dvcn

The new cheap laptop doesn't have a serial port. I bought a cheap USB to Serial adapter cable off ebay and the included driver didn't work and it had a couple of worms in it too.

Vista couldn't find a driver for the cable either.

Anyone have any luck with Vista and a usb to serial adapter cable to talk to the Wolf?

nyt

iTrader: (1)

yes, ive linked it in the past also, but since im too lazy to dig it up, here it is:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812107108

dvcn

Thanks! I just ordered one. I guess I didn't search good enough.

dvcn

It doesn't work. After speaking with tech support of the cable mfg they said that it only supports 32 bit Vista, not 64, which is what it seems that I have.

Any suggestions?

Michael Smith

OK here there will be heaps of people out there with 64 bit PC's my guess is that their will be a 64 to 32 wrapper made somewhere. What a wrapper does is trick the PC into thinking it is a 64 bit application and it runs the 32bit program inside. I will have a look around. What brand of Main board and processor do you have. Also what brand and model of usb to serial cable do you have??? Maybe Chris Ng can find something. Chris has a page on getting the V3 software to work on XP.


Cheers
Michael Smith

Michael Smith

Hey dvcn PM me I have something for you! A 64 bit Vista Virtual Comm Port (VCP) driver. It may do the job

Cheers
Michael Smith

dvcn

update-

Toshiba Satellite L45
Intel Pentium Dual CPU T2310 @ 1.46GHz 1.47GHz
System type: 32-bit Operating System

So, it is a 32 bit. I was just getting odd messages trying to force the install.

Old usb to serial cable: bought off of eBay, driver cd has virus', Vista couldn't find drivers. When this cable is plugged in, a 'new hardware found' message pops up.

New usb to serial cable: purchased from Newegg, AP1100 (tech says that it is the same chipset as the AP1103 cable and functionally the same). When this cable is plugged in no 'new hardware found' message. Used 'add hardware' but still wasn't visible, Vista couldn't find driver, wouldn't let me load driver off CD.

I managed to go to device manager and forced the driver there. USB GPS doesn't work now, I'll deal with that later.

Plugged it into the Wolf and it started to download the ecu. It hung at 15% and about 4-5 more times then hung for good at 41%. The error message is "Communications between the ECU and PC was interrupted while the data was loading from the ECU to PC. Check the physical connection between your PC and ECU, and ensure tha thte ECU is powered up."

It'll probably end up being something dumb and I'll have the usual egg on my face, but it's pretty annoying right now.

Michael Smith

DVCN you have email... Vista is a lame operating system and isn't a patch on XP or Linux.. I have 2 Windows(XP and Vista Ultimate) machines both dual boot Linux as well. Plus a Linux Web server and a backup Linux Mysql Database server for my software activation for the stuff I am setting up to sell(Parental control software).
Check your IRQ and comm port settings for your cable don't clash with something else.
Cheers
Michael Smith

dvcn

Michael-
Thanks for your help so far. I can't get Vista to take your driver. I've tried to force it through device manager but it says no, there is already a better driver installed. When I try to delete the existing drivers it disables the usb ports. I had to use restore a couple times. I'm starting to think that I'm actually as lame as I sound!

NYT-
Can I mail you this cable from Newegg so you can see if it works on your laptop/Wolf? It might be bad and I wouldn't have a clue.

I might buy a Belkin cable next.

Anyone else with a cheap Toshiba laptop had any success?

dvcn

Got a usb to serial converter and driver from Larry Berg.

http://www.pfranc.com/cgi-bin/P/USB_G4/garmin-GPS-cables.

Purple Computing,
>> PO Box 100, Murphy, OR 97533
>> U.S.A. (United States of America)
>> 541-479-8087
>> pfranc.com

This is the only converter cable/driver that worked with my 32 bit Vista OS. This was my fourth cable and fifth driver to try.

They warned that it might not be plug and play and would offer phone support to help rename virtual com ports or something like that. And if that didn't work they would take the coverter back and give a refund.

The converter turned out to be plug and play. It loaded to com19, just had to tell the Wolf 4.72 to look at com19 and everything is good now!

micholi101

Hey all.
I went through all this lately..
There's three popular chipsets used in these usb to rs232 converters.
Two are cheep and won't work all the time. MAYBE sometimes.
The one promised to work and sold on the wolf site is based on a chipset by a company called 'FTDI industries' Search that. Any converter that uses this chipset will work.
These work. 100% of the time. XP or Vista.
It's to do with the time it takes to comunicate and recieve a response to and from the PLC (programable logic controller...ecu in other words) and the cheaper vervions just don't rate. They may work for other applications but ours is timing critical. We're talking nono seconds here.
As always, you gets what you pays for.
The cable wolf sells goes for $$100aud, but I found the same one for $$60aud doing an image search from a web company called 'Dontronics' in aust. They'll set ya straight.