DIY Consult Interface Kit - Construction
Supplied Parts
The kit comes with the parts shown in the above pictures. Refer to this page for a list of all parts, values and polarities. This parts page should be read in conjunction with this construction guide. Click any picture for a larger version. To view all pictures, refer to this page. To view some sample pictures, refer to this page.
Other Required Materials
Fine tipped soldering iron
Multimeter
Solder - get some thin solder, eg 0.71mm.
Fine cutting tool - eg side cutters, small scissors
Electrical tape - for taping the consult connector and serial plug cord before clamping
Small knife (optional) - to cut track in board if doing the workaround for yellow led
Required Skills
Ability to follow instructions
Basic to intermediate soldering skills
Ability to use a multimeter
Construction Guide
Tips
Soldering - place soldering iron at junction of lead and pcb pad, and apply solder to the junction of all 3 (lead, pad, iron) simultaneously is the quickest way to solder a joint. If you havent soldered it after about 5 seconds then stop and wait a minute before trying again so as not to overheat the component. We only need to apply small amounts to each pad (maybe a mm or two worth?). The PCB is through-hole plated - the pad on the top and bottom of board is connected, so there is no need to allow the solder to flow through from the bottom side to the top.
Cutting Leads - make sure the leads are cut short as the pcb will only have a few mm clearance from the bottom of the plastic case.
Resistors - use a multimeter to determine which resistor is which is normally the quickest and easiest way to get them right.
Suggested construction
Important: Do NOT connect the cable from consult port directly to PC - it needs to go thru the black connector, with it going to PC.
Please read points 7a and 12 in advance. The voltage regulator and transistor in 7a are hard to solder in due to leads being close, so you may wish to do these first. Also, if you wish to correct the yellow LED (in 12) so that it turns on when it should (rather than inverted), then you may want to cut the appropriate track to begin with.
1. Separate all the parts, the majority of which are contained within the black connector housing
2. The layout of parts above shows roughly which parts go where on board, which is shown below with the layout to help read where its not too clear on the board. Note: "hood" on pic = C9 capacitor
3. Place the diode, D1. Bend leads down at right angles, close to body. See image
4. Place the resistors, R1,R2,R3,R4,R8. Bend leads down at right angles, close to body. Board should resemble the above picture.
5. Place the two ICs, U1 and U3. The small semicircle on one end of the ic should match the orientation on PCB. See image below. The dot one on corner of the chip should also match the square pad on the PCB (only one of the 16 pins hs a square pad. Bend the pins inwards slightly using a flat object, such as the side of a table to make it fit easier.
6. Place capacitors in middle of board, C9, C6, C11, C10. See image above.
7a. Place the voltage reg U2, transistor Q1 at top left of board. See image. Bend the transistors legs so theyre straight and close together (like the voltage reg) if they are not already. Insert into board, then in order to ensure the legs arent soldered together its recommended to cut off the excess lead length before soldering. Solder carefully as the legs are very close. Back of board where they will be soldered is shown circled below. Make sure the voltage reg and transistor match the silkscreen overlay on the board, with their flat side to the right.
7b. Place capacitor C8. See image.
8. Place the 2 x 5 pin Headers, so they face outwards on either side of board. Gently push into holes, theyll fit, just need to be done carefully (dont mash it in basically, just push firmly). See image.
9. Place the crystal, Y1. This is tricky, as the crystal needs to be suspended in the air. To do this, press down on the ends (rather than close to crystal body) of the two leads until the leads are facing down at 90 degrees - ensure the leads DO NOT touch the crystal body. Place into the PCB, and allow the crystal to site parallel to the pcb, about 4-5mm above it (so its above the top of the plastic on the headers, and away from contacting anything. Crystal will hang over the edge a bit if u have done this correctly (if it doesnt, then the leads may be touching the crystal body. See images below, [1] [2]
10. Place the capacitors, C7,C1,C2,C3,C4,C5. Note the longer leg is the + and shorter leg -. Also, one of the legs may be marked - (for eletrolytic) or + (for tantalum), See image below. The square pad on the PCB is where the positive leg should go, its also marked by a "+". Its important if using electrolytic capacitors that they sit flush with PCB - otherwise they will hit the top of the plastic case. See image below
11. Put the two serial connectors on to the end of the board - the Female connector on the left (near capacitors and red led), the Male connector on the right (near crystal and two leds). The outside pins will bend out slightly to get all 5 pins in the 5 cups. Once the pins from both sides are in the cups, put the board into the plastic connector housing, and adjust how far the pins are in the connector cups so that the connectors sit nicely in the grooves in the housing. Solder whilst the connectors and PCB remain in the housing is the safest way to ensure the connectors fit nicely. Dont let too much solder flow into the cups (as it may be drawn into the connector, stopping the male serial port of a laptop from inserting all the way in. See images below.
