I picked this up at the Turkey Rod Run yesterday. I *tried* to get this to work, but no luck..and the website that this thing is associated with...aint much help. It is supposed to interface with the ALDL and display the information on the laptop...but, uh, it don't.





Did I waste 20 bux? Oh yeah, I *did* get all kinds of programs with it, but none of which are all that user friendly.

it'* cute. Looks like nails in the back there. What'* the website that was given?

Not sure, but I would check the COM port you have it looking for this on the computer, otherwise, I'm not sure

I just tore it open...expecting to see at the very least a decoder chip of somesort...



a few transistors, an led, a switch...thats about it

Shoulda known better, but it is no big loss I reckon.

Jimmy might have nailed the problem. Is windows giving you the 'new hardware found' message?

Nope. It gives nothing at all. Not even when everything is plugged into the ALDL.

Bandit or some of the other computer heads might be able to help you configure the port.

http://www.akmcables.com/aldl.htm

Unfortunately, I think you did. Those things work on older GM ECM and are touchy about the serial port they are plugged into. (I made a similar one for my Fiero years ago and it worked on it, as well as the '87 Camaro'* V6 ECM) Problem is, the funky baud rate and voltage levels GM used. A lot of newer PC'* can't drive the serial port like that, because it'* not really an RS232 signal. If you take yours and hook it up to an O-scope, you'll probably see that there is data being sent on the TX wire.

If I find the box mine is burried in, you are welcome to it for play purposes. Figuring out the data buckets in the ALDL stream is a pain in the rear. You have to do a hex dump of repeated captures to figure out how many bytes are in the data block for your ECM (it varies with EMC type.)

Thanks Curt. But no thanks...I pretty much gave up on this...thing. I am now thinking about building my own cable using that max232 chip, but I won't be doing any kind of electircal work like that until after my hand surgery

No sweat. To be perfectly honest about it, unless you are planning to use something like TunerCat to change the ECM'* software, you might be better of with an AutoXray or Actron scanner. More of an expense up front, but they will work on more than just the old style ECM'*.

My Actron just paid for itself over my vacation. (Brand new Pontiac Torrent threw a code while we were up in Pennsylvania...P0442 Evaporative System Small Leak. Turns out it was the friggin gas cap. I never would have guessed that without a real scanner.)