ECMlink Tried everything I've read, ECMLink not connecting

[Malrun]

90 Eagle Talon with ECMLink V3

Windows 11 home edition laptop (brand new just for tuning)

I hate to write this post because I'm sure you're all tired of seeing this title.

I bought this car with ECMLink V3 installed.

Tested the wires to the ECU, New V3 cable, Voltage to pin, pins to port have zero issues, no error codes, ECU looks to be in excellent shape, checked com ports, Got into my regedit to set cable to port, Installed drivers off FTDI, reinstalled the program multiple times, I've probably spent over 20 hours researching and trying everything I can.

And yes, Ignition is on and I installed the drivers.
I'm actually buying a Windows XP laptop tomorrow just to see if I have too new of a computer. I don't know what to do.

Anything I can do to check please let me know. You can PM me if you want to. Just anything is appreciated.

 

[We're on Boost]

Got into my regedit to set cable to port

I don't remember ever having to do anything to set the port on the laptop.
In fact lately I'm logging 2 logs at the same time on my old laptop. I'm logging ECMlink and I'm logging ECU+. Both come to the laptop by USB. Both find a port ok without any conflict.
My laptop is an ancient Windows XP Dell with a single core cpu that I bought new in 2007.

 

[Malrun]

I don't remember ever having to do anything to set the port on the laptop.
In fact lately I'm logging 2 logs at the same time on my old laptop. I'm logging ECMlink and I'm logging ECU+. Both come to the laptop by USB. Both find a port ok without any conflict.
My laptop is an ancient Windows XP Dell with a single core cpu that I bought new in 2007.

I've only seen a few posts about Windows 11 and ECMLink. That's why I'm thinking I need an older computer. Only $40 for a local XP laptop. I'm at that point where it's worth a shot

 

[SixBolt_16G]

Hmm...I use an old macbook so im no help but

Hey @shshfbdicn, I know you recently set it up on a new windows 11 machine. Did you have any other issues getting it to work other than the download portion?

 

[TJCTalon]

Have you happened to try different USB ports on your computer? My 98 wont connect on one port, but that same port it will connect on my 97. Just an idea.

 

[We're on Boost]

I checked just now to see how the data cable all by itself (not in the car) shows up in Windows 10 Device Manager when you plug the USB end of it into a computer. I think Win11 would be the same.
It shows up in 2 places. Under USB Controllers, as a USB Serial Converter. And under Ports, as a USB Serial Port (COM5).
This is on my Windows 10 desktop computer. I also tried it on my Windows XP laptop that I use for logging and got the same 2 things added in Device Manager.

Here's screenshots from the Win10 computer. I got the same result here no matter whether I plugged into a USB 2.0 or a USB 3.0 on the computer.

Device Manager with the data cable plugged into the computer:

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Device Manager after unplugging the data cable from the computer:

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I haven't looked at this yet in the car with the ignition turned on, etc.
These tests above were done in my living room with the other end of the data cable not connected to anything.
I think it's a good thing to check.

 

[Malrun]

I checked just now to see how the data cable all by itself (not in the car) shows up in Windows 10 Device Manager when you plug the USB end of it into a computer. I think Win11 would be the same.
It shows up in 2 places. Under USB Controllers, as a USB Serial Converter. And under Ports, as a USB Serial Port (COM5).
This is on my Windows 10 desktop computer. I also tried it on my Windows XP laptop that I use for logging and got the same 2 things added in Device Manager.

That's what I'm experiencing, for the past 2 hours after you wrote that, I've been in powershell and other stuff trying to get it my coms to match. usbedit has it listed at Com3 and the pc device manager is at com5. Apparently they did away with editing the ports windows 11. Still cant get it with admin commands.

 

[We're on Boost]

That's what I'm experiencing, for the past 2 hours after you wrote that, I've been in powershell and other stuff trying to get it my coms to match. usbedit has it listed at Com3 and the pc device manager is at com5. Apparently they did away with editing the ports windows 11. Still cant get it with admin commands.

