aldl cable (Page 1/1)
gregr75 FEB 23, 11:54 AM
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).]

gregr75 FEB 23, 12:27 PM

obd2allinone.com/products/aldlobd1.asp
Patrick FEB 23, 06:15 PM

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.
Cliff Pennock FEB 24, 04:51 AM
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.
gregr75 FEB 25, 01:25 PM
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
Patrick FEB 25, 05:16 PM

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.
gregr75 APR 29, 06:30 AM
So, to follow up what worked for me ( this is the cable from OBD diagnostics with pins near the usb end that can be jumpered) was to use the jumper to short between A to B or activate the 10k resistor between A to B. The 2 normal positions didnt wotk. And the baud rate set to 4800. and the data is flowing quite nicely now.




I still for the life of me I don't know what the code in the small box next to the software version in winaldl means. It was flashing red numbers of 1 thru 6 but when I got it right it shows 25 and green.