that I guess is partially true, after your good at something you kinda forget how Not so easily done for a beginner. But I still say its really not that hard especially with beginners with no electrical experience moding their X-boxes, building their own computers ect.. making a cable is not by any means that much more difficult.

 

More than 30 discrete electronic components is not a cable. That is why I posted the PCB layout... if i were to build one to my over-engineered specs - it would cost close to what colby charges.

Do the community a favor. Design a simplified logging/flashing cable then release the design like colby does so everyone can build one on the cheap.

 

It's not just a cable- there is an IC in there that does translation from USB->RS232 communications as well as others. At least for the Subaru, the circuitry has to allow communications that windows will normally not allow over a normal serial port. There are considerations for components (opto-isolators aren't fast enough for some applications, etc). There is a lot of design and R&D that went into the cable/circuitry design, let alone time to reverse engineering the flashing protocols for the ECU and what would be needed to support them, hardware-wise.

 

Not to mention that is the design just to LOG not even flash. Still missing the white connector. Dont be so cheap, $90 is cheap to have the ability to tune and log your car infinite times.

 

ya we are not talking hundreds of dollars here. but $50.00 to me is a big enough amount to try to save. doing things yourself is fun and you get to learn something in the process. Plus what if you break the cable, or loose it. now you got to spend another $100 bucks. Fawk that, just make another one
what if you got 2 vehicles, I dont wanna buy 2 different cables, Just make 1 to work on both
some of us like to install our own stereo system, and others pay someone to do it.

 

Like i said - put your money where your mouth is and make a cable, its a great learning experience. I'm going to build my own, because I am obsessed with electronics, and i already paid colby for one of his cables.

but for anyone wanting to build their own - you either need to use the tactrix design, or if you build your own design and want it to be software compatible with a tactrix cable, you're going to have to use an FTDI USB converter, especially if you want flashing capability. Colby has specified how the tactrix signals RS232 convert to ISO J1962 in a thread - so you can even use that to build your own cable without using his copyrighted design.


build away!