12. IMPORTANT - Due to a design error, the yellow LED, when placed normally, will light when the PC is NOT transmitting to ECU, and will not light when it IS transmitting to ECU. Obviously the intention is to do the opposite - to light when the PC is transmitting only. 12a will show how to place the LED if the error isnt important and lighting when not transmitting is ok. 12b will give a slightly more difficult workaround if this is not sufficient and you want the yellow LED to light properly. Note the green and red LEDs are not affected by the same issue.
Installing LED's into the serial connector is hard to explain, so youll have to use your own common sense. The LED is intended to poke through the holes in the serial connectors, so that it can be seen with the plastic connector sealed. The longer led is the positive one (the side with the slide of plastic cut out of the LED is the negative). Place the LED into the hole, with the leads crossing over the holes they go into. Then take some needle nose pliers and bend the leads at the point they cross the holes. Then place the leads into their correct holes and and work the LED into the hole in the connector. See image below
12a. To place the yellow LED without the workaround (have it turn on when not sending and off when sending from PC to ECU), the LED is placed in the bottom right of the board, with the positive hole being the TOP hole as shown below:
You may now proceed to 13.
12b. To place the yellow LED for the workaround (and have it turn on sending and off when not, as intended), it has to be placed in the opposite way to above. The LED is placed in the bottom right of the board, with the positive hole being the BOTTOM hole as shown below:
In addition, the workaround requires cutting a track, and placing a wire between two pins on the bottom of the board. The track that requires cutting is shown circled below. I used a small knife and kept cutting and digging at the track until there was a definite break (a few mm). Then check this with a multimeter to ensure there is no connection between the two.
Its probably easiest to put the resistor in for this LED first (see step 13), then cut the leads of the LED a bit longer than usual (resistor can be short as normal) to so we can solder the wire to it. The wire should be about 30mm, and can be removed from one end of the 2M cable that came with the kit. See image. Use the green wire, as this wire isnt used in the cable. Strip a mm or two off each end of the wire, not too much or it will short other pcb pins. Solder one side of the wire to the LED lead in the very corner (the one we cut the track for), and the other side to pin 16 of the 4060 Counter. See image. This pin is the top left pin when you view the IC from the top (with the writing the right way up). Place only a small amount of solder, we dont want it to short against any other pin. Now the remaining LEDS can be placed.
13. Place the remaining LEDs, which go in the two holes on the left or rightmost edges of the board (for Red and Green/Yellow LEDS respectively). The holes next in are for the resistors that go in after. The Red LED goes top left of board, on the outermost two holes on the left. The positive hole is the BOTTOM hole. The Green LED goes to the top right of the board, with positive hole being the TOP hole.
Red (top left)
Green (top right)
14. Place the resistors for the LED's, R5,R6,R7. These resistors go in standing up, meaning one lead of the resistor is bend down alongside the resistor body. R7 is 680R and goes in the holes second from the left of the board (the left most two are for LED). R5 is 680R and goes in the bottom right, second from the right, and R6 is 680R and goes in the top right, second from the right.
PCB Complete! Dont close the housing yet though, wait till it's tested first!
15. Strip 20mm of the outer sheath from the 2M cable (the opposite end to where you got the green wire for if fixing the yellow LED). Any more and the serial plug we're putting on one end will not have the outer sheath to clamp (and thus eventually the inner wires could be exposed). The the green wire away at the base of the sheath (as we dont need this one). Strip the remaining 5 wires about 5 mm.
