I just got a logger cable which came with a couple of logger programs. However, I can't get either one of them to work right. I have Tunerstein and TechnoMotive software. Both of them appear to connect successfully. However, when I try to log with Tunerstein, Windows tells me that it has had a problem and cannot continue.

When I run TechnoMotive, I can click on the DRB2 button and see some info so it seems like it is talking to the ECU ok. I can click on the Collect Data button, set up everything that I want to log, and then click on the play button (which I assume is to start logging). But no data ever shows up in the graph. The axis of the graph show the items that I selected to be logged but I don't get anything.

I'm using this with my laptop. It is an Athlon XP 64, 512M RAM, Windows XP Home. It doesn't have any serial ports so I got a USB to serial cable that shows up as COM4. So, in both programs, I select COM4 when I connect.

What am I doing wrong?

I've read the USB to serial cable adapters can be touchy....they don't always work, you may have to try a different brand.
Did you get the cable of EBAY?? When I was researching getting a logger, there seems to be alot of shady cable manufacturers out there.

I ended up biting the bullet and just spending $150 and got the Pocketlogger. I haven't tried to get the cable to work with the laptop loggers.

Yeah, it's a cheapo off of eBay..both the logger cable and the USB to serial cable. $30 for all of it including shipping.

The seller claims that the logger will only work if the cable is attached directly to a serial port or with a serial to ps2 port converter. My laptop doesn't have a serial port or a ps2 port so that's not going to work for me. Plus, if the USB to serial cable does it's job, whatever is attached to it should see a serial port and not matter. That's my thinking anyway.

Has anyone been able to get a logger to work with a USB to serial cable?

I have a USB to serial cable that worked great on a 233MHz laptop but when putting it on a 733MHz I could not get anything but I/O errors out of it. I don't know if it has to do with newer hardware or what. I have never really heard of anyone being happy with a USB to serial converter. I think that a PCMCIA to serial is much more reliable but also more costly.

I borrowed my buddy's old laptop. It's an IBM thinkpad with a 166 or 233 MHz CPU and a serial port. I installed TechnoMotive on it and hooked it up to my car. If I click on the DRB2 button, I get what appears to be valid information. On my laptop, the info wasn't valid. It had unknown for a couple of entries under ECU info and the RPM varied from 125 to 4000 while I was idling at 750-800. With the old laptop, the ECU info said Mitsubishi 1993 (which is correct) and showed the RPM as 750-800 which is also correct.

So, I figured everything is looking good. I then tried to do some logging. I clicked on the Collect button and set up some things to log. I noticed in the bottom right corner that it said 57/s which, I assume, means that it is polling 57 times per second. When I click on the start logging button, the bottom right instantly changes from 57/s to Link Down. No data is logged. So, I click on stop logging and the rate changes to 2/s and shortly after that to 57/s. I click on start logging again and it goes to Link Down. I cannot get it to log.

Any ideas? Would a bad cable cause weird stuff like this?