Saying Hi, & electical Qs re diy logger cable

[justin_cosgrove]

Hi guys,

New here, I live in New Zealand.

I have three Galants, one is an NZDM e33a and two are JDM e35a. I've just finished a 4g63 SOHC to DOHC and manual conversion on the NZDM one so I hope I might contribute something for other people going sohc to dohc conversion here.

I'm trying to iron out some bugs, my 'check engine light' is on even though it's running well so I'm trying to sort that out.

Now, onto the questions. I know from searching that the DIY data logging cables have been talked about a lot here, unfortunately though I wasn't quite able to satisfy my questions.

I'm interested in making this cable as it seems a fairly fool-proof design http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...03316-how-set-up-mmcd-make-logging-cable.html

First question: The port/plug/socket says 'RS-232' in the photos it looks like it has five pins, when I was searching google for the 'RS-232' they all had nine pins. Any one care to elaborate on this? is the one in the pictures a nine pin and it just looks like five?

Second question: I want to use this cable on an older XP laptop, while searching I came across this thread http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/tun...3009-how-make-your-own-data-logger-cable.html and the comment "I use the simple one above with my older dell laptop running winXP The only issue was that you need a null modem to be able to use it." I was also searching Null Modems and it seems that it is a Male/Male adapter cable. Are there different types? or is there only one 'Null Modem'? in this case I could purchase any?

Third question: What free software can I use on my laptop in order to datalog? I was looking here http://mmcdlogger.sourceforge.net/#Download but it seems that thier software only works on Palms? if there is no free software available then is there a way to trick my laptop or whatever into thinking it's a palm in order to run that software?

My ECU is a duel board, will this present a problem? this is written on my ecu

MD132959

E2T33378

9812 A

I hope that is understandable.

BTW the ecu and engine are 1990

 

[mark 91 tsi]

I am a newbie too. I am actually picking my car up on Friday.

From what I understand of Null Modems it is all about how the inside is wired. They allow two pieces of equipment to talk to each other so the data sending pin on one side is connected to the data recieve pin on the other side and vice versa.

I hope that helps.

 

[steve]

The dual board ECUs don't support datalogging.

The connector show has 5 pins in the top row and 4 below. If you make the correct cable for a PC you won't need a null modem cable.