How to trouble shoot your AEM Uego output cable.
Jul 14, 2009, 10:16 AM
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How to trouble shoot your AEM Uego output cable.
Since this guide I threw together was helpful for a couple guys in another thread, I thought it would be best to get it stickied. Hopfully this will help you guys that are in need of getting your gauge to output and log into your computer for either evoscan or mitsulogger. Enjoy.
Basically, you need to check EVERY part of your connection. Start from the beginning obviously and work your way to the serial -> usb...
Ok first. Make sure you have your gauge on. Keep it on while you are testing instead of turning it on and off. You will avoid testing stuff without your gauge on and getting super confused. Anyways, you need to check and see if your gauge is outputting the proper voltage. 15.0afr = roughly 2.30 volts. Ok, so your gauge is outputting signal? Cool. Thats a start.
Now after you connect your female serial adapter you need to check your voltage again. This will verify that you did indeed solder correctly and to the CORRECT PINS. If you are looking at the female serial adapter from the FRONT the pinage shown in the AEM manual IS 100% CORRECT.
( If you are hard wiring a cut cable like I did myself. The pinout colors that you will need are BROWN = DATA and your YELLOW = GROUND ) If you just soldered the pins and made a cable then thats great.
Moving on.... Now since we made a connection between our gauge output wiring and the ground we need to test this and make sure this is working correctly. The best way to test this is to go ahead and make sure your ground and your data connection are in place. For testing the adapter I took a piece of wire and inserted in into the hole. This gives you a lead that you can touch for the connection without damaging your cable or whatever. Are you getting a voltage reading the same as the output when we first started testing? If your answer is yes, then you can move on and start testing to make sure your serial to usb adapter is good. If not, READ ON.
Ok, so you're testing your connection right? No signal, or is it jumbled?
If you are getting NO SIGNAL then you either did not do your soldering correct, OR you have a bad ground. For me, this was the case after countless hours of debate and checking and rechecking. A bad ground or improper ground will lead to signal loss or total loss where you will not even see anything. You are going to need to check and see where you can ground your cable. To help you from spending 30m-2hrs to find a ground, I grounded mine into my engine bay. Just run a cable up through your firewall on the right side of the car and ground it to a bolt that touches the frame. I found this to be the best ground for me. This might vary, but I highly doubt that. Test your ground by checking your connection either through the computer of through your voltage meter. Its much easier with the meter I will assure you. Get this set and you should be golden.
If you are getting JUMBLED SIGNAL, then you need to actually go over your ground and make sure that your connection is not loose or something is touching, etc... Once you see that your ground is just fine check and see if you have any other gauges that are sharing the same ground. This is actually where I ran into an issue because my AVCR and my DEFI electronics were actually putting some "noise" back into the ground and giving my readout a jumbled or less than ideal read out. As I said above, I moved my ground into the engine bay to something that is touching a frame.
OK, so you STILL aren't getting signal?
Well, now we need to actually DISCONNECT your ground. The reason for this is because your ground is more than likely messing up your connection and not letting the signal pass through. Test your DATA connection again and see what you get. You should get a signal passing through your adapter unless you have either soldered it wrong or made a bad connection.
OK, so you got a signal through your cable and adapter but you aren't getting anything on the computer?
You need to really read and make sure you DO NOT PLUG IN THE CABLE BEFORE YOU INSTALL DRIVERS. This is critical, with Windows, this will possibly mess up your install and you will need to reboot your machine and retry the driver install. Install your drivers from your CD or the net depending where you got them. Hopefully your drivers install properly. If they do, then you need to REBOOT your machine. Once it gets back up and running and you have installed your drivers, plug in your cable. Windows should detect the device and a bubble will pop up down in the bottom right corner. It should end up saying the brand and model of the cable thats connected, and finish with saying, "your device is installed and working properly" or something to that effect.
OK so your device is installed and the computer "dings" when its plugged in? COOL. This means at least your computer and your serial to usb connection are talking. Now we just need to get the last part going.
Ok, tired of reading? I'm sorry, its complicated. Don't worry you are almost done... Sort of...
Ok, so let's pray that your cable and your serial cable work together and play nice. Obviously from this point on if your stuff works then pat yourself on the back. =D
IF IT DOESNT STILL READ.... read on... Ok, so your cable from your gauge with the female end on it is putting out signal? Ok good. Now, your serial to usb cable is recognized and working properly with your system? Good.
The best way to test and see if you are having a problem with your connector is a ghetto one at that. Remember the piece of wire we used to test the connection? We are going to actually use a "test wire" with 2 exposed ends to test our data connection and make sure the ground is STILL not the problem. To be honest, if you tested your ground properly there is a small chance that you are reading this to figure out your problem. Anyways, you will be inserting that piece of wire into the DATA CONNECTION wire port on that female adapter. Now take that test wire and touch it to that, or wrap it... whatever works for you. Now, we want to take this connection and bridge it to the serial to usb adapter to see if we can get signal through to the computer. You will need to touch the second pin from the left if you are looking at the male connector... If you get signal through to the computer then its your ground and you were lazy on the ground... No pat on the back.
