i've been having trouble getting datamaster DA to work properly, it works perfectly when the engine is off with the key in the "on" position but within 2 seconds or less of the engine running it goes straight to "lost aldl connection" and stops recording but then if I let the engine stall out it starts recording again soon as it dies. I emailed aldlcable yesterday and they said that the cable was good and it was either 2 things
1. The voltage drops drastically on pin M once the engine starts (I checked this with a voltameter and it doesn't, it actually goes up slightly).
2. The cigarette lighter plug in drops below 12v once the engine starts up. I tryed to check this and it worked the first time with the engine off but then I tryed to put the red wire back in the cigarete lighter and it arch'd and broke the cigarette lighter.

So my first question is how to I get the cigarrette lighter out to swap out the fuse or lighter if neccessary?? (Is there a fuse?) Does that little rectangular peice right there that the cigarrette lighter sits in just pop out? (It wasn't coming out to easily, so I figured i'd ask before prying on it harder and breaking the plastic.)
If not, is there enough slack on that harness (doesn't appear to be) to just pull the whole center console back (i already got the 4 bolts out) so that I could unplug this? This is for a 93 camaro

Also is there a way of checking this voltage that won't ruin the new cigarrette lighter... maybe I could just probe the wires back there once I get it out?

 

I think you might need to test the cigarette lighter power while it is under a little load to see if it can handle the current you need for your power requirements. If you test it open circuit, and the voltage is low, that will tell you there is a voltage drop, but if the voltage seems OK, that might fool you if it drops once a load is applied. If you get it out of there, maybe you can rewire it with slightly larger wire and make sure there's no drop.

 

naw, I just said screw it and ran jumper cables straight from the battery to the cigarrette lighter plug and it still did the same $hit, so I concluded that the aldl cable they sold me is a peice of crap. (the battery is definetly well over 12V.)

 

you could probably crack open their cable and find the volt reg and see what its putting out