Hodgdon Extreme Posted June 3, 2023 Report Share Posted June 3, 2023 PC connects to ECU and works flawlessly so long as I use the original included USB cable. But that isn't long enough to reach into the cabin. I've tried at least three different 6' USB extension cables. They all connect just fine, but the connection will be lost anywhere between 30 seconds and 5 minutes later. Won't re-connect unless I pull USB cable out of PC and re-insert. This sux. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adamw Posted June 3, 2023 Report Share Posted June 3, 2023 You will need an active USB extension. I have a 10M Unitek Y-278 that I use an engine dyno that works good. Hodgdon Extreme 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koracing Posted June 3, 2023 Report Share Posted June 3, 2023 I use and recommend the Belkin 5m USB active extension cable pn F3U130-16 . Hodgdon Extreme 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodgdon Extreme Posted June 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2023 Thank you gentlemen. I don't remember reading about the need for an "active" cable anywhere! Maybe I'm just dumb and/or illiterate... If not, maybe it wouldn't suck for Link to put a tag on the supplied USB pigtail that recommends use of an active cable. The new cable I have seems to be working - connection hasn't dropped out yet over the course of about an hour of run time on multiple key cycles. Hopefully this is solved! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confused Posted June 5, 2023 Report Share Posted June 5, 2023 Most Link ECUs are probably installed in the cabin, where the supplied USB cable is sufficient. It's generally only where you've got the ECU somewhere else, such as in the rear of an MR2, where you need a longer cable, and the standard electrical system is pretty "noisy" that you start to encounter issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodgdon Extreme Posted June 6, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2023 On 6/5/2023 at 3:03 PM, Confused said: Most Link ECUs are probably installed in the cabin, where the supplied USB cable is sufficient. It's generally only where you've got the ECU somewhere else, such as in the rear of an MR2, where you need a longer cable, and the standard electrical system is pretty "noisy" that you start to encounter issues. The TALTX plug-in unit is designed to replace the OEM ECU, which is situated inside a plastic enclosure, inside the engine room, just behind the left headlamp. Unless the laptop is to be placed inside the engine room - an extension cable is required. It'd be a nice detail for the included cable to have a tag on it recommending an "active" extension cable to avoid my issue. Thanks again, everyone for the information! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koracing Posted June 6, 2023 Report Share Posted June 6, 2023 1 hour ago, Hodgdon Extreme said: The TALTX plug-in unit is designed to replace the OEM ECU, which is situated inside a plastic enclosure, inside the engine room, just behind the left headlamp. Unless the laptop is to be placed inside the engine room - an extension cable is required. It'd be a nice detail for the included cable to have a tag on it recommending an "active" extension cable to avoid my issue. Thanks again, everyone for the information! The use of an active extension cable is hard won empirical information that some of us had to suffer through months of trial and error (and hundreds of dollars in testing different products, and thousands of dollars in lost income) to figure out. To this day if you ask Link the company officially they will probably say they don't seem to have a problem at all themselves ("looks good from my house"). I also think it would not make sense for Link to highlight an issue that may or may not be experienced by a customer by way of recommending the use of a product they don't sell. The competition would love it I'm sure. Thus there are these forums here hosted by Link for support and some quite helpful tips from users such as myself and others, and the Link engineers who frequent this forum who are actually useful and helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodgdon Extreme Posted June 26, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2023 So my laptop has one USB port on each side. Most of the active USB extension cables on the market have dual plugs; presumably for supplemental power. Anyway, this won't work with my laptop because the connectors can't reach to two different sides of the laptop. I suppose I could use another extension cable to go from side of the laptop to the other where the active cable is plugged in - but that seems ghetto. I bought this active USB cable: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MC95RXR?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details At first, it didn't seem to work well at all. My PC would connect to ECU, but the connection would drop out after a very short time. Then I added ferrite beads to each end of the extension cable; which seemed to help quite a bit. Now what I'm noticing, is I can establish a good connection when the car is cold - and I can keep that connection so long as the car is moving (and presumably creating good airflow through the engine compartment). Once I come to a stop; the connection will be lost after only a minute or so. Once lost; it will not reconnect for more than a few seconds until I've opened the hood and let everything cool down for a while. Any thoughts on this? Very frustrating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adamw Posted June 26, 2023 Report Share Posted June 26, 2023 In >help>ecu information, what is your hardware revision? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koracing Posted June 27, 2023 Report Share Posted June 27, 2023 21 hours ago, Hodgdon Extreme said: Most of the active USB extension cables on the market have dual plugs On 6/3/2023 at 4:45 PM, koracing said: I use and recommend the Belkin 5m USB active extension cable pn F3U130-16 . This cable I recommended and use is a single usb plug on each end. Not sure I've seen one with multiple plugs. The 4 pins of a typical USB 2.0 port are send/recieve, +5v power, and ground. It doesn't make sense to need two plugs given this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodgdon Extreme Posted June 27, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2023 19 hours ago, Adamw said: In >help>ecu information, what is your hardware revision? I'll get that for you tonight. 1 hour ago, koracing said: This cable I recommended and use is a single usb plug on each end. Not sure I've seen one with multiple plugs. The 4 pins of a typical USB 2.0 port are send/recieve, +5v power, and ground. It doesn't make sense to need two plugs given this. The Unitek Y-278 Adam suggested is a dual plug: I'm no expert, but I believe this doubles the effective power available to the amplifier circuit so it can push the signal through the cable harder - or something like that. But I feel like we're missing the forest for the trees. What do you make of the fact my connection is just fine until the engine compartment gets heat soaked? To me, this seems like a clue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koracing Posted June 27, 2023 Report Share Posted June 27, 2023 I can't really help you there as I have no experience with that issue exhibiting heat related tendancies, unfortunately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adamw Posted June 27, 2023 Report Share Posted June 27, 2023 The dual plug feature is of no consequence in this case, this item was only suggested as it was one I had personal experience with. The dual plugs are so you can have full USB power supply current at the far end, the USB2.0 spec says something like the port must be capable of supplying 500mA at *** minimum voltage, this is only relevant for some relatively power-hungry device that is powered by the cable such as a USB harddrive or webcam etc. The ECU does not use the USB power at all so you only need the main plug plugged in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodgdon Extreme Posted June 27, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2023 Thank you Adam. Do you have any thoughts regarding the seeming correlation between heat soak and connectivity? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adamw Posted June 27, 2023 Report Share Posted June 27, 2023 No, the ecu's are tested for hours cycling between -40 & 70degC inhouse as part of their QC and I dont normally see them get that hot in use. Likely something unrelated that causes more electrical noise when hot like a compromised coil ground or similar. There was a change of USB circuit to make it less sensitive to emi a couple of years ago so one possibility is you have an early one. The altezza isnt usually a problem car from what I see from tech support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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