Well, the day has finally arrived and work are replacing my aging T21 Thinkpad with a brand spangly new one. The only problem is the new one doesn't have any serial ports so my home-made serial cable can't be used as is.

So, should I:

- Buy a serial port PCMCIA card (ouch - expensive!)

- Buy a serial -> USB converter

- Buy a new USB cable

- Buy an old laptop with a serial port

Only reason I ask, is I remember reading a while back about timing conditions using VAG-COM with USB and potential problems with writing/updating adaption codes, etc.....

Any opinions, or success stories with any of the above options?

Chris

Hi Chris

I think you are using one of Andy Whittakers interfaces, the same type that I use.

My laptop does not have a serial port so I had the same problem that you now have.

I tried the cheap usb-serial leads but they just do not work.

I use a PCMCIA to serial card which I bought off ebay for about

Thanks Doug! I'll get eBay'ing

Chris

Hiya,

I bought a USB -> Serial Adapter a while back for about 15-18 quid and used it a few times to use as an emergency console for some of my computers. It worked fine in Linux on my old Sony laptop, works ok in OS X on my new Mac laptop, and the disc it came with seemed to have drivers for Windows.

When I get home later on, I'll let you know what make/model it is.

Its been easy to use and pretty faultless for me.

Hiya' date='

I bought a USB -> Serial Adapter a while back for about 15-18 quid and used it a few times to use as an emergency console for some of my computers. It worked fine in Linux on my old Sony laptop, works ok in OS X on my new Mac laptop, and the disc it came with seemed to have drivers for Windows.

When I get home later on, I'll let you know what make/model it is.

Its been easy to use and pretty faultless for me.[/quote']

Thanks - have you got a VAG-COM serial lead then? Only ask as I have a friend who bought a converter and it worked on everything but his VAG-COM cable and I've also heard of potential problems with writing/updating adaption codes, etc.....

Chris

You will have trouble using a USB - serial convertor and VAG-COM due to the amount of information that is passed between the computer and Cars ECU. Ross-Tech do not recomment using these for that reason, and even recommend a PCMCIA card and Serial version of VAG-COM over their USB version of VAG-COM and their USB OBDII cable.

Well i hope the official USB ones work well as i have just bought one! Should be delivered any day now. So i guess we'll see then.

The official ones work, but they still recommend the Serial port version more, due to the data VAG-COM uses is quite complex and plentiful. You will understand what I mean when you start using it.

I hope so

have you got a VAG-COM serial lead then?

No, I don't have the VAG-COM lead, so if there are potential issues with this it may be worth going a different route. I've only ever used my adapter as a console cable which is very low data rate.

How much are the cables? and can you make one up yourself, is there any sites that tell you about this?

There are usually some official ones on eBay and you can make your own - I bought the bits from http://www.andywhittaker.com/ and assembled it myself, but it won't work with v4 of VAG-COM. This is not a problem for me as v3.1.x does everything I need it to If you do a search on Briskoda you should find a few other suppliers and recommendations......

Chris

I have Ross-Tech HEX-COM+CAN-cable and Prodige USB to RS232 DB9-converter (with FT8U245AM). Converter does not work with VAG-COM 512.1 at quite new Fujitsu-Siemens laptop, though converter works with same laptop with G-Tech.

I also have VAG-Check working with HEX-COM+COM-cable and sync to RS232 at my iPAQ H3660.

I have little problem with it...I can only connect to Engine...other things are not working.

I do not know if it in my sync-cable, because I have on it only 3 wires to DB9...GND, Tranmitted Data and Received Data.

Maybe I should get better sync-cable with all wires?

Thanks - have you got a VAG-COM serial lead then? Only ask as I have a friend who bought a converter and it worked on everything but his VAG-COM cable and I've also heard of potential problems with writing/updating adaption codes' date=' etc.....

Chris[/quote']

Could try this:

http://www.ecufix.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=182&zenid=9b4fb2c08ed5bbe358da3cf0a4614a1b

The official one works fine. A lot of usb/serial converters are rubbish for timing, there are a few that work well, IONetworks works excellent as it has it's own CPU per port to ensure 100% perfect timing, but it's expensive.

I've just installed a Brainboxes pcmcia to serial card in my laptop. It seems to work OK on some controllers but not others, any tips on the pcmcia settings?

Dave

i use an ebay USB cable and it works fine

Via the Ross Tech website and the technical support I received from Brainboxes, the problem is now solved. The answer lay in turning off "FIFO" or reducing the level of the "Receive Trigger Level".

Just a quick thankyou to Brainboxes, their reply was both very quick and contained many suggestions. They seemed genuinely interested in helping to solve the problem. So now you know, Brainboxes pcmcia serial port cards do work with VACOM and they have very good customer service! Recommended.

What model of Brainboxes you have? There are quite many of them at www.brainboxes.com

A PM-020, this one:

http://www.brainboxes.com/products/serial/product.asp?id=PM-020

I spotted James (from JBS) was using a serial lead, my laptop has no serial port and I use the USB lead. For what I do it's perfect, it may not be 100% reliable 100% of the time under high loads perhaps but if it's really cr*p they wouldn't sell it IMHO

I don't think anyone has issues with the pucker USB Vagcom lead, its more a case of people already having a serial lead but with a new laptop without a serial port. The option then is to either buy the pucker usb lead (expensive) or sort out another method. Some people report that some usb/serial converters work fine. The one I bought didn't so I went straight to the more robust pcmcia card method.