Fleemer

Bought a car with microtech and no laptop dongle.

Assuming I need the dongle and a usb cable to serial cable to get some computer info...

Don't want to take it to the tuner for simple idle fixes and poking around

I looked, is the average price around 100$ USD?

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Yep, they are around $100. I think when I bought mine from Aspec it was $113 or something like that.

Fleemer

Allright, thought i might be able to get one for significantly cheaper... :P

Thanks guys

manny6d9

iTrader: (14)

try ebay

nuimpykid

iTrader: (7)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...3829&CatId=464 ?

They have others also, just have to search a little.

I <3 Tiger Direct!

drifting in drifting

iTrader: (11)

That wont work you have to have the dongle

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

That's just a USB to serial adapter. You can get them at any computer or electronics store. It's not what we are referring to. The Microtech needs a seperate adapter between the serial port and ECU.

nuimpykid

iTrader: (7)

Im sorry, I fail!

Just curious, why do you have to have the donlge? Different wiring inside to be compatible with your pc?

drifting in drifting

iTrader: (11)

no its like a translator between the microtech and your laptop

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

The official answer from Microtech is that someone else has a patent on programming an ECU directly from a serial port, so they used the adapter (which is a little microcontroller and some flash memory) to get around the patent.

Yet this brings up some questions, such as:
-why do all other ECUs allow programming directly via a serial port?
-why must we pay for the adapter instead of having it included with the ECU?

hondahater

iTrader: (2)

The microtech is fairly cheap and simple which means they didn't build that feature into the microtech but all the others have because they are more sophisticated. Also microtech likes money??

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

I think "Microtech likes money" is the proper answer. Rest assured, they won't get any more of mine.

hondahater

iTrader: (2)

lol, they seem to do fine with the 1/4 mile market and don't reach out to far beyond that. As soon as these guys find a computer that can scoot them down the 1/4 mile as fast if not faster than the microtech will be in some trouble I think. (to many promises unkept)

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

And that's the issue. They began marketing to people who expect to use their cars on the street and like things like closed loop, idle control, 3D timing maps, save to disk, etc. So they promised this stuff and then just walked away from everyone...