I have an old win XP laptop with a serial port and I'm looking to buy an aldl serial cable (i know there are usb versions too) to run winaldl but I noticed some cable manufacturers include a 12 V cigarette plug, for power? What? Why does the cable have to be powered?

[This message has been edited by gregr75 (edited 02-23-2024).]

obd2allinone.com/products/aldlobd1.asp

I used to use a serial version of the OBD1 cable years ago before I switched to a USB version. I don't recall the serial cable having a plug for the cigarette lighter. Perhaps send PFF member phonedawgz a PM and ask him about it, as he sells these cables.

Just a guess but I think the cigarette lighter plug means the cable has a built in Serial I/O converter that converts the 160 baud coming out of the ALDL connector to an RS-232 compatible signal. That makes reading the port a whole lot easier (and compatible with most/all ALDL software available).

If you use WinALDL, you don't need the converter since everything is done in software.

But again, that's just a guess.

OK from the manufacturers instructions for the serial cable "The 12V lighter plug needs to be plugged in to power the circuitry located in the DB-9 connector"

But, I just realized My laptop has a VGA port, not a serial port. duh. So I'll be buying a USB aldl cable after all.

Patrick, I seem to recall you had problems getting your XP laptop to recognize the usb virtual serial port, when ypu got your usb cable. was there anything specific you did? I see a related thread here.

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/129953.html

quote Originally posted by gregr75: Patrick, I seem to recall you had problems getting your XP laptop to recognize the usb virtual serial port, when ypu got your usb cable. was there anything specific you did?

It's too long ago for me to remember the finer details, but it had something to do with the BAUD rate for the COM Port.