Emerald Comms Trouble

[phil withers 0]

Evening chaps,

 

Very briefly I wasted my evening and most of today away trying to achieve comms to my Emerald. Have had it powered up on the car and tried 3 laptops on it, 2 Vista and 1 XP, and I 'm using the Emerald supplied USB - serial adaptor with the software for itloaded on each computer. No luck at all even though all PC's are fine with the adaptor prior to plugging in the comms lead.

 

Today got it on the bench, 12 volt supply, to pins 11 and 28, earthed through pin 29 and strapped to my XP desktop again with all relevant drivers and software (latest Emerald) loaded.

 

NOTHING !

 

Have a spare Emerald in stock too (older K3) tried that and its comms lead and still nothing. The only thing I can think of is that the USB - serial adaptor isn;t set up right as regards bit-rate's, parity etc but I can't find the information anywhere.

 

Any advice out there ??

 

Cheers Phil

[Sandy 191]

Check you've got the right port selected in devices.

[phil withers 0]

Yep, cheers Sandy.

Been there, Device Manager says 'usb - serial in port COM11-device working properly'

Which is what led me to wondering about the settings for the adaptor ?

[pugpete1108 62 1 Cars]

Yep, cheers Sandy.

Been there, Device Manager says 'usb - serial in port COM11-device working properly'

Which is what led me to wondering about the settings for the adaptor ?

 

i had the exact same issue with my ms ecu and it was a port issue.

 

go into device manager and select port 1 or 2 and try that. worked for me.

 

have you installed the drivers for the usb convertor? if using xp?

 

as with regards to port settings on megasuirt it should be:

 

960 bits per second

data bits 8

parity none

stop bits 1

flow control none

 

also go into advanced settings and put the buffers as low as they will go and check the com port corresponds with what you are using.

 

as i say this is for megasuirt but i am using a usb serial convertor so this may help.

 

also is it a cheap cable or a decent one?

 

i brought a crap ebay 3.99 one and it didnt work so spent 20 on one from maplins and that is fine.

Edited June 26, 2009 by pugpete1108

[phil withers 0]

Thanks Pete, leads are as supplied by Emerald somust asume they are good enough.

The device manager detects and auto selects a comms port in Windows (Comm11), so long as that and the Emerald are set up the same it should be ok shouldn't it?

 

Will have a fiddle with the settings in the morning and see if I can get anywhere.

Edited June 26, 2009 by phil withers

[wracing 19]

com11 is sometimes to high for some application you really need to reset it to com1/2 to avoid errors.

 

its prob not causing your problem but something to rule out!

 

james

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

Perhaps a dumb question, but have you installed the USB to serial adaptor driver? If you need it I can forward you a link or the software itself. This may iron out your comms problem.

[Daz_C 8 1 Cars]

In the manual it does say use Comms Port-1.

I wouldnt have a clue what the difference is between any other ports but worth a go.

[phil withers 0]

Daz/James,

 

Now been into advanced set up and configured the USB - serial as COMM 1, it still says it it working properly.

 

Dr Sarty,

 

Have loaded the software that came with the (Emerald supplied) converter but if you've a different one I'd be grateful of giving it a go !

[Daz_C 8 1 Cars]

Might well be worth speaking to Emerald, it may save you abit of time and get you sorted.

I'm not very savvy with it so I can't help more than my previous suggestion.

Good luck with sorting it.

[phil withers 0]

I emailed them on Friday afternoon but from work so can;lt pick it up, nevermind, off away for the weekend now will sort it at the weekend and let you all know what the problem was then

[sideways danny 0]

USB adaptors are notoriously awkward. Your best bet is a PCMCIA adapter, or find a laptop with an RS232 plug

[Craigb 2]

I had this issue when i swapped jobs last year and swapped laptops . My laptop wont connect with the Ecu unless i put the dvd drive unit underneath it .

 

I think it is something to do with the port identification. I downloaded the latest driver , and then went through each port one by one until i found the right connection . I am sure there would have been a far more techy way of doing this , but being a mechanical engineer , i went with what I know.

 

If you want a prompt answer , ring emerald , rather than email , you will get a quicker answer , and they are always helpful

[phil withers 0]

I had this issue when i swapped jobs last year and swapped laptops . My laptop wont connect with the Ecu unless i put the dvd drive unit underneath it .

 

I think it is something to do with the port identification. I downloaded the latest driver , and then went through each port one by one until i found the right connection . I am sure there would have been a far more techy way of doing this , but being a mechanical engineer , i went with what I know.

 

If you want a prompt answer , ring emerald , rather than email , you will get a quicker answer , and they are always helpful

 

Well I've had a reply and their 'generic start up ' gumph, it reckons that the Emerald software will identify the ports available without anything plugged in (I get a blank list) and then plug in just the usb-serial lead, then select that port on the Emerald start up and then connect the comms lead and off you go.

 

Not likely, whats more annoying is that I'm short on time and pretty convinced it's a computer (or operator) problem, grr

[Craigb 2]

When you plug it in , have you tried the refresh button at the select port screen. It should show all available.

[RossD 44]

Did you get this sorted?

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Unfortunately not yet, the ECU in question is headed for the track car owned half and half between Phil and I. At the moment the ECU is on its way to me, so I can see if my laptop will connect up and work OK to this ECU. I know the laptop is OK as I've had it linked up to the ECU on the Mini.

[phil withers 0]

Unfortunately not yet, the ECU in question is headed for the track car owned half and half between Phil and I. At the moment the ECU is on its way to me, so I can see if my laptop will connect up and work OK to this ECU. I know the laptop is OK as I've had it linked up to the ECU on the Mini.

 

Yeah, sorry guys family troubles have got in the way, so sent the ECU up to Tom to have a look at for me, he tells me he'll have it sorted in 5 minutes flat lets hope so

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Either way it should prove whether it was the nut behind the computer screen that wasn't working correctly or not..............

[RossD 44]

The only reason I ask is that I had exactly the same problems with my Emerald supplied USB\Serial convertor and I solved it by changing the COM port settings to this:

 

 

By default, when you install the convertor it defaults to 9600 bits per second, the Emerald needs to talk to the PC at 19200 bits per second. After I'd changed this it worked fine.....

 

Also this link may help: Emerald ECU serial data format

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Well the ECU is here, and it won't connect to my laptop, which I know works with another Emerald K3. Using either direct serial, or usb-serial adaptor. So it looks like its headed back to Norfolk for a dose of looking at.

[phil withers 0]

Thanks Ross those were numbers I was looking for as that was about the only thing I couldn't confirm, unfortunately as Tom say's it wont talk to his laptop on a straight RS 232 either.

[RossD 44]

Odd, sounds like the ECU has taken early retirement. Hope it gets sorted!

[Cameron 16]

Did you get anywhere with this? I can't connect to my ECU anymore, tried 2 USB adaptors, 2 laptops - one with XP, one with 7 and also tried 7 in XP mode, and tried an ancient XP laptop with a serial port!

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

In the end we found it was because we were powering up the ECU from a battery charger! Link it to a proper battery and all is well......

 

Perhaps not the case for you.