Where did you get you serial card from? Most places I have checked wanted around $150-$250.

 

I think my USB to serial adapter shows up as COM4 if I remember right. the number doesn't really matter as long as you're picking the right one.

I'm using this on my Vista laptop and it's been flawless, not a single issue.

http://www.usbgear.net/USB_rs232.html

 

My tuner has a sweet ass toughbook with a touch screen and a serial port. This lap top looks like it was built for tuning. Compact and rugged. I may get one just for the car. I have always hated the usb-serial bs. Sometimes it will read sometimes it won't. Make sure your usb port on the back of your comp is tight.

 

most new laptops don't come with serial ports so you're screwed, you have to get some kind of adapter.

 

I found a laptop with serial cable. Turns out that the car itself, for some reason, isn't connecting to the ems. After talking with Aem they think it may be something with the oem harness or some kind of backfeed into the ems. I can't figure out what it is since the only things cut into the oem harness are the map sensor and injectors.

I even connected 12v directly to the ems from the battery to see if it would connect and it does but when hooked up to the harness I get nothing. Any ideas?

 

Perhaps this will help some other people out although it's not answering your immediate question, but you can get the PC Card Serial cards from ebay for about $15 shipped and they work flawlessly. The USB adapters are horrible.

It sounds like you have a power issue. Are you sure the power connection is working from the harness? Find the pin and test it with a volt meter. There may be more than one pin...

 

I did check the harness and I get 12v, 10v-11v to be exact. You are right there are two pins, but when I put power directly from the battery to either pin the ems connects. It just won't connect while in the car.

 

Have you tried just connecting the power pins from the harness (I think you only need the "bank 1 or 2" pin, not the "bank 3" pin, looking left to right at the connectors) and nothing else (injectors, etc)?

 

I did try that. I had just the "B" connector attached and still nothing.

 

I don't get my 12 volt from the harness, I bring it in from a 12v near the fuse box by the ECU. I'm not sure the 12v from the harness is sufficient. Where are you getting your 12v from?