How to make your non branded OBD cable work!

[ben_keene]

I just bought a non branded USB OBDII cable from Ebay and thought it would be a case of just plug it into my laptop and away I go. It is NOT the case! Firstly, unless it is a branded cable supplied with a suitable driver VAG-COM will not 'see' it regardless of the version you are using. To overcome this (providing you are using Windows XP) I simply plugged the USB connector into the laptop (the other end doesn't need to be plugged into the car at this point) and allowed Windows to install the standard USB-Serial driver.

Once this was done I tried the VAG-COM again, opened the program, went to Options, selected USB and clicked test. Still was not 'seeing' the cable!!

I then went into the Control Panel, went to System, and clicked on the Hardware tab, and selected Device Manager. Once the new window opened I found my cable under the Ports section, and right clicked on it and selected Properties. Once in there, I simply changed the COM port it was using to one between 1 and 4 (that wasn't already in use) and saved the settings.

I then reopened VAG-COM and in the Options tab selected the COM port I had adjusted my cable to and hit the Test button - hey presto - it worked!

Hope this helps any of you who have had trouble - or think that you may need a separate driver for your third party cable. I dont think I explained it very well but if you need any clarification, please PM me.

Cheers peeps - have fun messing around with the guts of your cars - and remember - dont accidentally turn the airbags off!

[Soapsuds]

[ QUOTE ]

I just bought a non branded USB OBDII cable from Ebay and thought it would be a case of just plug it into my laptop and away I go. It is NOT the case! Firstly, unless it is a branded cable supplied with a suitable driver VAG-COM will not 'see' it regardless of the version you are using. To overcome this (providing you are using Windows XP) I simply plugged the USB connector into the laptop (the other end doesn't need to be plugged into the car at this point) and allowed Windows to install the standard USB-Serial driver.

Once this was done I tried the VAG-COM again, opened the program, went to Options, selected USB and clicked test. Still was not 'seeing' the cable!!

I then went into the Control Panel, went to System, and clicked on the Hardware tab, and selected Device Manager. Once the new window opened I found my cable under the Ports section, and right clicked on it and selected Properties. Once in there, I simply changed the COM port it was using to one between 1 and 4 (that wasn't already in use) and saved the settings.

I then reopened VAG-COM and in the Options tab selected the COM port I had adjusted my cable to and hit the Test button - hey presto - it worked!

Hope this helps any of you who have had trouble - or think that you may need a separate driver for your third party cable. I dont think I explained it very well but if you need any clarification, please PM me.

Cheers peeps - have fun messing around with the guts of your cars - and remember - dont accidentally turn the airbags off!

[/ QUOTE ]

can you run the 'full' latest version of vag-com then with this??

If so, where did you get your cable / software from and what was the total cost?? I am looking at getting vag-com v. soon.

Cheers

[ben_keene]

As far as the VAG-COM software is concerned, I have not 'cracked' it - ie, I can only use the diagnostics not actually change any settings. (Though the software is easily changed to 'registered' status to allow this - though remember it is not legal to perform such actions without proper licencing etc - speech out of the way!)

I am currently using version 409.1 but the cable is backwardly compatible with older versions. The newer version - 512.4 is a version I have not tried since my car is older, and for me - unnecessary.

The cable I purchased on Ebay is this one: Item Number - 8045034751.

I donwloaded the VAG-COM from Ross Tech - this is the direct link to the correct download for the cable I bought -

http://www.ross-tech.net/vag-com/download/1504/Release4091us.exe

As far as cost is concerned - the cable was around £20, and the software was free (for the shareware version). For this I can now diagnose problems and get fault codes BEFORE it goes to the garage, so for example in the future, I wont have to pay someone else to find out whats wrong with my car, I will already know, and simply get them to fix it! I use this software in parallel to the ElsaWin software which I also have to help me interpret fault codes, and fixes specific to any Audi/ VW.

Hope this helps... good hunting!

[Mitchet]

Ben, I bought one of those cables from e-cafe about a month ago, and couldn't get it to work when it arrived. I found that it would only work when you go into the options on VAG-COM and choose 'Force Dumb Mode'. Like you say though, you can only view faults and not change any settings.

As for the seller e-cafe, I emailed him about the cable issues 3 times, and haven't heard anything back. I certainly wouldn't buy from him again. I haven't left feedback for him yet, but it's likely to be neutral or negative (though I've never had to leave bad feedback for anyone yet!).

I'm still waiting for my other cable back (currently in Germany) after it went about nuts!

It works just like the Ross-Tech ones and can be used with the latest version... it just keeps breaking unfortunately. If it does it again, I'm off to Ross-Tech!!

[the911sc]

The ebay cables are only 'dumb' cables and use opto isolators in the connection so will only run 3.11 or at best 4.19 of vag com. Running these will only allow you to do a certain amount of interrogation of the modules on the car and modules such as the RNS-E require the full HEX-CAN cable which is tres expensive.