Tunercat & Windows XP
Race Director
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 14,165
Likes: 9
Re: Tunercat & Windows XP (STL94LT1)
Yes and no. The tunercat program for reading the BIN file will run under XP but as for reading from the computer that really needs to be run in raw DOS mode. Windows does a lot of stuff with the interupts and timing requests that can really screw you over.
I enquired with Andrew from AKM cables about using a USB adapter for reading the PCM (for a friend, mine has real serial port!) He sent me this link to the beta software section of the Tunercat website. They have a new utility for reading the PCM that is windows based.
Note, this is BETA software meaning that it might not function perfectly. I'm sure Tunercat cannot help you if it fries your PCM!!
That being said, trying to read the PCM will never hurt it, only when trying to write. If you read it about 10-20 times without any communications issues or problems you might can then try to write. Be absolutely sure that your laptop battery is fully charged, your car battery is fully charged, and all accessories are turned off and all screensavers and other programs are turned off. This will give you the greatest changes of succeeding.
Good luck! http://www.tunercat.com/software/beta/beta.html
:cheers:
I enquired with Andrew from AKM cables about using a USB adapter for reading the PCM (for a friend, mine has real serial port!) He sent me this link to the beta software section of the Tunercat website. They have a new utility for reading the PCM that is windows based.
Note, this is BETA software meaning that it might not function perfectly. I'm sure Tunercat cannot help you if it fries your PCM!!
That being said, trying to read the PCM will never hurt it, only when trying to write. If you read it about 10-20 times without any communications issues or problems you might can then try to write. Be absolutely sure that your laptop battery is fully charged, your car battery is fully charged, and all accessories are turned off and all screensavers and other programs are turned off. This will give you the greatest changes of succeeding.
Good luck! http://www.tunercat.com/software/beta/beta.html
:cheers:
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 12,261
Likes: 85
From: O'Fallon Missouri
Re: Tunercat & Windows XP (Nathan Plemons)
Nathan, thank you for the link. I will give it a try.
First, I bought a laptop without a serial port, couldn't get it to work with a port replicator, sent it back and bought another laptop. Now my operating system (Windows XP) won't work with Tunercat.
Maybe, it isn't meant to be for me to do my own tuning.
Oh, my PC is running Windows ME. If I have to, can I use ME for my PCM reading and programming?
[Modified by STL94LT1, 4:18 AM 11/3/2002]
First, I bought a laptop without a serial port, couldn't get it to work with a port replicator, sent it back and bought another laptop. Now my operating system (Windows XP) won't work with Tunercat.
Maybe, it isn't meant to be for me to do my own tuning.
Oh, my PC is running Windows ME. If I have to, can I use ME for my PCM reading and programming?
[Modified by STL94LT1, 4:18 AM 11/3/2002]
Race Director
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 14,165
Likes: 9
Re: Tunercat & Windows XP (STL94LT1)
Sounds like my friend. He got in a hurry to buy his laptop, didn't realize it didn't come with a serial port. Now I've been trying to find him another solution. I'm willing to bet that the windows based software will work better with the real serial port than it will with the port replicator he's gonna end up using.
If you happen to have a windows 95 / 98 computer you can make a bootable disk and run that PCM read program in raw dos mode. You'd have to work off of the floppy disk but it would get the job done and it might be more reliable. If you can't make a windows 9x bootable disk I can probably figure out a way to send you everything you need to make one.
:cheers:
If you happen to have a windows 95 / 98 computer you can make a bootable disk and run that PCM read program in raw dos mode. You'd have to work off of the floppy disk but it would get the job done and it might be more reliable. If you can't make a windows 9x bootable disk I can probably figure out a way to send you everything you need to make one.
:cheers:
Race Director
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 14,165
Likes: 9
Re: Tunercat & Windows XP (Nathan Plemons)
Ok, I don't know how these instructions will do posting them on the forum so I'm going to e-mail them to you as well. Windows ME is somewhat funny but we can use it to make a bootable disk so you can use your laptop and not have to wheel the PC out into the garage. Try this
To create a startup disk using windows ME you will need a blank disk, or a disk you don't mind erasing, then follow these simple steps.
We'll assume the computer is already on and booted into windows.
1. Click on start - settings - control panel.
2. In the control panel click on Add / Remove Programs
3. There will be three tabs across the top of this window, choose Startup Disk
4. Insert your blank disk and click on Create Disk
When this gets finished you will have a disk with a whole lot of crap on it that you don't need. We need to go through and trash what you don't need and trim it down to a minimum. From this point the easiest way to remove these files is to run in a DOS window. If you know how to navigate DOS that's cool, but a lot of people don't.
1. Click on start - run.
This will bring up a box where you can type something in. This might have something in it, just clear out anything and type in COMMAND then press OK. This will bring you up to a DOS window that will probably just say something like
C:\WINDOWS\Desktop>_
You will want to just type
A: <enter>
then your prompt should change to
A:\>
Now we are working with the floppy disk, you'll need to type in the following commands
del *.sys <enter>
this will take a few minutes and then give you back the same prompt, type in
del *.exe <enter>
same thing it will chug for a min and then give you the prompt back
del *.bat <enter>
same result
del *.txt <enter>
same result
del *.cab <enter>
when that is finished you can type
dir <enter>
and it should show you a screen like this
Volume in drive A has no label
Volume Serian Number is xxxx-xxxx
Directory of A:\
COMMAND.COM 93,040 06-08-00 5:00p
1 file(s) 93,040 bytes
0 dir(s) 1,247,232 bytes free
A:\>_
This basically means that you have deleted everything on the disk except for what you really need.
