Nissan Consult cables

hannibal · 02-23-2006, 02:50 PM

Most Consult cables Ive seen have a little PCB between the RS232 plug and the Consult plug like this one:

Then I ran into this one:

Its sold by Blazt.biz and its virtually a straight thru cable with no PCB or anything. Has anyone used this cable? I just dont see how it could work.

Vorex · 02-23-2006, 02:56 PM

alot of that board in the top picture is wasted space...

inside of the serial connector with the blazt.biz cable...

I personally haven't used either one, but am also looking at purchasing one...so anyone who has please chime in

whimz240 · 03-21-2006, 08:14 AM

Hey I just came across the same item at this web site www.blazt.biz/us . It appears they now have a USB cable as well...and just as small. Anyone use it? Why would USB be better??

ikon240 · 03-21-2006, 12:59 PM

well i just ordered one, so I will report back when i get it and have the chance to play with it. I am hoping that the cable will work with a free OS X version of Conzult that I found (*crosses fingers*). In case that fails, i bought the whole package with the PC based software.

ShawJohn · 03-21-2006, 01:10 PM

I use the same cable but got mine PMSL developements... There is in indeed a circuit inside the plug.

I wouldn't bother with the USB ones as the USB-Serial converters aren't very reliable and may also cause resume issues... Bog standard Serial is way more reliable. And no issues with port numbers changing etc... Unless you use a Mac ofcourse (don't they only have USB). Then I think you may struggle with software though

I wouldn't swap mine for anything

Cost me about £45 delivered from Aus. IIRC.

Im currently testing the latest Beta of Nissan Datascan 1.5b too

Pushing Tom the developer to make the app more CarPC orientated as it was originally designed for Laptop style temporary diagnostics, not for being on all the time on a CarPC with a 7" screen. I've asked him also to look at either making it skinnable, or making an SDK... Watch this space

hannibal · 03-21-2006, 02:45 PM

I'd stay away from the USB. That may be worth it for someone using a laptop, but if your planning a permanant (carPC) installation, serial is probably a better solution.

I found a guy on a forum that was building and selling these. Unfortunately, my car was totalled at the beginning of the month, so I'm back to square one...

ShawJohn · 03-21-2006, 02:56 PM

You can DL the schematics but by the time you've sourced all the parts and made your Heath Robinson cock up, all to save £20, you might end up with something that works or doesn't work, or WORSE - ****s up your ECU or PC.

Buy the cable and support the guys who are writing the software and doing all the dev work.

Don't be a tight wad

ShawJohn · 03-21-2006, 02:57 PM

And as has been said, I'll say it again - STICK WITH SERIAL not USB

ikon240 · 03-27-2006, 07:58 PM

So AFTER my last post can you guess which one I ordered? Yup, the USB one. Works great with the datascan software i got with it for the pc. But consultan doesn't seem to work with the USB cable version... ie it's message at startup is: no available serial ports detected. has anyone else played with these cables with Consultan for OS X? Can I install a serial port somehow that uses the usb connection?

Consultan here: http://members.cox.net/~epooch/consultan/

USB Cable here: http://www.blazt.biz/

Zac · 03-28-2006, 12:00 AM

ikon - completely wild guess but it's possible that consultan is only looking at say com1-2 for the consult cable and the usb serial conv gets set at whatevers avail (ex the last usb->serial i plugged in got assigned com11 because i had so many drivers installed)

if consultan only seems to check the first few then see if there's a way you can change the com port #

ikon240 · 03-28-2006, 10:24 AM

that was on a pc tho right? I am not sure where the equivalent settings are on a mac. can anyone help me out?

noodles · 03-28-2006, 11:01 PM

If the software doesn't have USB com port functionality built in... you may be able to "make" a virtual serial port by using something like this:

http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

iamgnat · 03-29-2006, 08:44 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Zac

ikon - completely wild guess but it's possible that consultan is only looking at say com1-2 for the consult cable and the usb serial conv gets set at whatevers avail (ex the last usb->serial i plugged in got assigned com11 because i had so many drivers installed)

if consultan only seems to check the first few then see if there's a way you can change the com port #

Macs (with OSX) don't work quite the same way. There are no COM ports like in windows. What you have instead is serial ports and their names are arbitrary based on the driver software.

You need to find out whose USB -> Serial chip they are using and see if that chip MFG offers a Mac driver. FTDI (linked by noodles) is a great company, they actually even have a Beta Intel Mac driver they'll send you if you ask.

If they will let you return it, I would recommend getting the serial version and then pick up a known Mac compatiable USB -> Serial adapter (keyspan, iogear, etc...) to use with it as that would be the easiest.

EDIT:
Ok I took a look at the website. They give you an EXE file named CP2101_Drivers for the drivers for it. That is for the CP2101 chipset which is made by http://www.silabs.com. They do have Mac OSX drivers (and linux too), but the last time I looked into them they burried them in the Windows EXE file that is an installer rather than a self extracting ZIP file

Check their website, or install the EXE on a PC and then look for the OSX drivers there.

-dave

Bugbyte · 03-29-2006, 07:52 PM

If I understand properly, the serial port on OSX is actually just a file in the /dev/tty folder. When you select your serial port, you are actually just connecting to that file. The driver is what gives the file it's name and puts the information there. Not sure how it works when you write to the port, but it does.

You also have to enable the port in your networking control panel. I notice that the ports aren't available unless you have a serial device plugged in.

ikon240 · 03-29-2006, 08:10 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by iamgnat

Macs (with OSX) don't work quite the same way. There are no COM ports like in windows. What you have instead is serial ports and their names are arbitrary based on the driver software.

You need to find out whose USB -> Serial chip they are using and see if that chip MFG offers a Mac driver. FTDI (linked by noodles) is a great company, they actually even have a Beta Intel Mac driver they'll send you if you ask.

If they will let you return it, I would recommend getting the serial version and then pick up a known Mac compatiable USB -> Serial adapter (keyspan, iogear, etc...) to use with it as that would be the easiest.

EDIT:
Ok I took a look at the website. They give you an EXE file named CP2101_Drivers for the drivers for it. That is for the CP2101 chipset which is made by http://www.silabs.com. They do have Mac OSX drivers (and linux too), but the last time I looked into them they burried them in the Windows EXE file that is an installer rather than a self extracting ZIP file

Check their website, or install the EXE on a PC and then look for the OSX drivers there.

-dave

here is the file: