Thread: Problem with ELM327 interface

Originally Posted by dupa2

open the box and find out what is USB-serial chip. Most of them use FTDI, if that's the case, download generic driver from ftdi website, and it should work.
If the chip is different, just make a note of details from every chip, and post it here.

I talked to the distributor - turns out they are just 100 miles away.

Anyway, after I told him all of the problems I had, he decided the unit was bad and has already shipped out a replacement and it should be here Monday. He said they had some problems with the Prolific 2303 serial->USB chips they were using and have since switched to the FTDI chips. I paid $49 for my unit and they are now up over $100, which I'm guessing is because of the change in these chips.

I'll post back with my results.

Ok, I got the replacement interface today. Installed the drivers and both XP and Vista now show the device in Ports as a USB Sedrial Port (COM4) and under USB Controllers as a USB Serial Converter. So far so good.

First I tried ProScan 5.2 and it says the device is not responding on COM4. I made sure the comm settings in the device manager and ProScan match each other. No love.

Basically the same results with EasyOBD. No response from the interface on COM4.

I installed the demo version of pcmscan and it finds and talks to the interface on COM4. I can connect to two different vehicles but the only sensor showing data response is the RPM. The log shows it connects to the vehicle and retrieves the VIN, so this part is also working. I checked all of the PIDs boxes in the and reconnected but still nothing but RPM. I don't know if this is because it's not the full version, but if I could get results from Proscan and EasyOBD, I wouldn't think much of it.

I tried using a terminal program to talk to the interface and I can open the port, but I don't know what commands I should send and what the results should be.

Any help is appreciated.
Thanks!