Getting MSPNP to talk to Laptop with RadioShack Cable
 

So my old Lenovo's RAM died at the beginning of this year and I bought an Asus with Win8, but no optical drive. I'm trying to get my LC-1 and MSPNP 9697 to talk to my new pc so I can tune. My problem right now is just getting any signal from the car. I have this DB9 to USB cable from Radio Shack. I downloaded (I think) the driver from Radio Shack's site here. I clicked on the "Gigaware® 6-ft. USB-A to Serial Cable" link and hit Run>View Downloads>Unzip to "X" folder. Is this all I have to do to have the working driver? I tried plugging up to the car and opening TS but I couldn't get any connection. Help a :noob: plz.

No one has any experience with a radio shack cable?

As easy as the MS is to work with, what I've heard is that they're sensitive to what cables you use. Most of us have DIYautotune's cable through their site.

Whenever I have issues with an RS-232 cable, I add a NULL Modem adapter to swap 2 & 3. It's kind of 50/50. Might be your issue. They are cheap at the shack and if it doesn't fix the problem just return it.

I'll try that. I know the cable works under the right conditions because the car was origionally dyno tuned with it using mega tune.

While I do not own this converter, I just looked at that driver, you did not fully install it. You run, click UNZIP, but before you do that, pay attention to the folder you UNZIP it to. All that does is dump a bunch of files in a folder, basically a fancy .zip file with its own unzipper. You then need to navigate to that directory that you specified, default being C:\2600949 and then execute autorun.exe and follow the installation instructions from there on.

Ah, thanks. I haven't had a chance to mess with it because its been raining for 5 days straight, but I have a hunch that its user error and not hardware. I'll try that, then run out and hook it up for a sec.

Yea if you've had it working before, I don't see why it wouldn't work again, def. seems like a driver issue

These cables are so buggy that just using the wrong usb port and they wont work. I have the same problem with adaptronic. From what i've found out theres actual ports that you can select from the converter it self however even then switching the cable to a different usb port on the laptop may not work even on the correct port on the converter. The only thing i'm glad is that adaptronic has an automatic port scan feature so you plug into a different port and it cant find it you do the automatic sweep and it finds it.

Problem Found:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1381805476

Cable is completely incompatible with Win8.

I'm buying a cable from diyautotune...like I should have from the start.

While I was looking around efianalytics.com to buy a cable, I looked at the Bluetooth adapter to use an Android phone to tune. The Bluetooth hardware is $55, the Shadow Dash is $10, and Shadow logger is free. I need to buy Tuner Studio ($60) and Megalog Viewer ($30) for my new computer. If I went Bluetooth would that save me money? Its too good to be true, right?

EDIT: Basically I can't figure out if you can do any actual tuning. Ben had a thread back when it first came out that used the word "tune", but the conversation was unclear about how limited the tuning was.

Not sure on your mobile question, but I doubt you would want to tune on that. Anyway, do you NEED to buy Tunerstudio? I just bought megalogviewer and use the free tunerstudio, isn't the only difference VE Analyze Live? Which is basically same as VE Analyze just on the fly right? Correct me if I'm wrong here

Btw, you said you just switched to a new computer, as in you already bought Tunerstudio?

If so, their license allows for the software to be on 3 computers

I got a new computer at the beginning of this year with Win8. Before I was using a Lenovo with XP or whatever was standard in 2008 with Megatune and Mega log from 08 as well. I have no clue where those discs are and my new laptop doesn't even have an optical drive so I don't really care anyway. I downloaded Tuner Studio Lite so far, but that's it. I really have no clue what I'm doing. I turned every nut on the car when I installed the turbo stuff, but when it came to tuning I paid a local guy to dyno tune it for me. I have a good understanding of how to keep an engine running, but I get really lost when I have to learn new programs, or- even worse- troubleshoot.

you need a cable with drivers compatible with win666.

If I were you I would get to reading. I fried my last MS cause I "thought" I new what I was doing. For now focus on the basics. ie getting communication, getting the base map loaded from DIY and setting the fixed timing and idle. Then as you go through all the other settings in TS search on here using Google to find out what each section does. You could also use Help in TS. Also I highly recommend purchasing TS cause VE analyze live is SEX and will save you a ton of time and keeps your car relatively "safe".

