RS232 Serial Port
Discussion
I was led to believe that the laptop connector was actually in the ECU, but when I looked guess what? no socket type looking thing in there whatsoever. There are a couple of connectors in the loom adjacent to the ECU but they don't look like standard computer type connectors. Do I need my eyes tested?
Pull away the carpet in the passenger footwell, attached to the end of the footwell (via some velcro) will be a silver box about 8 inches square. Undo the 4 screws on the face of the box and open it up. In the centre will be an RS232 serial port.
Plug in your laptop, fiddle with the settings, blow up your car.
Plug in your laptop, fiddle with the settings, blow up your car.
. Holohan said:
I was led to believe that the laptop connector was actually in the ECU, but when I looked guess what? no socket type looking thing in there whatsoever. There are a couple of connectors in the loom adjacent to the ECU but they don't look like standard computer type connectors. Do I need my eyes tested?
Newer cars do not have a socket inside the ECU case. They have an external (I think 3 pin) connector coming off the wiring loom. You need a special cable to convert this to a standard serial connector. Maybe TVR can sell you one. I guess you could make your own if you had the wiring info.
Strangely on mine there is a direct link to the engine fan. I thought this was used by engineers to have the fan running continously while they were working on the engine. A standard RS232 (depending on the lead, whether it has all the earths in it or not) shorts this out without a care for the strength of the buffers in the laptop. The recommended lead has a pull up/pull down resistor in it that stop this happening on mine.
When I first connected my 'standard' RS232 to the cerb the computer reset, and I couldn't get the ignition to come on again, and the engine fan ran continuously until I had disconnected the battery. I thought I'd buggered the ECU at that point. There were tears all round.
When I first connected my 'standard' RS232 to the cerb the computer reset, and I couldn't get the ignition to come on again, and the engine fan ran continuously until I had disconnected the battery. I thought I'd buggered the ECU at that point. There were tears all round.
Julian64 said:
When I first connected my 'standard' RS232 to the cerb the computer reset, and I couldn't get the ignition to come on again, and the engine fan ran continuously until I had disconnected the battery. I thought I'd buggered the ECU at that point. There were tears all round.
Blimey, I just plugged mine in without a care in the world and didn't have any problems...
col_s said:
I was led to believe that the laptop connector was actually in the ECU, but when I looked guess what? no socket type looking thing in there whatsoever. There are a couple of connectors in the loom adjacent to the ECU but they don't look like standard computer type connectors. Do I need my eyes tested?
Newer cars do not have a socket inside the ECU case. They have an external (I think 3 pin) connector coming off the wiring loom. You need a special cable to convert this to a standard serial connector. Maybe TVR can sell you one. I guess you could make your own if you had the wiring info.
col_s said:
I was led to believe that the laptop connector was actually in the ECU, but when I looked guess what? no socket type looking thing in there whatsoever. There are a couple of connectors in the loom adjacent to the ECU but they don't look like standard computer type connectors. Do I need my eyes tested?
Newer cars do not have a socket inside the ECU case. They have an external (I think 3 pin) connector coming off the wiring loom. You need a special cable to convert this to a standard serial connector. Maybe TVR can sell you one. I guess you could make your own if you had the wiring info.
ooops, sorry about that.
What I ment to say is that my car's not a newer one, it's a 97 4.2. However, a wiring diagram would be very useful for this type of connection if anybody has one.
Gassing Station | Cerbera | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff