I saw lots of threads on using winALDL and interpreting data, but I didn't find any that address getting started.

I have WinALDL and bought a ECM-to-serial cable. I loaded WinALDL onto my Dell laptop. I cannot get data to flow.

I have a 1986 GT 2.8. I found a configuration selection for that motor and year. The configuration file reports my comm1 as "OK". I selected all the parameters to capture and even opened the dashboard. Ignition to "ON", choose "Start" in the program and then start the motor. Try and try, I see NOTHING coming across to the laptop. I even swapped out the cig lighter plug to make sure I had power to the comm board.

What is wrong?

I got my cable from Dodgerunner. His worked right out of the box. I also used a Dell, a C810. I was using the lighter socket to power my laptop. I don't know if that would effect the operation. Catch Dodgerunner this afternoon after he is back home. He is the Guru.
Joe Crawford

ttt - anybody got any advice for a WinALDL rookie?

Ok, if you have a V6 choose 1227170 as your ecm. That usually works for me.

Then connect it up and turn the key on. At the top of the winaldl window to the left of the Configuration button there is a small box. You should it flash a number and either red back ground or green. If it does not flash then winaldl is not seeing any data from the ecm.
If that's the case it's hard to tell what might be wrong.
Your cable maynot work, your ecm may not be talking, or something is wrong with your laptop.

Are you using a serial port or a USB adaptor?
What does your cable look like? A picture would help.
Does it have a cig lighter plug on it?

If you are using a USB-to-serial adapter between your laptop and the ALDL cable, some of them work with WinALDL, but some of them don't. My only suggestion is to try several of them from different manufacturers.

quote Originally posted by Dodgerunner: Ok, if you have a V6 choose 1227170 as your ecm. That usually works for me. Then connect it up and turn the key on. At the top of the winaldl window to the left of the Configuration button there is a small box. You should it flash a number and either red back ground or green. If it does not flash then winaldl is not seeing any data from the ecm. If that's the case it's hard to tell what might be wrong. Your cable maynot work, your ecm may not be talking, or something is wrong with your laptop. Are you using a serial port or a USB adaptor? What does your cable look like? A picture would help. Does it have a cig lighter plug on it?

That's exactly what I was looking for - I need the software to give me a sign it's awake!. It's serial port. I purchased the cable (can't remember who from, but it's a vendor mentioned on this board.) Plugs into the cig lighter. At first I thought this may be the problem, so I re-habbed the socket. It lights up my phone charger cord with no problems. I have been using a different configuration profile; would I see garbled data or nothing if I chose the wrong profile?

I don't see ANY activity on the configuration screen.

I'm open to trying a cable from another supplier. Dodge, do you sell these?

[This message has been edited by fyrebird68 (edited 09-30-2008).]

Here is a DIY aldl cable. Mine worked 1st time with a serial port laptop running XP.

http://couleefiero.tripod.com/ALDL.htm

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/A...030819-1-026777.html

I have Dodgerunner's serial cable on a IBM T60 - works perfect. Several on here can look at you data to help you too. Again, Dodgerunner has a great cable and is loads of help. (my second job is marketing for Dodgerunner) - LOL......

Pat

hey Jefrysuko, your link to more information on the cable you make is not working.

Dodge, here's the cable I have:


I got it from OBD Diagnostics in Redondo Beach.

Cable has a little jumper pad on one end that allows you to add a 10k resistor or to ground one side.

[This message has been edited by fyrebird68 (edited 10-01-2008).]

You did have the 10K resistor jumped on the cable when you tried it, correct?
You would not get any data otherwise....

PM sent...

Dodge (and others)

I tried again this past weekend. Selected the recommended configuration, and added the 10k resistor. ... I am getting absolutely nothing.

I purchased a spare ECM just to have, but haven't tested it in the car yet. If you thnk the problem might be in the comm port of the ECM, I could try that.

Other suggestions? As I said, I am open to purchasing another cable if you think that may be the problem.

Did you try any of the resistance readings on the cable that I sent you?

Rory, I was finally able to try out the ALDL cable I got from you. Seems to work fine with an ancient Toshiba 430CDS notebook computer running Win98SE. I selected ECM type 1227170 in WinALDL (ver 1.09) to use with my '86 GT (automatic).

I'll probably have lots of questions later making heads or tails of the data, but first a rather elementary question...

Is it usual for the idle speed to be higher when WinALDL is monitoring the engine? My GT normally idles at 800 RPM, but with WinALDL running it’s up around 1000 RPM.

Looking at the logged data while running WinALDL, I see that the idle speed will very occasionally drop to 875 RPM, but the vast majority of time it’s more like 1025 RPM.

Is this an anomaly, or is this to be expected?

I might add that I didn't know about manually inputting TPS voltage figures for idle and/or WOT before running WinALDL. Would that have had any effect on my idle speed while running WinALDL.

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 10-06-2008).]

quote Originally posted by Dodgerunner: Did you try any of the resistance readings on the cable that I sent you?

Oops, did not. I will do that tonight.

quote Originally posted by Patrick: Is it usual for the idle speed to be higher when WinALDL is monitoring the engine? My GT normally idles at 800 RPM, but with WinALDL running it’s up around 1000 RPM. Is this an anomaly, or is this to be expected? I might add that I didn't know about manually inputting TPS voltage figures for idle and/or WOT before running WinALDL. Would that have had any effect on my idle speed while running WinALDL.

Yes this is normal. To read the data the ecm is put into Diag. mode with tends to up the idle a little.