I've read a book on ecu tuning with a section about MS, but I haven't actually got around to tuning. Right now I have working maps, but I have a little bit of tip in stumble at certain RPMs and throttle positions. Its only a problem during daily driving (so I guess low in the RPMs). I also need to work on idle a little. But the real reason I need to get tuning is to clean up my AFRs so I can pass emissions. I moved from SW VA to Northern VA and just recently found out I have to get emissions testing to renew my registration.

I forgot to mention you also need to calibrate your tps with the engine off and the key in the on position. Sounds like you should find someone in the area that can get you a good street tune. You dont need to get on a dyno to fix running rich for emissions. When they run the sniffer they only take it up the 25mph. Street tunes down here in texas go for about 50 bucks through BEGi and Track Dog. There has to be someone in VA that can get you tuned up. Maybe even a member on here.

I'm not trying to get it dyno tuned or even do anything major to the tune. It just needs some polishing. It has a good tune on it but that was done 4 years ago and in the mountains. I think time and altitude have made it a little rough.

You do know I'm home before you leave for the day...and you work 5min away from my house...and i know how to tune...and i have a tuning cable that works with win8...

LOL!

Understatement of the year.

Oh. Actually I didn't know you had such an early work schedule. Might as well learn from the best. I'll PM you.

i get home around 4-4:30 depending. On fridays it's like 5-5:30 due to traffic...

So EFIAnalytics got me my cord in like less than 48 hours (with regular shipping and ordered at 12 at night). Major props. I was really impressed. Unfortunately, I am the dumbest idiot to operate a computer. I can't use the mini disc provided because no optical drive, so I went to the link provided with the cord for situations like this case. I downloaded the 64 bit Windows driver, then screwed around for an hour trying to unzip it or something. Plugged it up...nothing. Tried unzipping again, then looked at in "Devices" in the CP. I was able to find a tab that said there was no driver loaded, then a tab that looks for a driver with a "Browse" button. I navigated to the file and hit "Install", but still can't get a connection when its plugged into the MS.

And thank you, Brain, for offering some help. I'll take you up on that offer as soon as I get my WBO2 working...which means getting this cord working. Maybe I'll try calibrating without a cord. EDIT: its an LC1 btw

Dayum dude, what year is your car? Or does NOVA buttfuck all cars for emissions? SW VA is the mecca for emissions compared to up there.

These computer issues you have sound lame. Get another old comp with the proper port and whammy you're good to go.

Too bad we didn't stay in SW VA so that we could have tuned together instead of this poser "Braineack" coming in and screwing up your tune. I guess you have no option... GLHF

I'm thinking about giving up on the windows laptop and trying to do everything through my wife's Macbook since I can put the driver disc in that one. Anyone think that's a terrible idea?

I tune on my mbp with a windows partition. You can get TS to work in OS X but you won't be able to flash the ECU.

Oh. Yeah, not trying to get into that. I can barely keep one OS running, let alone two. I might just buy an external optical drive to install the cable driver. It'd be nice to be able to watch DVD's on my laptop anyway.

Im just baffled that you are not able to just go into device Manager and Update the driver. Usually as long as your on the internet it will locate the driver. Kind of like this but for the PORT (I took this from the net).

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1382630302

because they never made a win8 driver for it; let alone win7.

Im using it with win 7.

oh, cool i was never able to.

A Wes if you havent already. Install windows 7. I understand you dont have a DVD drive however you can use wintoflash to create a bootable usb. Could save you a bit of money.

I already looked into that (like literally less than a week after I got the laptop, lol) and it is either impossible or way more trouble than its worth. I think Win7 wont work at all without some hardware upgrades. I'm on a cheap floor model ASUS from best buy that cost $260. What can I say.

You're talking about the Shack Gigaware cord, right, not the EFI cord?

correct.

Yes Sir. Same cord I am using my EFI cord broke last year.

You should start a way-overdue build thread. And get connectivity to your MS.

I am using this cable with my new laptop running Windows 8. I had nothing but issues getting this to work and I had to ROLL THE DRIVER BACK, not update the driver. With the newest driver, Windows did not recognize the Serial/USB device as a gigawire. Once I rolled the driver back, it recognized the device as a Radio Shack Gigawire device.

CAUTION: Windows 8 likes to automatically update drivers. If you cannot get it to connect, check your driver and make sure it is listed as Radio Shack Gigawire.

Hope this helps.

Did you just search the web for an outdated driver?

Yes. I found an older one and loaded it.