IF YOU STILL GET NO SIGNAL after reading all this. Then its either going to be your serial to usb adapter is bad, which happens... It could be the driver software, and you need to uninstall and reinstall.
Basically, you need to check EVERY part of your connection. Start from the beginning obviously and work your way to the serial -> usb...
Ok first. Make sure you have your gauge on. Keep it on while you are testing instead of turning it on and off. You will avoid testing stuff without your gauge on and getting super confused. Anyways, you need to check and see if your gauge is outputting the proper voltage. 15.0afr = roughly 2.30 volts. Ok, so your gauge is outputting signal? Cool. Thats a start.
Now after you connect your female serial adapter you need to check your voltage again. This will verify that you did indeed solder correctly and to the CORRECT PINS. If you are looking at the female serial adapter from the FRONT the pinage shown in the AEM manual IS 100% CORRECT.
( If you are hard wiring a cut cable like I did myself. The pinout colors that you will need are BROWN = DATA and your YELLOW = GROUND ) If you just soldered the pins and made a cable then thats great.
Moving on.... Now since we made a connection between our gauge output wiring and the ground we need to test this and make sure this is working correctly. The best way to test this is to go ahead and make sure your ground and your data connection are in place. For testing the adapter I took a piece of wire and inserted in into the hole. This gives you a lead that you can touch for the connection without damaging your cable or whatever. Are you getting a voltage reading the same as the output when we first started testing? If your answer is yes, then you can move on and start testing to make sure your serial to usb adapter is good. If not, READ ON.
Ok, so you're testing your connection right? No signal, or is it jumbled?
If you are getting NO SIGNAL then you either did not do your soldering correct, OR you have a bad ground. For me, this was the case after countless hours of debate and checking and rechecking. A bad ground or improper ground will lead to signal loss or total loss where you will not even see anything. You are going to need to check and see where you can ground your cable. To help you from spending 30m-2hrs to find a ground, I grounded mine into my engine bay. Just run a cable up through your firewall on the right side of the car and ground it to a bolt that touches the frame. I found this to be the best ground for me. This might vary, but I highly doubt that. Test your ground by checking your connection either through the computer of through your voltage meter. Its much easier with the meter I will assure you. Get this set and you should be golden.
If you are getting JUMBLED SIGNAL, then you need to actually go over your ground and make sure that your connection is not loose or something is touching, etc... Once you see that your ground is just fine check and see if you have any other gauges that are sharing the same ground. This is actually where I ran into an issue because my AVCR and my DEFI electronics were actually putting some "noise" back into the ground and giving my readout a jumbled or less than ideal read out. As I said above, I moved my ground into the engine bay to something that is touching a frame.
OK, so you STILL aren't getting signal?
Well, now we need to actually DISCONNECT your ground. The reason for this is because your ground is more than likely messing up your connection and not letting the signal pass through. Test your DATA connection again and see what you get. You should get a signal passing through your adapter unless you have either soldered it wrong or made a bad connection.
OK, so you got a signal through your cable and adapter but you aren't getting anything on the computer?
You need to really read and make sure you DO NOT PLUG IN THE CABLE BEFORE YOU INSTALL DRIVERS. This is critical, with Windows, this will possibly mess up your install and you will need to reboot your machine and retry the driver install. Install your drivers from your CD or the net depending where you got them. Hopefully your drivers install properly. If they do, then you need to REBOOT your machine. Once it gets back up and running and you have installed your drivers, plug in your cable. Windows should detect the device and a bubble will pop up down in the bottom right corner. It should end up saying the brand and model of the cable thats connected, and finish with saying, "your device is installed and working properly" or something to that effect.
OK so your device is installed and the computer "dings" when its plugged in? COOL. This means at least your computer and your serial to usb connection are talking. Now we just need to get the last part going.
Ok, tired of reading? I'm sorry, its complicated. Don't worry you are almost done... Sort of...
Ok, so let's pray that your cable and your serial cable work together and play nice. Obviously from this point on if your stuff works then pat yourself on the back. =D
IF IT DOESNT STILL READ.... read on... Ok, so your cable from your gauge with the female end on it is putting out signal? Ok good. Now, your serial to usb cable is recognized and working properly with your system? Good.
The best way to test and see if you are having a problem with your connector is a ghetto one at that. Remember the piece of wire we used to test the connection? We are going to actually use a "test wire" with 2 exposed ends to test our data connection and make sure the ground is STILL not the problem. To be honest, if you tested your ground properly there is a small chance that you are reading this to figure out your problem. Anyways, you will be inserting that piece of wire into the DATA CONNECTION wire port on that female adapter. Now take that test wire and touch it to that, or wrap it... whatever works for you. Now, we want to take this connection and bridge it to the serial to usb adapter to see if we can get signal through to the computer. You will need to touch the second pin from the left if you are looking at the male connector... If you get signal through to the computer then its your ground and you were lazy on the ground... No pat on the back.
IF YOU STILL GET NO SIGNAL after reading all this. Then its either going to be your serial to usb adapter is bad, which happens... It could be the driver software, and you need to uninstall and reinstall.
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