VAG-COM Serial to USB

[pritesh]

I hope someone can help me with this one. I brought a VAG COM cable but after receliving it i realised that it had a Serial conection and I dont have a serial port on my laptop. So would this VAG COM Cable still work if i used a serial to USB converter?

If so would i then use the cable as if it were a USB cable? Please help...

[Eshrules]

I hope someone can help me with this one. I brought a VAG COM cable but after receliving it i realised that it had a Serial conection and I dont have a serial port on my laptop. So would this VAG COM Cable still work if i used a serial to USB converter?

If so would i then use the cable as if it were a USB cable? Please help...

im not sure... but i dont think so, because of the way serial and usb ports work in regards to the computer and the way the vagcom software is designed mate., wouldnt hurt to try though?

[pritesh]

I will try give it ago this weekend and see what happens.... logic says it should work as its just converting the connector from serial to USB and so it should act as a USB cable, lets see what happens

[joshuac]

I use a Serial converter USB to Com and works fine with VagCom + Serial Cable

regards
Joshuac

[onzarob]

The ebay type cables from ebay etc have a usb to serial converter built in to lead. so should work ok.

Ross-tech have ther own USB cable which works slightly differently and has the license file built into it.

[pritesh]

Excellent, Thanks guys for your quick replies, I'm pretty new to this forum but it sure is an excellent... i'm here to stay

[pritesh]

A Quick follow on question to this. Which ross tech software should i be using? the USB or Serial version?

[onzarob]

Are you using a genuine cable, if not then you have to use ver 409.1 and set the port to the serial port the coverter is using. If is a genuene usb cable then you use the latest version and set it to USB.

[pritesh]

It is a non-genuine cable i'm using. I have been told that the Serial to USB converter uses COM5 will this still work if i set the RossTech ver 409.1 to COM5? or is there a way that I can change the port the Serial to USB convert maps to?

[onzarob]

Once you plug your usb converter in it takes the next avaiable com port, it needs to be between com 1 to com 4. You can change this in windows device manager.

Find the Ports section and the usb serial port section, you can then go to properties and change the com port from com5.

I assume you are using Windows XP

[pritesh]

I have managed to connect the cable to my car. But it says that my car is not OBD-II or ISO compatable is this correct? I drive a VW Golf MK3 TDI 1996. Does anyone know if this is correct? I can only scan my engine and the Immobilizer but its showing no faults, should it be scanning more then this? Please help. What else can one do with this VAG COM cable?

[onzarob]

I wouldn't expect much more on a 1996 Golf, VAG com covers the whole VAG range remember.;)

[adamss24]

Does it has airbags or ABS ? If it has, then the cable/converter you are using does not support the baud rate necessary for a reliable comunication between the car and the PC. By the way, there are verry few electronic modules on older vw...

[pritesh]

I have managed to get the VAGCOM working now. I think once i know what i'm doing with the cable I may then invest in a USB cable but i just cant see myself checking the airbag for faults.
It think it would have been nice to get a few fault codes up so then i'd feel the thing is working but on the flip side its good to know there are no faults. I thought i would haev been able to reset the service light with the VAGCOm but i guess my car is too old for that kind of stuff.

[onzarob]

If you set the alarm off, say set it with the window down and open the door. it may log a code for you to read. or disconnect a temp sensor;)