Well darn, I don't know what usbedit is and can't find it anywhere. Is that a command in Powershell?
But it sounds like that mismatch might be the problem.

I looked a little more at what you can see from Device Manager.
The property "Is connected" would be good to look at.
It's from USB Serial Converter, rt click properties, Details. Then look at the long list of properties you can see. When I pick the property "Is connected" I get "true" for an answer.

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I also looked more at what you can see from a rt click properties on the USB Serial Port (COM5).
Port Settings. Advanced. And there's a long list of ports you can drop down there but I don't think it's for taking care of any mismatch.

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[JG63]

I bought a cheapo small laptop for ECMlink a couple of months ago. It is running Windows 11 home. I plugged it in and it worked the first time. 1g ECU / Cord.

Tomorrow I will see what shows up in my device manager.

 

[Malrun]

Well darn, I don't know what usbedit is and can't find it anywhere. Is that a command in Powershell?

https://www.ecmtuning.com/wiki/usb2comport Above the first image is the download for USB Edit. It shows the location of your ports and you force the computer to use the driver to whatever ports you set them in regedit.


I had an alienware setting around and this one is allowing me to change port settings. The other laptop did not. The connection is at True. I'm going to mess with this one a little bit while parts for the old laptop arive.

 

[We're on Boost]

I googled "how many COM ports does Windows 11 have" and looked through the results. Holy cow what a bunch of stuff. There might be something in there that would help. But I think if that XP laptop is still available it would be worth the $40 just to see what happens. Might learn something. If it doesn't work either then most likely the problem is not computer at all, it's somewhere else.

 

[Malrun]

That's where I'm afraid it could be the ecm. Nothing standing out that it's messed up. The car runs on its own, not the best but it does. The chance of the cord being messed up is highly unlikely. The previous owner shipped me on from ECMTuning.

 

[We're on Boost]

Oh I see you posted at the same time I did, about.

I had an alienware setting around and this one is allowing me to change port settings. The other laptop did not. The connection is at True. I'm going to mess with this one a little bit while parts for the old laptop arive.

So just to understand what you are saying here:
The "other" laptop is the Win11 laptop we were puzzling over at the start of the thread?
The alienware is a different laptop and it is allowing you to change port settings?
Is it also Win11?
The connection is "True" in which laptop?
And the "old" laptop, you haven't tried it yet?

 

[We're on Boost]

That's where I'm afraid it could be the ecm. Nothing standing out that it's messed up. The car runs on its own, not the best but it does. The chance of the cord being messed up is highly unlikely. The previous owner shipped me on from ECMTuning.

I wonder if you can still read codes the old basic way, if you pull the data cable out of the OBD port so you can get at the OBD port with a volt meter? Counting the pulses like this:

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I don't mean so much to be looking for any particular fault, I just mean, is the OBD port actually working? Is it getting signal from the ecu? I'm not sure but I think this is supposed to still work on an ECMlink ecu.

 

[JG63]

Great Suggestions so far. For reference here is what my Device Manager and ECMlink settings look like on Windows 11.

Can you confirm on your "Connection Settings" in ECMlink they look like the picture below? Like 1g/2g is selected etc.

Also I wonder if Configure Ports would help on ECMlink Connection Settings.

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[dwb]

You shouldn't have to manually modify any port settings in win11. I'd set everything back if you changed anything.
Do other USB devices work in this computer? Is it managed by a domain or mdm where some USB functions could be disabled? Maybe check the event log for clues and disable any anti-virus application.

Also do you see a 5 second CEL when you start the car?

 

[Malrun]

You shouldn't have to manually modify any port settings in win11. I'd set everything back if you changed anything.
Do other USB devices work in this computer? Is it managed by a domain or mdm where some USB functions could be disabled? Maybe check the event log for clues and disable any anti-virus application.

Also do you see a 5 second CEL when you start the car?

Yes, I see the 5sec cel and Boost Gauge goes to 0. I'll check the USB functions