Hello everyone,

Hope you can help with this, may be a stupid question but I've read a fair bit about this (and about my new octy) and can't find the answer.

I've bought a rather cheap cable off ebay (maybe my first mistake?) so I can check fault codes and the like. It came with a CD containing VCDS Lite and VAG-COM 409.1. I installed the cable's drivers to my laptop, all seemed fine, tested (and saved) the COM port with VCDS (COM3) and ensured the cable was set to COM3 in Device Manager as well.

I tried autoscan after plugging the cable in and turning ignition (but not engine) on, chose 1U Octavia Mk1, selected Autoscan. It spent about 10-15 minutes checking stuff (scanning from 01 up to 56, trying various baud rates as well as far as I can tell) and came back with nothing at all. Just said 'End'.

I then tried connecting to individual control modules and this failed. Tried engine and I believe it said it couldn't find it (can't remember exact message - at work at the moment).

Anyway, does this sound like a duff cable? Considering VCDS Lite can see it and so can my laptop? Or does it sound like I'm doing something wrong?

Hope you can help, would be interesting to see what's going on in there...

Cheers,

Tom

It sounds like par for the course to be honest. These cables can work and although i used one for many months on a mk4 golf, they are an exercise in pain and frustration! My cheap cable just flat out will not work with one of my laptops, same behaviour you have. It will only play ball with an old desktop PC i have and even then it's always loosing connection and takes forever to get anything done.

The full version is a bit pricey for occassional use (maybe ross tech could do a "licenced for 3-cars max / wont work with any more than 3 different cars in its lifetime" type cable for home users at a more reasonable price point.

Other option is to find someone locally with the kit. Much cheaper and lets face it for all the times a home user uses it, just as good ;-)

Briskoda Vagcom owners directory: http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/74720-vag-com-diagnostic-system-vcds-owners-map/

Hope this helps!

Hi,

I had lots of problems with the ebay cable, in the end I had to disable (Control Panel - System) my internal card reader on my Netbook.

Does the actual program run slow? On mine the windows appeared, then the text slowly appeared afterwards. After the card reader was disabled the program ran 'normal' speed as you would expect. Before I did all this, it 'talked' to the car, but doing an individual scan on say the Engine Module, the program would give an error on communications.

This is a good link:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=224167

Get the latest fdi drivers (for blue cable) - http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/CDM/CDM%202.04.06%20WHQL%20Certified.zip

Cheers,

Sean.

Guys,

Cheers for your replies! Yeah I know the ebay cable was probably a bad move, but it's hard to justify spending $250 or whatever it is on a real one when, frankly, I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to maintaining my own car. It's more just for peace of mind/geeky interest.

The program seems to run fine on my laptop, no slower than the other programs I'm running on it. What I can't work out is if VCDS and my computer both see the cable and the test in VCDS seems fine (latency is excellent apparently!) why the car is just ignoring it...

Mute - Cheers for the link to the directory, there appear to be a couple of guys in my area so if all else fails, I'll give them a shout and tempt them with a pint or two!

Higgy - I'll have a read through the thread suggested (it's a 7.90 cheapo blue one). Also, I just tried to have a download the driver you linked to but it's saying:

The document name you requested (/Drivers/CDM/CDM 2.04.06 WHQL Certified.zip) could not be found on this server. However, we found documents with names similar to the one you requested.

Available documents:

* /Drivers/CDM/CDM 2.06.00 WHQL Certified.zip (common basename)

I'll try that older driver because the ones I'm using at the moment came on the copied CD within the VCDS folder (are they for official cable only?).

I've also seen a mention on a website about reducing the latency on the USB/Serial converter from 16 to 2, any experience with this fix? And I'll give the disable the card reader idea a go too!

Thanks for your help so far, and if anything else occurs to you, please let me know!

Cheers!

Tom

Just had a thought. I've still got the original stereo in there (Symphony), but my sister's boyfriend installed a Parrot bluetooth thing one of these (PARROT CK3200).

Could this potentially cause the same problem as the aftermarket stereo issue? What are the symptoms of that problem?

Cheers!

Tom

I've got an Alpine HU with a Parrott CK3100 and a cheap ebay cable and no problems

Hey Bertee,

Sounds like that's not it then...

Just noticed you're in Mitcham! I'm in Tooting Broadway, I see you're not on the list of VAG-COM owners, but any chance I could pop down at some time convenient to you and get you to try VCDS on my octy? There'd be a pint or two in it!

No problem if not, but it would certainly narrow down the possible causes of my issues with it...

Cheers,

Tom

Yep, no problem.

I am about on Saturday and then fishing on Sunday

Nice!

Thanks Bertee, I've PMed you and may well hold you to that if I don't manage to get it sorted myself...

Cheers!

Tom

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your help and advice! I've got it working, it was something I saw in the tdiclub forum linked from here. I reduced the latency from 16 to 2 and it worked a treat!

Got a couple of fault codes, one for the radio (intermittent), it's been working fine but turned the ignition on with it unplugged when fitting the parrot bluetooth thing. The other one was regarding the AC flow flap motor (at work so don't know the code), read up and it seems I can get VCDS to try to reset the flap position, so that's my job for tonight.

Cheers for all your help and thanks to Bertee for very kindly offering to help me out! Luckily, your saturday is now your own. Good luck with the fishing as well!#

Cheers!

Tom