The definitive end-all fix to USB vag-com cables and Lemmiwinks (without using 2 ports)

[Jason Trumpio]

This is a guide to successfully using any Ross-Tech USB cable with XP, Lemmiwinks, and without any dual USB port madness, frustration, or crying. I take no responsibility if you destroy your car, computer, house, or marriage.

So my car with ASP fueling has been running like crap. (Cold start lean stumbling and popping on low load decel (like match rev downshifting). I figured, hey, I might as well educate myself on the adaptation channels.

I quickly found out that using Lemmiwinks with my new KEY-USB (hadware rev 2.0) cable would be a futile effort, at least from what people were saying. The USB emulator drivers simply would not work. And even if I did have the compatible cable, I'd need to use one port for Lemmiwinks and 1 port for the VAG-COM. !#$!@#$

I took a step back, and figured, hey, I can just use the VAG-COM to change the adaptation values by converting the hex value in Lemmiwinks to decimal. Wrong! I couldn't change anything but the idle offset. Even with the right login code. Damn!

I decided I was going to wage war on this issue. I was pissed. I took my VAG-COM cable apart. Simply put I thought to myself, all this cable could be is a USB -> serial converter. I looked on the PCB, and soon found an FTDI chip, P/N FT232RL. Sure enough, it's a USB -> serial UART interface. I poke around on their site and realize that they offer custom VID and PID's in their chips. Bingo... That's why the generic drivers didn't work. I'm betting initially Ross-Tech was using off-the-shelf FT232RL's with a generic PID.

Quite simply, Ross-Tech had a custom PID created for the chips in their new devices - meaning, Windows will prevent you from installing the generic drivers simply because the PID's don't match. I've been down this road before with other devices, and located the PID of my KEY-USB in device manager. Sure enough, the generic PID is 6001 and the Ross-Tech PID is FA24. I simply edited the 2 INF files in the driver pack, and Windows was then able to install the driver.

The best part is, the cable not only works with Lemmiwinks, it also works with the VAG-COM, without having to install the VAG-COM drivers.

I have zipped the driver pack up for your convenience if you are using the Hardware Rev 2.0 cable. If you don't know what version you have, open Device Manager, expand "Universal Serial Bus controllers" and locate the Ross-Tech KEY-USB item. Right click and select Properties. Click on the "Details" tab. Look at the "Device Instance Id". The following drivers will work if you see "USB\VID_0403&PID_FA24\RT000001". If you don't see that PID_FA24 string, skip to the section about customizing the drivers yourself.

http://www.trumpio.com/usblemmi.zip

To install the drivers, simply do the following:

Extract the zip to an easy to find location.

Right click My Computer, select Properties.

Click on the Hardware tab.

Click the Device Manager button.

Locate the Universal Serial Bus controllers item in the list, and expand it.

Locate the Ross-Tech KEY-USB item, and right click, select Properties.

Click on the driver tab, and hit Update Driver.

Windows will ask if you want to search Windows Update... Click on "No, not this time" and hit Next.

Click "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)" and hit Next.

Click "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install." And hit Next.

Leave "Show All Devices" selected and hit Next.

Your computer will probably take a while to populate this list. Be patient, it hasn't crashed.

You will see a list of every possible device to install. Ignore this, and click on the "Have Disk" button.

Locate the driver files you extracted earlier. Click on the "FTDIBUS.inf" file and hit Open. Click OK. You will now see a window that shows "USB Serial Converter" as the compatible hardware. Hit Next. Hit "Continue Anyway" when the warning about unsigned drivers shows up.

Click finish. You're almost done!

You should see a new window pop up that says more hardware was found ("USB Serial Port")

Windows will ask if you want to search Windows Update... Click on "No, not this time" and hit Next.

Click "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)" and hit Next.

Click "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install." And hit Next.

Leave "Show All Devices" selected and hit Next.

Your computer will probably take a while to populate this list. Be patient, it hasn't crashed.

