thebigevilfoot Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 I noticed that VAG-COM seems to be a real pain for people to use, and I was wondering what advantages the Tactrix has over it? I read the stickied posts about the VAG-COM but I just can't seem to grasp it, I need to download a driver and then connect my laptop to the car and feed the data through? Also where do I actually connect it to in the car? I read in the stickied post that it's near the drivers side behind the glove box, does he mean the center console glove box or the one in the passenger seat? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m sprank Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 You have an 05 so... The OBDII port is located on the drivers side, behind the fuse panel. Down low, pointing towards the floor, by the drivers left knee/shin. This is where you connect the VAG-COM or Tactrix Cable. I believe VAG-COM was originally developed for German cars, but work with Subarus. Not sure of the exact issues people are having and if they are driver/OS/PC related or not. Cost is aroung $30 on eBay. Tactrix is the "original" tuning tool. Company supports the open source community. No known issues and updates come out every so often. Cost is around $65 for V1 and $170 for V2. V1 might not be available anymore, I am not sure. Purchase directly from Tactrix. You need to download ECU Flash, Learning View and ROMRAIDER. Install these and the driver for your cable. Then connect to your OBDII port with one end of the cable and the other in a USB port on your laptop. Open ECU Flash and you can now read and write maps to your car (also have to connect two green plugs together located beneath the passenger glove box at the floor, at the edge of the carpet-only for ECU Flash). Open ROMRAIDER and you can now log. Open Learning view to get a snapshot of stored knock correction, read and clear codes. You can only use 1 program at a time. This is a rather basic write up of the procedures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McDowell Performance Tunin Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 I use a $15 vag-com cable from ebay. I've never had a probplem with it. You just need to have the latest RR and ECUtec drivers installed. Look at it this way. $15 and a bit of configuring vs. $100+. My personal opionion is the VAG-COM is a blessing for the 05-06 LGT's www.facebook.com/mcdowelltuning [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Click Here for Stage1, Stage2 and Stage3 Tuning and eTuning Info Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDN 2.5i Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Same - I also just got the ebay vag-com cable and am stoked to find it works well on my '05 2.5i with RomRaider and EcuFlash (Windows 7) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTTuner Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 Any known issues with the VAG-COM and Vista? I have 2 laptops, one Vista and one with NT. Going to try the older laptop with NT before adding more programs to my memory whore Vista. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNVAR Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 $15 for my vag-com cable and i couldn't be happier. using vista 64 on my laptop. have used ecuflash and rr with success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClimberDHexMods Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 My vag com cable loads learning view slower than my tactrix 2.0 cable. like 1 second slower I have not confirmed any difference in logging rates either way, but will check because I just bought an AP v2 (crossed to the dark side due to the big software update!) and would like to be at ease about selling the 2.0 cable. 2.0 works super easy! but if you are resourceful and methodical, vag com works too. Oh, vag com is a little spotty with connecting to LV IIRC. you have to mess with it for several seconds to get it to recognize the ECU. So add that to the LV read delay, and you are out maybe 10 seconds on a really really laggy day. Again, I will check about logging... [CENTER][B][I] Front Limited Slip Racing Differentials for the 5EAT now available for $1895 shipped, please inquire for details! [/I][/B][/CENTER] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subielova88 Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 Where can i download those maps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sorcerer Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Hi, I see that ur very happy with the vag-com, with one should I buy to do the map flashing ? a lot of them on ebay, advice please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2manysubies Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 I had a issue with my E-bay Vag com, during a 3rd gear pull, it would loose data Points, like it was being saturated with too much info. The Vag=com works on my N/A Soobies with Free SSM. I have Ver. 2 Tacrix, no issues at all, it's seamless, abit a bit expensive. What isn't for these cars? R/Mac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ras06LGT Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 There are a TON of posts, both here and over at the romraider forums, regarding which one to buy. Some work, some don't. I had a cheap one I bought off Amazon that turned out to have a different chipset than what was needed. Could never get full functionality, despite many, many hours of trying. Bought a Tactrix 2.0 - works perfectly. Bottom line: Some people have gotten them to work well, some haven't. Read around and you'll find both sides of the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 ^ this, exactly! Try vag com first, its cheap enough. If it fails to work after a few hours of trying, don't persist, suck it up and buy a tactrix cable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sorcerer Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 ^ this, exactly! Try vag com first, its cheap enough. If it fails to work after a few hours of trying, don't persist, suck it up and buy a tactrix cable I will do so...thx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tehnation Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 USB OBD-II-2 KKL 409.1 is the type of cable you want, if it says that then it will most likely work. The simplest reasons the cable won't work is incorrect bit rate or lack of drivers. http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-OBD-II-2-KKL-409-1-OBD2-Cable-VAG-COM-for-VW-AUDI-/310431529095?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4847293887 Thats the same seller I bought mine from, and sent me a second one free after I screwed up the first one with the car door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ras06LGT Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 FWIW... that's exactly what my VAG-COM cable was labeled as, but the chipset inside was not an FTDI chipset. It was CH340 something or another.... No amount of driver's can fix that. Best of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BarManBean Posted June 20, 2013 Moderators Share Posted June 20, 2013 Why buy from ebay when you can get one from amazon? [ame=http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=vag%20com&sprefix=vag+com%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Avag%20com]http://www.amazon.com/OBD2-Diagnostic-Cable-KKL409-1-VAG-COM/dp/B002WIN8VQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371735838&sr=8-1&keywords=vag+com[/ame] "Bullet-proof" your OEM TMIC! <<Buy your kit here>> Not currently in stock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tehnation Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 Also being that these cables probably have no quality control. I know someone who had one and couldn't get it to work and we realized it was a dead cable. To test your cable simply plug it into obd, the obd side of cord lights up on most but doesn't indicate anything other than it is connected to obd, then plug it into the computer while it is on and fully booted, if windows does not show the usb icon in systray or make a windows sound basically no reaction the cable is bad. From what I have seen there are just a lot of bad cables. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryD Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 /\ I believe that the type of chipset has a lot to do with it. Most of the drivers availlable for the Vag-Com are by FTDI. So having their chipset is important. Another thing to note, with most Vag-Com cables you must use EcuFlash version 1.39(?) or earlier because tactrix coded out the non-Tactrix cables in their newer versions. For a good understanding of the use of these cables, read the Stickied threads in the beginning of this tuning forum. There is a wealth of experience and information there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tehnation Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 You are right, the ch340 are inferior. I am using the latest version of everything with my current ebay cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 I got an '07 jdm lgt (similar to '08 usdm i guess) and the vag-com ininitially bought wouldn't work with ecuflash but would do LV and logging ok. I then found out after that I needed op2.0 for my car as it was canbus, so bought the tactrix - that allowed me to read/write rom with ecuflash, but then I initially had some problems with some fields in rom raider logger where the status bar would flash up red with something to do with java index out of bounds or similar. I played around with rom raider logger settings and strangely enough turning canbus OFF in the logger fixed the error and allowed me to read those parameters. so its like it uses both canbus and non canbus, weird. I do like the option of micro sd slot in the tactrix too for non-PC logging ability Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sorcerer Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 I've bought this one: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-KKL-VAGCOM-409-VAG-COM-409-1-USB-Port-Cable-E8-B-4-/281113897945?ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:GB:1123 so It should work.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tehnation Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Only 05 and 06 models can use a vag-com cable. Other years have to use a tactrix cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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