Can this be done with newer laptops as my ms ecu has a db9 serial port? i cant be bothered going away to buy an old shitty laptop to hook up to my car when i have a laptop here that might be capable of the job! is there a certain conversion wire i can buy? cheers in advance

 

ive seen usb-serial port adaptors on ebay, but not sure if their any good.

 

You downloaded Megatune yet ryan?

 

Nae yet man im looking at adaptors just now so i can hook up this laptop!

 

steve has a USB to serial port adaptor, dont work properly.

 

One way to find out then eh lol

 

http://www.msextra.com/doc/ms1extra/...nual_Index.htm

 

what one will i download? ive already downloaded megalog viewer

 

Most don't. Your better to try and find an old laptop

John

 

DONT use a USB adaptor, most of them wont with with an ECU.

But a PCMCIA one always works perfectly well IME

 

Yeah they talk via usb serial addapters i downloaded drivers through windows 7. When you download the software from diy autotune you get a port checker and it tells you what ports are open. You then go to mega tune communications and select the port which the port checker has said is open.

Hope this helps.

 

my centiments exactly, i have an old beast that runs windows 95 lol

 

think your needing MS1 mate, version 2.2 i belive

 

my vagcom lead is basically a serial to usb adapter, and that works well enough.
not that thats much help
personally i would buy an adapter and have a play, cant see it being too much of a problem if you know your way around a PC?

 

Ive got a software engineering degree, 15 years commerical experience writing software at all levels from controlling power stations to websites, i have about a decade's experience of mapping ecu's etc, and that doesnt allow me to "know my way around a pc" to get working a USB to serial convertor that simply doesnt work when the ECU software is writing out instructions that it doesnt convert properly, its NOT a "user error" type thing, its a fundamental problem with the way these drivers work at a low level.

PCMCIA one on the other hand, you just plug it in and it works straight away no problem at all and no fuss.


Feck knows why no one is listening to me TBH, because Ive been through this so many times before and learnt the hard way and am just trying to stop you guys having the same issues.

PCMCIA = WIN EVERY TIME
USB = IF YOU ARE LUCKY

 

which is why i said 'personally'
i have only ever connected to one type of ecu and that was using vagcom and had no issues. Just offering an opinion.

oh and

well its currently a salt plant including boreholes for gas storage, fluidised bed driers, evaporators, Gas/Oil Fired boilers and CHP plant.

 

If you do want USB to Serial then this one works fine for me running W7 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-2-0-RS232-Serial-DB9-9-Pin-Male-Adapter-Cable-PC-/250653067355?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&h ash=item3a5c16485b
I use a Netbook for mapping (much less bulky than a full size laptop) and it doesnt have a PCMCIA slot.

 

My usb to serial works fine, also on my netbook

I have heard of a quite a few people having trouble though so it would seem to be pot luck

 

could not agree more.

get a ruggedised version though.

 

I might have a free shitty old skool laptop so il see how i get on! cheers for all the replies

 

yes they will work but its a job to find the right adapter to work think i went through 3 before getting it right lol

also if your running ms1 why dont you upgrade to ms2 far better mapping program and its cheap and easy to do think i paid 50 quid for my chip,and then its just a case of unplug the old chip and push in the new chip and the download the new software

realy easy,it will make mapping a whole lot easyer for you,

great bit of kit wish i had'nt sold mine lol.

also if you have any problems have a word with dale at baileyperformace.com in telford i highly recomend him realy knows what he's doing with the m/s ecu's

 

once again i need to agree 100% with chip and foreignRS.

i will agree that in some scenarios they will work, but also in some scenarios they will appear to work, they go horrible wrong in the middle of downloading a map, corrupting the map and leaving you calling the AA.

chip, do you remember when we were doing my saff and with the USB dongle and it corrupted it whist we were driving?!?!

PCMCIA serial adapters use HARDWARE to process the signals.

99% of USB ones use SOFTWARE to process the signals via a device driver.

also the new PCMCIA replacement, Exprescard ones again use USB (they are a usb devic e with an exprescard interface) so these are not the same as hardware/PCMCIA ones!

 

The problem with nearly all of USB to serial converters or problems with them falls into 2 catagories...

1) They cant acheive non standard baud rates (Such as the L8 IAW programs use)

2) The program software you want to use doesnt use the windows system correctly to make use of the converters.
I.E. The programmers of the software you want to use take short cuts to save time which leads to these kind of non working problems.

Any software I write using comms routines have never had issues with any USB-serial converters except for when Item 1 above is beyond the programmers control.

I have found a brand of USB-Serial lead that has never failed to work on anything I have tried although I have never tried it on Megaquirt as the name just makes me shivver

Here is the link...

http://apple.clickandbuild.com/cnb/s...+RS232+%2B+DB9

About twice the price of others but it is quality...

 

its already mapped and running, (was on this engine before) just needs a few tweaks, increase boost cut and map the boost/transition as its now running a smaller turbo with slightly more boost

 

Good or bad shivers lol

 

Bad of course - I am only referring to the name as I have never experienced the product itself.

 

i see, its just an ecu like the rest, all down to the tuner with regard to results.