Will not link up.

[4enjunk]

I've made two different cables and with both I have the same response. The window shows "No Reply". What is the cause of this? I just figured out that I should search the forum. I have yet to find a definitive answer. If anyone has the answer, please let me know. Until then, I will continue my search.

Thanks,

[John_W]

I've made two different cables and with both I have the same response. The window shows "No Reply". What is the cause of this?

4en,
you don't give us a lot of background to go on.

Do you use a serial port or USB?

I presume that you have downloaded ElanScan and purchased or made a suitable interface and plugged it into the ALDL socket on the car and to a suitable socket on your computer.

To find a suitable serial cable in the UK go to http://www.maplin.co.uk/
Enter DD48C in the search box, and you should come up with the correct cable as follows:
9 Pins V.24 Serial Cable Female/Female
Catalogue Page No: 385
DD48C : F/F 9p V24 Cbl 2m £7.99 inc VAT

This is a 9-Pin V.24 Serial RS232 cable female-female, which is a straight-through pin to pin cable.

Note that a 9-Way "Null Modem" female-female cable looks identical but will not work. A null modem cable is the one which is normally supplied with your computer and is used for connecting two devices together via their serial ports for communications between them. The difference lies in the way the pins are connected. The 9-Way Null Modem cable pin wiring is as follows 2-3, 3-2, 4-6, 5-5, 6-4, 7-8, 8-7 (ie completely arse-about-tit and doesn't even have pins 1 or 9 wired at all so the Elanscan interface wouldn't stand a cat in hell's chance of working).

If you have a laptop which only has USB connectors, you'll have to see the LEC thread where Alan is selling a USB interface to run on a USB-only laptop.

If you've got the correct cable, the interface circuit (from Andy Whittaker or wherever) with the plug on the end to fit into the car wiring, have a portable computer (PC not Macintosh) and have downloaded Elanscan from Alan McNicol's website, then everything is fairly straightforward. The following assumes a serial connection:

1) attach the V24 cable to the 9-pin connector socket on the rear of the computer.

2) plug the other end of the cable into the interface circuit-board.

3) find the ALDL socket on the car into which the plug on the end of the wire from the interface fits. This is inside the car in the passenger footwell. It's usually clipped onto a bracket on the front bulkhead just about the passenger's toes (UK car). There should only be one spare socket which will fit the plug you got on the interface so there's no danger in connecting it to the wrong bit. When connected, the little red LED light on the interface should come on.

4) Switch on the computer and start Elanscan. Click "start talking" - you'll probably get errors reported in one of the Elanscan windows 'cos the engine isn't on. Click "start logging". Turn on the ignition; the messages on Elanscan should change. Start the engine and you should see Elanscan giving readings of RPM, temperature, etc. If you see nothing maybe you need to select another "port" in Elanscan. This just means that you have to tell Elanscan which input socket you've screwed the interface into. There is an option to select another port on the Elanscan menu somewhere; the port options are something like LPT1, LPT2, LPT3 etc (nothing useful like "the 9-pin plug" "the USB socket" or "the big long one with lots of pins" - this is Bill Gates remember). Try them all until you see readings on Elanscan (the numbers change). Once you've found the right port, Elanscan will remember it for the next time.

John

[4enjunk]

I have it working now. I have an Impulse. I was plugging my connector into the wrong plug. I plugged it into the orange connector instead of the white one. Thank you for your help.