Turbolink and USB

[1quick6]

Does anyone know if I can use TurboLink if my notebook only has a USB interface? I know you can get a USB to parallel converter, but will TurboLink be able to use that?

This is an example of a converter.
http://www.ebusinesscables.com/usb_to_parallel_converter.htm

 

[6SENSE]

Yes, you can. I am using one. In fact I became the test dummy for the thing just before TLink 3.0 came out. Give Ken a call at Accelerated Tech. He sells a convertor that is known to work. I had trouble when testing certain brands. Also make sure you have the newest version of TLink (3.0.2, I think). They made an adjustment through our testing to make sure they can accomodate us guys with the newer laptops. USB is becoming the way to go in the idustry, so eventually the way we have to hook it up may be the mainstream.

 

[1quick6]

Yep, Ken confirmed that he has a converter that will work for me. Apparently, version 4.0 uses a serial port, so he has a converter to go from serial to USB. Now I just have to upgrade my verison 2.11 to 4.0.

Thanks.

 

[kenmosher]

What we've learned is that there about 3 major chip types used in USB converters ... and none of them are very good!

We've found a couple of brands that work fine with the slower baud rate of the C3 cars (like the TRs), but don't work at all with the P4 cars (like the F-bodies and Vettes).

We got a handful of those for folks, since we've tested them.

We found the Cablemax and a "no name" USB converter that works fine with the P4s, but not the C3s (wierd!). We've tested them (and given away the couple samples we bought). We don't have a good source for these, so we just point people to the web site for them.

We're still looking for the "perfect" converter .. and we're investigating how hard it would be to just put USB on our board.

 

[S10xGN]

Good points! I'm looking for a new laptop and leaning toward the Sony VAIO series which do not have serial ports. The only other machine close to the Sony's is a Toshiba 6100, which is a little cheaper and does have a serial. I sure like the Sony's display though...

 

[1quick6]

I have a Sony Vaio widescreen notebook. The thing is so small that there are no parallel or serial ports. It only has one USB interface. I am using an old one from work when I need TL, but I do want to upgrade to TL 4.0 soon.

 

[blackbuick87]

I have ver3.0 and use a USB interface and it works fine. I had a few problems getting the stupid Radio Shack drivers installed but its all good now.

Ken have you tried the faster USB 2.0 ports?

 

[kenmosher]

Yep ... they all seem to be "backwards" compatible to USB 1.x, so it's more dependent on the USB device used.

BTW, there are some pretty crappy USB/serial adapters out there ...

HOWEVER, we are right now testing a major driver code change that seems to get around some of the "tricks" they play. We've now been able to test with the Belkin F5U103 adapter successfully (we couldn't before) at both P4 and C3 line speeds.

We have another unit (a Delou) that seems very promising and a lot less bulky than the Belkin.

When we do some more testing, we'll post on the TurboLink Discussion Group a list of tested and "approved" adapters (and a list of ones we know don't work no matter what).

We've found three major chip sets are used:
1. One set doesn't work at all with P4s since we can't get it to properly support the baud rate. Nothing we can do with these, since it's in the firmware.
2. One set does some wierd things at the oversampling rate that we use to talk to the C3 ECMs, but the code we are testing has found a way to compensate for that. It works fine at P4 speeds.
3. One set works great at the C3 speeds, but does some funky buffer handling at the P4 speeds. Again, the code patch seems to get around this.

SO... we hope to be supporting a pretty large list of adapters pretty soon. If you have one you want tested, contact us at sale@appAuto.com and we'll see what we need to do.

Thanks!

 

[S10xGN]

Ken,

I just got a Compaq Presario 3045US with XP and no serial port. Do you have a suggestion as to what USB cable I should try?

TIA!

 

[kenmosher]

We've found that the "Purple Computing" model works fine. Some of the Belkin models work and we have a couple of "no name" generic ones that work.

We also have a "Deluo" that seems to work OK (at least at the C3 speeds).

The dual port one from Cablemax seems to be working on both C3s and P4s, but it's a bit pricey (about $40).

We're trying to test as many as we can to get a list.

I want to come up with ONE that is "recommended" and tested, but we haven't got there yet.

 

[S10xGN]

Thanks, Ken!

I'm sure you'll be keeping us posted on this situation. In the meantime, I'll reformat my old laptop and just install 98SE, T-Link 2.13 and 4.0x. Deleting all the accumulated junk ought to pep it up a little...

 

[blackbuick87]

Russ if your laptop is like mine make sure whatever serial cable you get comes with a CD for install. Being a dumbass, I bought mine at Radio Shack, rip it open, and realize it has a floppy disk for installation. One problem, NO FLOPPY DRIVE

I had to waste a cd and burn it to that on my buddy's computer

It does work fine now though

 

[S10xGN]

Bob,

What OS are you using? I'm making the "big trek" to XP and have found it has drivers for just about anything I can throw at it. In fact, the only piece that's suffered so far is a 10 year old Canon scanner, but I got it to work, too! My digital camera is unsupported, but XP had a native driver for it and all is well there too.

 

[blackbuick87]

I have XP, the Home version. Unfortunately it did not have a driver for my USB cable, thus I had to copy the driver to a CD. Not a big deal, it just meant I had to drive to my buddies house.