Install & Setup Ross-Tech VCP Drivers

Below are instructions on setting up and installing the Virtual COM Port (VCP) drivers for your authentic Ross-Tech HEX-CAN+USB cable. This will potentially work for the other USB cables offered by Ross-Tech (KII-USB & TWIN-USB), but I have no way to verify that. This can be useful if you wish to utilize your Ross-Tech cable to use with other OBD-II besides VCDS that require a COM port for communication, including, but not limited to, VAG K+CAN Commander, me7logger, NefMoto, etc.

The information below is not well detailed anywhere that I have been able to find. Ross-Tech briefly reviews this below, but requires a lot of knowledge on manual driver installation in Windows. A lot of enthusiasts have genuine Ross-Tech cables, and this can be used to make them even more useful than they already are with VCDS, as 3rd party applications can provide more than VCDS has to offer. This can save you the cost and headache of having to buy and use a second cable. I have been able to use the genuine Ross-Tech cable in any place that a generic FTDI OBD-II cable would otherwise be needed after installing the drivers and setting them up properly. This is going to require that you are at least somewhat familiar with navigating around Windows.

What You'll Need

1. Your Ross-Tech USB Cable
2. Computer/Laptop/Tablet
1. Ross-Tech VCP Drivers

What You'll Do

This is being displayed on Windows 10, but the process should be similar, if not identical, on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.x.

First, download the drivers from Ross-Tech. While it is very tempting to skip to the very end and download away, be sure to read the text on the page so that you at least know what you're getting into. Pay special attention to the first bullet subsection. Consider yourself warned. After you get the drivers downloaded, unzip the files and remember where you put them.

Open up Device Manager, either by itself or through the computer management console. You'll need to plug your Ross-Tech cable in for the rest, but you don't have to be at your car to do this, so you can do so pretty much anywhere if you want. Once the cable is plugged in, expand the USB controllers section and find your cable. Right click and select Update Driver Software... I realize that the driver is already installed, but we need to "update" it again.

You'll then get the Update Driver dialog. Then you'll want to select the bottom option to browse for the drivers on your computer.

You'll be tempted to just browse and install at the next screen, but if you do that, nothing will happen as the VCP drivers aren't newer. Instead, you want to pick the driver from your computer.

If you've installed the VCP drivers before installation is pretty easy and I'm not sure why you're reading this. The driver will show up in the list, and you'll just select it and go. Odds are, if you're reading this, you haven't installed the VCP driver before. In that case, you want to click Have Disk... and go from there.

At the window that pops up, this is where you want to browse for the driver that you downloaded previously. It will pop up and default to the A:\ drive, regardless of whether you have a floppy drive or not. Find the folder and if it isn't auto-selected for you, pick the ftdibus.inf file, then click OK.

Now, you should have Ross-Tech Direct USB Interface with VCP in the list. Select this, then click next. You may be prompted about installing the driver. Be sure to accept anything about installing the driver, assuming you downloaded them right from Ross-Tech as directed. When finished, you can close the window and the cable should be listed in Device Manager with the same name as the driver you just installed (Ross-Tech Direct USB Interface with VCP).

You want to right click on it again, as you did to update the driver, but this time select Properties. This will open the driver properties, and if you've been here before, you'll notice a new tab. Click on the Advanced tab which is new. Check the box for Load VCP and say OK.

Now that VCP has been enabled, you should have a new option in Device Manager. Odds are, your computer didn't come with a serial (COM) or parallel (LPT) port, so Ports (COM & LPT) should be new for you. If it isn't, this will be a little more difficult, but not much. Expand the listing. If more than one item is listed, you'll need to find the correct item. Right click on one, or the only one, and select properties. If you have more than one, the manufacturer listed should be Ross-Tech. If it is, you selected the right one.

Mine is at COM2 in the picture, but yours may come in differently, possibly COM3. If you want, you are ready to use the cable with your application now, just remember the port number associated with the item. If you want to change the port, under properties for the port, go to the Port Settings tab, the click Advanced...

In the new window that comes up, you can select a new port number with the COM Port Number drop-down list. From what I have seen, most programs are setup to default to COM2 (port #2), so that is what I picked. You can select whatever you want, but I'd recommend something between COM1 and COM4. Select OK on all of the windows and you can close out of Device Manager or Computer Management.

From here, you are done and ready to use your Ross-Tech cable for whatever you wish, whether it is VCDS or something else. This also shouldn't have any effect on the usage of VCDS, as it should work as normal. You may need to go into options, test and setup the interface again, but that should be the extent of what you'd have to do in VCDS. If you have issues with whatever program you're using outside of VCDS, one option to try, assuming you're using the proper port, is to uncheck the option in VCDS to boot in intelligent mode. