FactionOne
August 14th, 2004, 23:47
Hey guys & gals,
I recently got hold of a USB-serial converter from work to sort out a connectivity headache I had with getting my car's OBD port linked-up to machines, and then after thinking about it I thought some of you might find one of those gizmos quite handy actually...
Scenario 1: You have ECU Explorer or some other software you use for diagnosis or measuring which doesn't like USB ports, you want to buy a serial interface so you can use it, but you don't have access to a laptop with a serial port and you've seen the price of PCMCIA serial cards... OK, go buy a serial cable, and one of these little USB dongles, install the driver and connect your serial interface. Job done. - Basically it creates a "virtual" COM port on the universal serial bus (defaults to COM4 but is selectable), which you can then use with any COM-port application.
Scenario 2: You have a laptop with only USB ports, you want to buy an interface but have seen the price of dual K-line USB interfaces and compared it to the seriously less expensive dual K-line serial interfaces (I took the plunge on ebay and bought one for £43 including shipping from the land of our good beer drinking, sausage munching, excellent car making friends, and it's dual-K, and IC protected (not opto-coupled) - a price which I thought was pretty damn reasonable, but who knows, you might find cheaper. Then you add less than a tenner for a USB-serial converter, and you've got USB connectivity pretty cheaply, but with all the added software-compatibility of having a Serial set-up. Bonus 1
Also, if you ever need to plug it in to an older laptop without USB, you're covered there too. Bonus 2
...On top of that last one, it's a little more usable than using a PCMCIA serial card because you can only plug that into a laptop, USB can be plugged into allsorts - some PDAs can even be connected. Wouldn't it be nice to have VAG-SCOPE or something like that (apps which may be com-port only) stuck on your windscreen to act as one seriously detailed boost-gauge, and real-time analyser of all manner of other blowing and sucking things your T/TQ/S/RS Audi does? (that unfortunately my little baby doesn't) (-depending on PDA operating system compatibilty with whatever software you want to run of course (but tbh, I don't see how there'd be big issues)) - then later plug the interface into an old laptop with serial, then plug it in to your bad@ss work laptop that's all USB (if only - heheh). - Bonus 3
Scenario 3: You have a serial interface you used with an old laptop, you've got a new one now, you only use VAG-COM so don't really give a monkies' about the connectivity advantage of serial but you're not too keen to dump a working interface and spend ££ on a new one to do the same thing. -Admittedly not as much of a "shock and awe" bonus as the others above, but if you got the same £70-100 you were gonna spend on a cable knocked off your insurance you'd be pretty happy.
I wouldn't normally be ""plugging"" products and things like this one here, and I certainly don't aim to be the salesman in this post (I'm a techy anyway ), I just got one to try-out in an attempt to solve a connectivity issue (got bored of taking my PC into the garage!), and then as I watched it all work, I sat back and started to think of some of the possibilties for it. Also, I'm certainly not trying to suggest you have to get one of these things from the place I work at, they're probably pretty widely available, and I would've thought at varying prices, so shop around folks, but if anyone has serious difficulty locating one, or finds they're overpriced or something, I will give details of how to buy from where I work upon request.
Sorry for waffling on (as usual), I promise I'll seek professional help for that little problem soon. but I just thought I'd document the contents of the little lightbulbs that were lighting up in my head as I thought about it a bit, and figured maybe some of you might be interested.
Regards,
Rob.
I recently got hold of a USB-serial converter from work to sort out a connectivity headache I had with getting my car's OBD port linked-up to machines, and then after thinking about it I thought some of you might find one of those gizmos quite handy actually...
Scenario 1: You have ECU Explorer or some other software you use for diagnosis or measuring which doesn't like USB ports, you want to buy a serial interface so you can use it, but you don't have access to a laptop with a serial port and you've seen the price of PCMCIA serial cards... OK, go buy a serial cable, and one of these little USB dongles, install the driver and connect your serial interface. Job done. - Basically it creates a "virtual" COM port on the universal serial bus (defaults to COM4 but is selectable), which you can then use with any COM-port application.
Scenario 2: You have a laptop with only USB ports, you want to buy an interface but have seen the price of dual K-line USB interfaces and compared it to the seriously less expensive dual K-line serial interfaces (I took the plunge on ebay and bought one for £43 including shipping from the land of our good beer drinking, sausage munching, excellent car making friends, and it's dual-K, and IC protected (not opto-coupled) - a price which I thought was pretty damn reasonable, but who knows, you might find cheaper. Then you add less than a tenner for a USB-serial converter, and you've got USB connectivity pretty cheaply, but with all the added software-compatibility of having a Serial set-up. Bonus 1
Also, if you ever need to plug it in to an older laptop without USB, you're covered there too. Bonus 2
...On top of that last one, it's a little more usable than using a PCMCIA serial card because you can only plug that into a laptop, USB can be plugged into allsorts - some PDAs can even be connected. Wouldn't it be nice to have VAG-SCOPE or something like that (apps which may be com-port only) stuck on your windscreen to act as one seriously detailed boost-gauge, and real-time analyser of all manner of other blowing and sucking things your T/TQ/S/RS Audi does? (that unfortunately my little baby doesn't) (-depending on PDA operating system compatibilty with whatever software you want to run of course (but tbh, I don't see how there'd be big issues)) - then later plug the interface into an old laptop with serial, then plug it in to your bad@ss work laptop that's all USB (if only - heheh). - Bonus 3
Scenario 3: You have a serial interface you used with an old laptop, you've got a new one now, you only use VAG-COM so don't really give a monkies' about the connectivity advantage of serial but you're not too keen to dump a working interface and spend ££ on a new one to do the same thing. -Admittedly not as much of a "shock and awe" bonus as the others above, but if you got the same £70-100 you were gonna spend on a cable knocked off your insurance you'd be pretty happy.
I wouldn't normally be ""plugging"" products and things like this one here, and I certainly don't aim to be the salesman in this post (I'm a techy anyway ), I just got one to try-out in an attempt to solve a connectivity issue (got bored of taking my PC into the garage!), and then as I watched it all work, I sat back and started to think of some of the possibilties for it. Also, I'm certainly not trying to suggest you have to get one of these things from the place I work at, they're probably pretty widely available, and I would've thought at varying prices, so shop around folks, but if anyone has serious difficulty locating one, or finds they're overpriced or something, I will give details of how to buy from where I work upon request.
Sorry for waffling on (as usual), I promise I'll seek professional help for that little problem soon. but I just thought I'd document the contents of the little lightbulbs that were lighting up in my head as I thought about it a bit, and figured maybe some of you might be interested.
Regards,
Rob.