ebay consult cable...

Seriously worth every cent of the $30 I paid, got it yesterday and finally got to fix my slow idle, love some of the free software, although it's getting harder to find now, overall though it seems a fantastic bit of diagnostic gear to have around.

how can i get one?

Keep in mind I'm a cheap bastard, but cheapest possible obd consult interface on ebay...
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1//1?icep_ff3=2&toolid=10001&campid=5337873294&icep_item=18051089639

Oh and my laptop only has usb so I needed a serial to usb, also cheapest I could find on ebay...
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1//1?icep_ff3=2&toolid=10001&campid=5337873294&icep_item=25051217271

Free software is harder to find, it's all outdated now, I'm still going though some of it, a couple have some nice virtual dash functions and other stuff I have yet to try.

where did u get the software for the screen shot above?

That would be ConZult (free version), which comes on a disk with the cable/interface I linked to, or I just did a quick round up of what is still around and free...

Conzult
http://300zx-twinturbo.com/conzult/downloads.htm

ECUTalk
http://www.ecutalk.com/ecutalk.aspx

TECU
http://eccs.hybridka.com/viewtopic.php?t=263

ZControl/ZTalk/SRTalk
http://www.zcontrol.net/

Out of those, ECUTalk has a nice looking virtual dashboard, the Z programs do logging, and TECU looks like it has all sorts of nice features, but I have not used any a great deal yet.

wow... This is great mate! I think I'll get one too...

btw, is it possible to calculate the fuel consumption from the data??

Don't know about fuel consumption, I think higher end engine management from the higher spec Nissan cars do calculate it from things like injector pulse etc, but on a Micra I doubt it has the ability.

Some of the software does have the virtual gauges for L/100km and distance etc, but I'm not sure if it's the software able to calculate it, or if it's just looking for that signal from the ECU, first guess is it's just looking for that function already in the ECU.

I didn't except Micra's ECU would have the info, was just thinking that we might be able to calculate the consumption from rpm and injectors' injection rate...

Anyway I've already purchased one. I think I'll be very happy with it even I can't get the consumption rate. =]

You won't. At least, not in the clean-cut, gives-all-the-info-to-you-on-a-silver-platter kind of way. The best you'll get from it is injector duty cycles if you're lucky and that's still probably good enough to give you an indication of how you can change your driving style to become a bit more fuel-efficient. I remember a post of Yom's from years ago discussing this..

Edit: Quite a few threads on the issue but there's this one that covers it a little.

---dens

This is what I've used before on K11 & others (U13, P10, N14 etc)
http://www.plmsdevelopments.com/consult_if.shtml
http://www.nissandatascan.com/
You can display & record injector duty cycle.
I know I've posted on this before, some years ago, on a laptop running win98 via a serial port and when a 600MHz processor was fast.
Like it says, mature software but then the K11 computer is 20 year old tech too. (Yes I know the K11 was first produced in 1992 but the computer is more or less the same as other nissans from 1990 onwards, maybe 1989 in the U12 but I'd need to google it.)

Some of those cables and software are asking a bit much for a car 15+ years old car, worth very little, so it's a bit rich, but then they are catering more to the Z car and Skyline market I guess.

Heads up to anyone who bought the stuff I did, if your like me you may want an USB extension for it, guess I'll hit ebay again for one, I want to be able to put my laptop on the passenger seat for logging, stock cable on that Serial to USB I got is shorter than it looks.

Oh and yeah you don't need a heap of PC power to run the consult stuff, my laptop is an old Acer C100 Tablet, with a huge 800mhz of pure power...

lol... i'll sell you my 1000mhz one if you want lol

yep just bought one!!

dont think i will need one with the Autronic but would be a good investment if i was not putting that in.

u won't need one sik - autronic has it's own data cable

That's ok - I think he just likes letting us know he's getting/got the aftermarket managementz yo.

---dens

I've received both the Consult and the usb adapter today. But I'm having trouble with both of them...

First the consult, when I plug it into my car, the "light-on" warning buzzer sounds as soon as I insert my key, the sound won't stop until I turn it to "on". Even after I removed the consult the sound still won't go away, whenever I have to key in the ignition, the buzzer sounds until either I take the key out or turn the key to "on" position
How can I disable that??

Second the usb adapter, my notebook doesn't recognize the cable at all, I've tried to install the drivers, connect with the consult but not to the car, and have the consult connected to the car and the light on the consult is flashing.. My notebook have no response just like nothing has been plugged into the usb port.
Any help about this??

Thanks,
Wilson

Warning buzzer is strange.
I've had trouble with USB-serial adaptors before with other types of serial communication devices.
Try another laptop or computer & see if the USB works in that.
Try a computer with a real serial port.

No idea about the buzzer, considering it's just linked to the park/head light warning, I'm clueless as to how the obd port could trigger it, the systems should not be linked in any way.

As to the usb to serial, yeah you really need to search the supplied drivers cd to find the right drivers, without the right driver installed it just won't work, it took me a bit to find the right driver, can't remember now though which I used.

But, I do know the right driver did not auto install or even auto find, so you do have to find and install it before anything will work, but when the right is installed it will recognize the usb to serial and you can find options to select what com it will use.

Do I need to have the consult connected to the car to know if I've got the right driver? Or the PC will simply show "new hardware found"??

I'm trying to disconnect the battery for the night and hopefully the buzzer problem can be disabled..

No, the cable 'is' a device as such, the consult is not, your computer needs to recognize the usb to serial, then the consult just acts as a direct reader of the cars computer.

And at some point plugging in the usb to serial the laptop should have found new hardware, but like I said the drivers supplied won't install automatically, you do need to find and install those before it works properly.

All that you can do away from the car, and once the pc is recognizing the usb you should be able to then configure what com port it will use, which will then be needed in the program you use to communicate with the cars computer though the consult.

hello
bishop-any luck with the software-I did order one-and I download some software which I do not have to pay it was a bit diffecult to find it without Viruses emailme PM-thanks-we want to share the experiance-if you want

Frank my friend this is for you as well -thanks lads

the problem with going with the cheapo chinese rs232 one (instead of ecutalk/plms/blazt USB) is the USB/RS232 (and the bulky interface itself that sticks out the consult port...not so much an issue if u dont need to drive with it in). the rs232/usb you've bought isnt good, even if you get drivers working, depending on your laptop it will randomy blue screen (ive used that specific one, 10 bluescreen/reboots later i paid the $$$ for an FTDI one).

of all the ones ive used, only FTDI chip based ones work well. these are the chips used in the ecutalk/plms/blazt USB consult cables, and not be coincidence, but because most others are rubbish.

and you can expect to pay a lot more than $2.82 for a usb/rs232 with FTDI chip. once you get a FTDI one, you're probably only $25-30 away from cost of ECUTalk cable (so still cheaper).

as for fuel consumption, ECUTalk will do that, but you need to enter number of cylinders and injector CC size.