VAG-COM for 16v

[Stirring Moose]

Hi all, been a while but I am amongst you once more!  And yes, I'm on the scrounge for info!

I'm after getting myself set up with some VAG-COM software (suitable for a WinXP laptop) and a cable (USB to OBD2). Now being a good little forum-er, I have used Search and have come up with the guys at Ross Tech and had a look at what they offer. There seems, however, to be a number of versions of VAG-COM available and varying levels of funtionality, as well as something called VCDS. Basically the minimum I am after is to be able to read the fault codes and to access the Measuring Blocks live data, the latter being particularly important as I am hunting an intermittant fault and need to catch the swine in the act! 

As far as I can understand VCDS does essentially what VAG-COM does but to get the full fat version of VCDS working I would need a Ross Tech cable at about $350. The alternative is VCDS-Lite with pretty much whatever USB-OBD2 cable I can get hold of via the 'Bay; much cheaper but much less capable.

Ultimately my questions for you guys are 1: Have I even vaguely got the right end of the stick here? and 2: Assuming I have, is the cheap option worth while or is it so limited in its abilities as to be a bit of a waste of time?

S.M.

[itavaltalainen]

vcds lite is only much less powerful than vcds if not registered. once registered you can do nothing more on our old cars than the full on vcds with ross tech interface.

btw.... vcds is vagcom but just the current version of it. you cannot legally get a full version of vagcom anymore... anyone offering you one don't pay money for it - either illegal hack or a scam....

i would recommend to get a rs232 to kkl adapter (e.g. elv vda100 kit and solder it together yourself) and a good usb to rs232 adapter if you laptop does not have one (good ones don't come cheap, i use a brainboxes us-101 which is around 40£)...
or then go for an autodia k409 which is USB to KKL, cheaper but less reliable (does not work for me at all most of times)

then buy vcds lite for 99$ and use it with either of the cables above.

[Stirring Moose]

Wow, thanks for that. Really thorough reply. Afraid some of the cable stuff went a little over my head but I'll do some more research on that. Hopefully Golfy and I will be communicating with each other before long!! 

S.M.

[itavaltalainen]

with cables you got 2 choices....

usb or rs232 (old 9 pin comms port, sure you remember)

usb essentially have usb-rs232 converter built in - cheapest ones of ebay used counterfeit chips from china for this... can result in you having big problems with stable comms! decent ones are better.

rs232 are quite rare now, if your laptop still has one go for this though! they are a bit more expensive (as they are rare) but comms are running in real time (hardware) and you will not have issues. I went down this route although my laptop does not have a rs232 port but I have a really good adapter (had that for other stuff like µControllers already).

links for things...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/OBDII-409-1-Diagnostic-Cable-Interface/dp/B00A6O4REU/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1369861267&sr=8-6&keywords=vw+obd+cable
vs a cheap one
http://www.amazon.co.uk/DIAGNOSTIC-CABLE-409-1-OBD2-VAG-COM/dp/B005R0OQ12/ref=pd_sim_sbs_w_h__4

rs232 kit from elv germany (shipping to uk is reasonable)
http://www.elv.de/elv-diagnose-adapter-fuer-obd-2-komplettbausatz.html

usb to rs232 converter (expensive as hell but very good )
http://www.brainboxes.com/product/items/us-101

[Stirring Moose]

Hey bud. Sorry for not posting a response before now - work has seen to it that I've only just now had time to return to Operation Kick Golf Into Life  Thanks for the further info. Have just downloaded VCDS-Lite and am seeing about a cable. Will let you know how it all pans out.

S.M.