13. Locate the second female solder cup connector, and the plastic connector housing (grey). When looking at the back of the connector, the top row pins are labelled 1 to 5, left to right. The following wires should go in each cup:
1 - White (CLK)
2 - Black (GND)
3 - Red (IGN/12V)
4 - Blue (RX)
5 - Yellow (TX)
Solder wires into cups. Locate 2 clamps, 2 shortest screws from connector shell packet. Optionally put a few layers of electrical tape to bulk up the cable where the clamp grips, as its a bit thin by default. Place clamp on, with screws on lightly. Put connector into shell to determine position to tighten clamp. Remove from shell and fully tighten clamp, then place back in, put shell together, and secure with 2 hex nuts and 2 screws (with half thread). See image.
16. Locate the consult plug, 5 consult pins, and the other end of the cable you just put a serial connector on. Strip about 40mm of outer sheath from the cable. Cut the green wire off again. Strip the remaining 5 wires about 5mm. At the end of each pin (the crimp/top side of pin, not blade) there will be two sections that would normally be crimped in somehow. As most of us will not have a crimping tool for this, then the following can be performed:
* Cut the bottom (longer, but shorter) tabs on both side (want about roughly half the height of them so pins go in connector). See the picture below.
* Bend each side of the top tab in with some pliers. Just bend at 90 degrees will suffice. Once both are bent in, may need to pinch it sideways/top to bottom in order to make that section a bit smaller/squarer/rounded so it fits into the consult plug.
* Insert the stripped wire into the pin for soldering. Only insert it so far as where the second tab finishes - we dont want any solder past this point (as part of the plastic consult connector inserts past here).
* Solder wires into pins. Solder the Blue, Yellow and Red wires, then flip cable over and solder the White and Black (this is because those two sets of pins face opposite ways since they are on opposite rows in connector). See image.
17. Now pins are ready to be inserted into consult connector. Get the consult connector, and look of the back of it, turning it around so the flat side is to the right, and the rounded side to the left. From here, we insert 2 wires in the top leftmost two positions, 2 in the bottom leftmost two positions, and one in the top rightmost position.
Back of connector (B = Blue, Y = Yellow, R = Red, K = Black, W = White)
| __________________ | | |
| / | | | |
| | | | B | Y | | - | - | | - | - | | R | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | K | W | | - | - | | - | - | | - | | | |
| \ | __________________ | | |
Insert the wires into their positions as show. The top of the pins (the side with the line thru middle, side that was soldered) goes towards the outside of the connector (both top and bottom, so top row faces up, bottom faces down). Push all the connectors half way in, then push them as far as u can in with your fingernail on the pin (dont try push in via the wire, it will just bend as not strong enough). Once in about 3/4, you can pull it all the way through with a pair of needle nose pliers. Grip the pin firmly and draw in. The end of the pins ends up sitting flush with the 2 (and a half) thin plastic dividers when looking into the plug (and will be very hard to pull them any further). Check and ensure all pins were pulled thru the same amount.
18. With pins now in the consult connector, we (attempt) to seal them in with the plastic tabs that are hanging off the connector. When looking at the plastic locking tab, youll see two sides of it, one with thin bits of plastic, and other with noticably more. The thicker side should be pushed down and into the connector, after which the thin plastic bits side should "lock in" when pushed firmly into the gap left over. Dont be too concerned if you dont get it in right, they just help lock in the pins a bit better (but cut it off if it's proving too much trouble). You may have trouble locking them in if too much solder was applied to the wire/pin. Do you best, then take some electrical tape and start wrapping from the connector (around the sealing tabs) and up until you pass where the sheath was cut off at.
You're now ready to test the consult interface. I used Datascan (purchased for $25, link) and Calumsult (free, 30mb download). Rom dumping doesnt work too well with Datascan, but I've had no issues dumping roms with Calumsult.
Other notable software includes Conzult (download), ScanTech Nissan (download and screenshots), TECU (download).
For some more images see the end of this page. Once finished testing and confirming that it works, you can then close the housing.
