Data port software / cables

[chpearce]

Hi any advise on hooking up to the data port on the car.

I noticed there are a lot in the US,

eg, http://www.blazt.biz/prices/prices.php

but wondered if there where any reasonable sources in Oz for a cable and software for keeping an eye on the ECU and other systems health?


Cheers
Chris

[LUP15]

there was some talk about this on the pulsar forums. theres free software which you can load on your laptop all you need is a special cable. also on the pulsar forums someone was selling a small unit so you dont need a laptop etc.

but this all depends on if you have the special port on your ecu. or am i just rambling? i dunno haha

[Colby]

Yes there are the cables you can use for measuring all your sensors via computer.  They are sold in australia also, but are quite pricey.  about $150 from memory.  Or if you are electronically minded you can build a serial port one for around $35 and a few hours soldering.

The special port is a diagnosis port which was included on most nissans form about 89 - 97.

My advice is that if you plan on doing alot of engine mods and messing around with your tune etc then these are really useful however not essential, and for the average driver are a bit of a novelty which you will hardly use.

[Luke]

www.plmsdevelopments.com

Go there. Pete does this sort of stuff for fun, hell give you the cord you need to plug into your serial port and the software for about $130. Ive got one and it works a treat. You cant do any permanant tuning but you can display a fair bit of stuff and get fault codes and what not, pretty useful for diagnosing issues, cos it tell you exactly where the fault is.

[rathies]

off topic sorta, does anyone know if aus u12's have consult ports? mines at the mechanic right now so I cant go check 

[Kranzy]

They certainly do,

I used noss's cable that he bought from plms to diagnose problems i was having with my car when my ecu was dying.

[rathies]

last question: can i make any changes to the ka24e ecu as it is using this cable/software?

[Kranzy]

short answer no.

You can do things like adjust the overall timing, but we were led to belive that after 50 starts the ecu resets itself back to defaults. This was done to nevets car on a melbourne cruise. Im usure as to if it set itself back to normal or not.

edit: Nothing can be done to change the tune, you can use all the information from datascan to see things like injector duty etc to assist with tuning.

[phreeky]

They're handy for checking for fault codes, and for getting readouts of the sensors inputs (i.e. CAS, AFM, TPS voltages etc), plus for viewing/logging timing adjustments wrt RPM and time (combined with a wideband O2 sensor and its software, and using consult, I managed to log RPM/timing/AFM/AFR/inj duty cycle all on one graph).

If you're tuning via stock ECU remaps then I'd DEFINATELY recommend one. I can see the advantage of the serial ones with the LCD screen you can get if you're on the edge of your injector or AFMs capabilities and want to monitor it, otherwise you can get plain serial ones for quite cheap or USB ones (they have a serial->USB adaptor built in).

If you're not gonna keep the stock ECU, well not much point really obviously.

[Marty]

While we're on the subject sort of.
Dont Ever Buy A Biki Rom... Ever.
half the people that bought them are having major dramas and they're not even properly developed yet.
You have been warned.