life and your car! Sell the old serial one on eBay as a very rare antique collectible Tuner cable!

[RobertISaar]

i went and reread this thread....

since you already have the ALDL to RS232 cable, you'll want a USB to RS232 adapter that uses a FT232R chip to do that conversion. the first one that comes to mind that i know works is the Parallax 28030/28031, i used quite a few of those with excellent results before i jumped up to USB to TTL/UART converters.

note that the 28030/28031 is just the populated board, there is no enclosure of any kind. i think the cheapest source i ever found was directly from parallax.

as far as something that is mostly essentially self-contained, there is this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-FTDI-FT2...9463%26ps%3D54

it looks to be what you're looking for.

[greggbruceauto]

A BIG thank you to

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-FTDI-FT2...9463%26ps%3D54

it looks to be what you're looking for.

for that link, I got it in the mail yesterday, and finally after figuring out the 12v cig lighter adapter on the cable has to be plugged in, and the 10k jumper has to be set, I FINALLY got a datastream !!! Without the 10k, it gets data, but all the values cycle from min to max over and over, and it gets errors, and sometimes the "DA Connected" turns red....

I just captured about 15 second stream in the driveway, I'm going to open it up and fiddle through it, and then get a whole trip (30 min or so) this weekend maybe...

Looks like I'm on to the next steps...

Thanks again to all for the help -- I know this is a learning process, I'm glad I have all you teachers out there....

[EagleMark]

Don't think you ever told us what ECM/vehicle/mask? But some just need 10K to start data flow...

[greggbruceauto]

Don't think you ever told us what ECM/vehicle/mask? But some just need 10K to start data flow...

sorry, it's a $6E, 1227165 89 F body TPI

[EagleMark]

Pretty sure that is just 10k to start.

Also beware that ECM is known for loosing a connection...

[greggbruceauto]

From the prices of USB to serial adapters with FTDI chip your almost at buying price of a new USB cable.

Buy a cable and get on with life and your car! Sell the old serial one on eBay as a very rare antique collectible Tuner cable!

That's the direction I'm leaning towards now.....

[greggbruceauto]

I think what you really want is a OBD1 to usb cable. Robert is being modest, he builds and sells one on this forum at a very reasonable price.

yeah, asked him -- says he is waiting on parts