Thread: Which USB to Serial adapter for FaultMate and EAS Unlock?

Hi Paul
I use XP with the Prolific 2303 USB setup. You may need to check the "idle delay" at the bottom of the screen. Storey Wilson has a couple of posts on this. The values which are working for me at the moment are

one byte delay value 375
two byte delay value 375
idle delay value 75

Idle 01 the value on the box below it is: &HFF
Idle 02 ditto &H01

my understanding of the byte delay values is to enable the operator to stabilise the feeds. simply change them by one or two points at a time up/down and see how it affects the Tx/Rx values

hope this helps

A.

Thanks Hoges. It's wierd, I've had the PL2303 working ok on other XP and Vista laptops and am sure it was running ok on this one until I took it to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago. Previously, even had it running on a Ubuntu netbook I use for "ethical penetration testing" of various devices at my client's sites.

The values you quote are the default settings for EAS Unlock and also work for me usually. Unfortunately, playing around with the idle delay and one/two byte delay settings just won't play nice with either the XP or Win7 laptops using the PL2303 adapter. Wonder if the PL2303 adapter h/w is getting a bit tired? BTW: also tried updating the s/w to the latest from the Prolific web site with no joy.

Shame, the Belkin is much more pricey than the Prolific.

Cheers, Paul.

Sorry to dig this one up, but recently I acquired a Faultmate MSV-2 and a new laptop to suit, this has Windows 7 on it.

What I had to do to allow the vehicle server to communicate to the Faultmate was change the settings to allow Vehicle Explorer to run on XP settings (this can be done by right clicking on the VE icon). That was the only drama I had when setting mine up. I also got a Belkin USB to serial adaptor with software up to XP and had to do the same for it to operate. I ended up going to the Belkin website and downloading the latest software for the device just to guarantee success.

Cheers
Keithy

Thanks for the info Keithy. I've also found the Belkin to be quite reliable but it is quite pricy. I suppose If you're only buying one, you might as well spend the extra money and get a good one.

Also tried a ExpressCard for my main laptop and it turned out that it was just another PL2303 chipset on a card rather than a USB dongle.

I've tried a few different PL2303 USB-serial adapters recently and finally found one that works well on a range of desktops and laptops. This is the one I'm now selling at Hard Range and may be included in a future 'diagnostics' kit bundle that I'm slowly working on.

Cheers, Paul.

Try Dealextreme
DealExtreme: Search for usb to serial (200 products in 36 categories)

You'll probably have to buy a random selection to find the right one.