chitty chitty bang bang

iTrader: (1)

Hi everyone,

I thought my old laptop had a serial but alas it does not. I raided the IT department's old cables today and found a Serial to Ethernet adapter (I think previously used for a Cisco modem). No Serial>USB unfortunately.

Is there a way for me to make this work to load to and flash my DIYPNP?

Further, what diagnostics do people perform to make sure their DIYPNP is installed correctly when it is off the car?

Full_Tilt_Boogie

iTrader: (1)

There is always a way, but in this case it is going to be a waste of time and energy.

Just get a USB to serial adapter. One that doesnt suck (i.e. has a good driver, based on FTDI, etc.)

chitty chitty bang bang

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Full Tilt, being cheap I don't really want to drop $30 at best buy for one of these and being impatient I don't want to wait for a well reviewed 12 one from newegg. If I am going the ordering route, I'd like to go all-out and purchase a Serial>Bluetooth adapter so that I can run MSDroid in the future.

Does anyone suggest one other than the one offered by EFI? I've seen the $14 RX7 mod but that requires both a laptop with serial or a serial>USB.

WestfieldMX5

Serial - bluetooth is not stable enough to load firmware. You can only use it to log and you'd still need the serial - usb adapter.

chitty chitty bang bang

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Frank, I guess I will place the order for the cable then.

At one point I saw someone building Serial>USB Modules for sale, are there any options other than EFI?

What are basic diagnostics that can be performed while connected from DIYPNP to MSPNP after getting the cable?

I will recheck resistance of resistors and check against DIYPNP instruction images but I can't check proper function of ICs and Transistors.

ccbb

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

It will be faster for you to wait for a good adapter from Newegg.

If you knew how to hack the ethernet to act as a USB device, you would be already doing it, not posting about it here. And since you are not already doing it, I can conclude that the task is far enough over your head that you wouldn't be able to get it done before a good adapter was delivered anyway.

Not trying to hate, just pointing out the obvious.

chitty chitty bang bang

iTrader: (1)

Steve, no offense taken. True, I don't know and it is over my head.

I'm definitely more protective of my wallet than I am my time (fun hobby and tracks closed) and am happy taking the long road as long as I learn something along the way. On the other hand I will likely be spending more time than necessary to just save a few dollars.

foxyroadster

iTrader: (3)

if you do use a cheapie usb to serial you might consider running ubuntu linux, they support the chinese copies better then the windows drivers will.

chitty chitty bang bang

iTrader: (1)

Ok, I went down to B&H and picked this up. When I am done with the PNP I will flash it and see if it all works. Thanks all!

Trendnet TU-S9 USB to Serial Converter TU-S9 B&H Photo Video

As for the Bluetooth>Serial adapter, has anyone tried something similar to this:

RS232 Bluetooth Serial Adapter Communication Master Slave 2 Modes 5V Mini USB | eBay

chitty chitty bang bang

iTrader: (1)

For anyone looking for a serial USB, the Trendnet works very well

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

A fellow New Yorker, eh?

chitty chitty bang bang

iTrader: (1)

Hey yes sir. It is great to see a fellow NYCer let alone a super moderator. I'm a transplant from beantown. The Miata is sadly not in the city so I only have vacations and long weekends to work on it. Where are you set up?

Tw34k

If it's anything like the cisco cables I've seen, it's just a serial cable with a different end on it for talking with the modem. It most likely has no conversion properties but just serves a specialized purpose for network guys.

When it comes to USB to Serial converters I recommend using something with an FTDI chipset, but for the bluetooth I like to use these HC-05: Electronic Components | eBay. The HC-05 is quite small and capable of some decent baud rates, its also fairly easily configured to a variety of uses once you understand a few AT commands via a comm terminal.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/FT232RL-USB-...item4acccb4935

chitty chitty bang bang

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Tweak. So to go from Serial to BT it needs to go from Serial > USB > BT? Is there a Serial to BT module you'd reccomend?

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Huh? No.

Disclaimer: everything that follows presupposes that you're interested only in Bluetooth.

On the PC end, forget serial. If you don't have Blutooth built into the laptop. USB-Bluetooth adapters are about $5: Sabrent BT-USBX Nano Bluetooth Wireless Adapter - USB 2.0, Bluetooth EDR, Built-in Link controller at TigerDirect.com


On the MS end, forget USB. You will go from serial directly to bluetooth: USB to Serial Cable - Checkout




Also, get the idea of RS-232 to Ethernet completely out of your head. No such thing exists. (Well, it does, but it's extremely specialized.) The blue cable with a DB-9 on one end and an RJ-45 on the other is for configuring Cisco Catalyst switches. It's pure RS-232, just with a non-standard connector on one end.




Sidebar: **** you, Cisco, for not spending the extra $3 to embed an FTDI USB slave port on your god-damned switches. This isn't ******* 1995, and laptops don't come with serial ports any more. It's really ******* inconvenient to make me bike all the way down to J&R from east 42nd because nobody in the whole friggin' office has a USB-232 adapter.

Tw34k

The HC-05 is serial to BT, you will also need a usb BT dongle for your computer as previously mentioned. The other URL I linked is a basic FTDI USB to serial without the DB9 connector.

Edit: I just remembered I had a few of these cisco serial cables in a box outside along with a parallel one as well. Does the blue cable look familiar OP?

(sry for pic quality)

chitty chitty bang bang

iTrader: (1)

Hey Tweak that is exactly what I have down to the color and flat ribbon!

Thanks about HC05, I was confused because the unit looked like a small usb key and the male pins looked like USB pins.

How do you connect the HC05 to serial? By looking at these:

http://www.exp-tech.de/service/datas...h-Products.pdf page 5, it looks like the left side of the circuit has serial-type keys.

Do I basically need a DB9 harness, and connect the Serial's TX to TX and RX to RX? (What pins does hte MS use to transmit and receive?) What pin on the MS DB15 is ground? same as this or is that arduino specific?

http://playground.arduino.cc/uploads...232_pinout.gif

The MS has 5v at pin 5 if the BT jumper is connected. Do I need to put an in-line resistor to drop the voltage? If so what size?