You can now type
exit <enter>
and it will take you back to windows. You'll need to go to your laptop and navigate to wherever you have the flashread and flashwrite utilites located and copy them over to the floppy disk. From within windows I find the easiest way to that is to click on the files with my right mouse button and chose Send To - 3 1/2 Floppy (A)
When these files copy you are good to go. Most computers are set to boot off of a floppy so you will simply need to leave the disk in your laptop's drive and restart the machine. If all goes well it will boot up and say the following
Starting Windows Millennium Emergency Boot...
Microsoft(R) Windows Millenium
(C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1999.
A:\>_
If you type
dir <enter>
you should see the list of everything on this disk, which should include the flashread and flashwrite utilities. To run flashread you just type in flashread or actually technically I believe it is flshread and press enter. This should run the program and allow you to communicate with your car.
When it asks you for the filename to be sure and add the .BIN extension to it. I would name it like test.bin and see what happens. If it works it will read your program and then let you get back out to the DOS prompt. If you type in DIR <enter> again you should now see a test.bin in the list of files.
Now you can remove the floppy to allow the machine to boot back into windows. Pressing CTRL-ALT-DELETE at the same time should restart the computer. When you get back into windows I would suggest copying your bin file over to the hard drive for editing in tunercat. When you have made your changes I would name the file something else, like new.bin and copy it back over to the disk. Boot with the disk again and run the flshwrite program. This time when it asks for the filename tell it new.bin and it will proceed to upload the file for you.
As a side note, I would try the read utility several times before I would try to write anything. Reading will never hurt anything if it loses communication. If it loses communication while writing you could be in trouble. Just read the program a number of times to make sure it's reliable.
To create a startup disk using windows ME you will need a blank disk, or a disk you don't mind erasing, then follow these simple steps.
We'll assume the computer is already on and booted into windows.
1. Click on start - settings - control panel.
2. In the control panel click on Add / Remove Programs
3. There will be three tabs across the top of this window, choose Startup Disk
4. Insert your blank disk and click on Create Disk
When this gets finished you will have a disk with a whole lot of crap on it that you don't need. We need to go through and trash what you don't need and trim it down to a minimum. From this point the easiest way to remove these files is to run in a DOS window. If you know how to navigate DOS that's cool, but a lot of people don't.
1. Click on start - run.
This will bring up a box where you can type something in. This might have something in it, just clear out anything and type in COMMAND then press OK. This will bring you up to a DOS window that will probably just say something like
C:\WINDOWS\Desktop>_
You will want to just type
A: <enter>
then your prompt should change to
A:\>
Now we are working with the floppy disk, you'll need to type in the following commands
del *.sys <enter>
this will take a few minutes and then give you back the same prompt, type in
del *.exe <enter>
same thing it will chug for a min and then give you the prompt back
del *.bat <enter>
same result
del *.txt <enter>
same result
del *.cab <enter>
when that is finished you can type
dir <enter>
and it should show you a screen like this
Volume in drive A has no label
Volume Serian Number is xxxx-xxxx
Directory of A:\
COMMAND.COM 93,040 06-08-00 5:00p
1 file(s) 93,040 bytes
0 dir(s) 1,247,232 bytes free
A:\>_
This basically means that you have deleted everything on the disk except for what you really need.
You can now type
exit <enter>
and it will take you back to windows. You'll need to go to your laptop and navigate to wherever you have the flashread and flashwrite utilites located and copy them over to the floppy disk. From within windows I find the easiest way to that is to click on the files with my right mouse button and chose Send To - 3 1/2 Floppy (A)
When these files copy you are good to go. Most computers are set to boot off of a floppy so you will simply need to leave the disk in your laptop's drive and restart the machine. If all goes well it will boot up and say the following
Starting Windows Millennium Emergency Boot...
Microsoft(R) Windows Millenium
(C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1999.
A:\>_
If you type
dir <enter>
you should see the list of everything on this disk, which should include the flashread and flashwrite utilities. To run flashread you just type in flashread or actually technically I believe it is flshread and press enter. This should run the program and allow you to communicate with your car.
When it asks you for the filename to be sure and add the .BIN extension to it. I would name it like test.bin and see what happens. If it works it will read your program and then let you get back out to the DOS prompt. If you type in DIR <enter> again you should now see a test.bin in the list of files.
Now you can remove the floppy to allow the machine to boot back into windows. Pressing CTRL-ALT-DELETE at the same time should restart the computer. When you get back into windows I would suggest copying your bin file over to the hard drive for editing in tunercat. When you have made your changes I would name the file something else, like new.bin and copy it back over to the disk. Boot with the disk again and run the flshwrite program. This time when it asks for the filename tell it new.bin and it will proceed to upload the file for you.
As a side note, I would try the read utility several times before I would try to write anything. Reading will never hurt anything if it loses communication. If it loses communication while writing you could be in trouble. Just read the program a number of times to make sure it's reliable.
