Bleeping Computers

[speedtripledan]

Today was 1st power up of the canems ecu, loaded software and USB to serial drivers on to my lap top and desktop both in the workshop. 1st job was to connect laptop to the innovate afr meter to change the settings on output 1 to the canems afr requirements, instant connect piece of cake... next job connect to ecu using same lead and laptop. Would the laptop connect to the ecu no it wouldn't not a prayer!!! So I set the desktop up next to the car and plugged ecu in, instant connection. Why did one work and not the other ? Both xp based..

[knights_templar]

Are you trying USB to serial converter or USB running in serial mode?

[Bob Tucker]

We had a guy from MOTEC spend the day (expensively!!) with Ray on Monday setting up his ECU

for the Vette.

Ray had bought a new small laptop/tablet from PC world dedicated to his ECU & other car diagnostics.

running Windows 10.

It would download the MOTEC software but wouldnt install or execute it.

As soon as we called MOTEC Europe support centre, they knew all about the problem.

We had to reboot the laptop in SAFE MODE, then it (nearly) all worked.

He was scathing about PC World's way of instaling software, which is cloned on cloned software.

1 in 10 laptops has trouble apparently.

[agent_zed]

something else to bare in mind is length of the usb cable. They really don't like going over 5 metres. We had a webcam for a meeting room which was the other end of the room to the computer and had 2 cables joined and although it got the light on it wouldn't work or would work intermittently. As soon as we used either one of the shorter cables it was fine just not with both.

 

Modern laptops often come with a USB3 port which are blue inside if you look inside like this http://www.buildcomputers.net/images/usb-ports.jpg

 

USB3 has a higher power output. Also worth remembering if you are charging your phone/tablet from your computer as it will charge them faster.

[speedtripledan]

The laptop and lead worked fine on the afr meter programing but wouldn't touch the ecu. Desktop is an old pcs from 2001 which is a bit like triggers broom. The laptop is newer but still 10yrs old. I've ordered a longer serial lead and set the desktop up as near to the car as practical. Will see if it works on a long lead.

[knights_templar]

are you using their adaptor?

 

http://canems.co.uk/category/pc-accessories-c-4/usb-adaptor-cable-p-6.html?zenid=23e8e5dd8418c495ad6ed76089f8f8a0

[speedtripledan]

Yes I bought everything from them

[knights_templar]

Sorry hoped that was the answer, a known issue with some other ECU's. Can't even find their communication needing the CTS line, the big difference between USB and serial and not often implemented on adaptors, unlike, say, Emerald.

 

As people have mentioned able length can be a problem. USB uses a lower voltage, and positive voltages, serial is a higher voltage, think it's 12 and uses positive and negative voltage, the converter has to produce the voltage and negative from the power supplied by the USB socket, so cable length has a big effect.

 

Would try and find a computer with a true serial, I have a lap top for example, with a serial, but you may need the rest of the year for it to set the car up.:-)

[cb750]

My laptop has the same problems connecting to the megajolt. Some times it will, some times it won't. Tried different ports, makes no difference.

[brumster]

Windows' USB stack can be a bit funny, particular with serial COM ports. There is an upper limit after which further COM devices plugged in won't enumerate... I think it's maybe 32... you have to go into device manager, find something with a COM port, bring up the properties, click the Advanced button, and you'll see a COM Port Number drop-down. Open it/select it, and you'll see all the COM ports listed - and some of them will have "in use" next to them, even if nothing is plugged in. These COM ports are then unavailable to be assigned by the OS. It's a right PITA. Even thought it lists up to 256 potential COM ports, it won't map more than a small limit (like I say, I forget, think it might be 32ish).

 

Google "USBDeview", it's a utility for examining all the USB devices and drivers that are on your PC - plugged in or otherwise. You can use it to clear out old USB drivers for stuff you no longer need, or forcibly remove the Canems driver and start again.

 

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html