No, the TPS setting would not cause this.. I normally don't even set the TPS setting most of the time..

The Fiero ecm interface is an output device only. Other than the 10K resistor putting the ecm in Diag. mode, it can only send data it can not receive any data from the pc...

[This message has been edited by Dodgerunner (edited 10-06-2008).]

quote Originally posted by Dodgerunner: Yes this is normal. To read the data the ecm is put into Diag. mode with tends to up the idle a little.

Thanks for the info. That puts my mind at ease a bit.

What's the easiest way of figuring out what each column of numbers represents in the logged data? With no headings at the top it's pretty confusing for a newbie.

Any advantage changing the baud rate in the configuration from 2400 to 4800 (with a corresponding change of baud rate for the COM port in Device Manger)?

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 10-06-2008).]

There should be column headers. Open the log file in Excel and you should see them. Also did you get a copy or ALDLView..

No if you change the baud you will get no data at all.

quote Originally posted by Dodgerunner: There should be column headers.

Well, there's a ton of stuff above the columns but nothing lines up. Keep in mind though that I haven't been using a proper viewer.

quote Originally posted by Dodgerunner: Also did you get a copy or ALDLView..

I'm an absolute newbie at this. Never heard of ALDLView. I'll google it, thanks.

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 10-06-2008).]

If you don't have excel etc. you can use the free suite like MS Office called Open office.
http://www.openoffice.org/

You can install just the writer and calc with are somewhat equal to word and excel. I use them to open the logs in an excel mode when needed but ALDLview is better for comparing data.

Rory, I'm not usually this dense (honest), but how do you use OpenOffice to display the columns in the WinALDL text file properly?

At least I've been able to try out ALDLView. Looks great! Now I just need to learn how to interpret all this data!

There is a small trick to it..

Launch "Calc" from your start programs menu.
Browse to the ALDL log file you want to open.
Select the file by clicking on it once.
Then in the "Files of type:" field find the format called "Text CSV (*.csv, *.txt)"
Now click Open.
The import screen will open. the Tab check box should already be checked, if not do so and then hit open..

Should be good.

quote Originally posted by Dodgerunner: There is a small trick to it..

Ah yes, I should've known.

Thanks very much. I'm now pouring over figures.

quote Originally posted by mattwa: hey Jefrysuko, your link to more information on the cable you make is not working.

That is because I quit making them quite some time ago and my thread in the mall got purged.

quote Originally posted by Dodgerunner: Did you try any of the resistance readings on the cable that I sent you?

Rung out the cable last night I see MAX resistance on EVERY wire! In no instance do I see any measurable resistance (10k) between the wires. I know there's an electronic module built into the PC end of the cable. Could be bad, but it's a new cable.

I found this on the website fro the company who sold me the cable. Does this explain the measurements I get?

[This message has been edited by fyrebird68 (edited 10-07-2008).]

Probably not what your cable is like. If yours was anything like that, if you put your black ohm meter lead on pins 2 or 5 of the db9 and the Red lead on the data line (pin E of the ALDL) you should read around 15K ohms on your meter...
With your resistor jumped in on the cable you should also read the 10K between the A and B pins of the ALDL plug.

[This message has been edited by Dodgerunner (edited 10-07-2008).]

Then we have no idea why the cable measurements show such high resistance values?

If it has an IC interface instead of the transistor one it would read totally different resistance.

I'm reluctant to split it open and look, since I just emailed the supplier and asked to exchange it. I'll let you know what I learn.

edit: Just got an email reply form them. I'll be sending it back for exchange.

[This message has been edited by fyrebird68 (edited 10-07-2008).]

I finally got a replacement cable from OBD Diagnostic. They told me the one I sent back was OK, but sent me a new one anyway.

Still no data flowing.

Maybe the serial port on the PC is not working. It's a new Dell, so I'm thinking that the port is OK, but how can I test it to be sure?
Worst case, maybe the comm pin on the ECM is not working. Any tests for that?

if the comm pin was not working, the other cable that got data on the old tosh would not show data. so your ecm is ok.
The problem lies in either the cabloe or the dell. Check if there is a configuration utility for the dell, they usually hide it in either the control panel or in a dell section fo the program files. Then verify that the serial port is turned on. maybe I missed it, but is it running xp or vista?
If you can;t find anything on the dell that saysanything about serial port control, (they can be shut off on some machines) then see if you can borrow an old standalone modem form someone. plug it in and turn it on and see if it get recognized, and if it does, hook up a phone line an just let it test, I think you can even try having it dial a number. if that all works, then it's a compatibilty issue with the cable and the laptop or ecm.

If you stick a 10K resistor across the AB pins you should be able to see pulses on the data pin with a meter. An analog meter would be a lot better or a digital with an analog bar on the display. They will be fast and short duration but you should be able to see some movement. It will be setting at ground with small spikes for the data..

I'd have to test if for sure but you should be able to touch pin 2 to pin 3 on the rs232 port of the pc and while in HyperTerminal with echo turned off if you type it should echo back to the screen. I'll test it and see if any other hand shake lines would be needed.

I did test this and it works on my IBM "thinkpud"
I started Hyperterm, picked the serial port, in it's config set flow control to "none".
Then touched a paper clip across pins 2 and 3 while typing a key. It echos the key your pressing to the screen.
This verifies that it is sending out 3 and reading in 2...
If you take the jumper off you should not get anything.
Hopefully a Dell would do the same.

[This message has been edited by Dodgerunner (edited 11-03-2008).]