You will see a list of every possible device to install. Ignore this, and click on the "Have Disk" button.

Locate the driver files you extracted earlier. Click on the "FTDIPORT.inf" file and hit Open. Click OK. You will now see a window that shows "USB Serial Port" as the compatible hardware. Hit Next. Hit "Continue Anyway" when the warning about unsigned drivers shows up.

Click Finish.

Go back to the Device Manager, and expand the Ports item. You should see "USB Serial Port (COM11) (It might be a different com port number).

This next step is important. Lemmiwinks only works up to COM8. If your machine is like mine, and assigned some obscure port number, you need to change it. Right click on the port and hit Properties. Click the Port Settings tab, and hit Advanced. Change the Com Port Number dropdown to something in the range of COM1-COM8. Click OK, and OK again.

Fire up Lemmiwinks, set the correct port, and begin tweaking! Also note that you don't need to install a different driver for the VAG-COM. VAG-COM will work in parallel with Lemmiwinks as far as I can see.

Enjoy!




But wait, this doesn't work with the cable, how can I customize the drivers myself?!

First, don't panic. Download the VCP drivers from here:

http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

The file you're looking for is probably the second item down, Driver version 2.00.00. Note, DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE WINDOWS XP x64 DRIVERS UNLESS YOU ARE USING WINDOWS XP 64 BIT EDITION!

Locate your PID by opening Device Manager. Expand "Universal Serial Bus controllers" and locate the Ross-Tech KEY-USB item. Right click and select Properties. Click on the "Details" tab. Look at the "Device Instance Id". You will see "USB\VID_0403&PID_FA24\RT000001" or something similar. Basically, we're focusing on the PID_FA24 portion of the string. The 4 digits following the PID_ are your PID. Write them down. Close that window and Device Manager, and continue.

Extract the driver files you downloaded, and open FTDIBUS.INF in notepad (it should open it in notepad by default)

Locate the section [FtdiHw] and look at this first line:

%USB\VID_0403&PID_6001.DeviceDesc%=FtdiBus,USB\VID _0403&PID_6001

Change that line to read:

%USB\VID_0403&PID_FA24.DeviceDesc%=FtdiBus,USB\VID _0403&PID_FA24

(You are replacing 6001 with your PID (the value you wrote down). In this case, FA24 for me. If you are doing this, this is because yours is different. Note you have to change it in 2 areas of that string.

Locate the [Strings] section of the file and look at this fourth line:

USB\VID_0403&PID_6001.DeviceDesc="USB Serial Converter"

Change that line to read:

USB\VID_0403&PID_FA24.DeviceDesc="USB Serial Converter"

By again, replacing 6001 with your PID.

Save the file and close it.

Open the file "FTDIPORT.INF"

Locate the [FtdiHw] section, and edit the first line from:

%VID_0403&PID_6001.DeviceDesc%=FtdiPort232,FTDIBUS \COMPORT&VID_0403&PID_6001

To:

%VID_0403&PID_FA24.DeviceDesc%=FtdiPort232,FTDIBUS \COMPORT&VID_0403&PID_FA24

(again, you are replacing 6001 TWICE!)


Locate the [Strings] section of the file and change this line:

VID_0403&PID_6001.DeviceDesc="USB Serial Port"

to:

VID_0403&PID_FA24.DeviceDesc="USB Serial Port"

Again, replacing 6001 with your PID.

Save the file, close it, and then follow the above instructions for installing the drivers.


Good luck and let me know how it works!

edit: misspelled definitive because I am a dumbass.

[Ah10@WMS]

[Jason Sowers(rs6's)]

Can some one send me a driver that works with this thing. It looks cool sitting in a box. I'd rather use it though

[Jason Trumpio]

[Jason Trumpio]

[-SlowSilverTIPJason-]

[Farb]

[Jason Sowers(rs6's)]

[StoneMan]

[-SlowSilverTIPJason-]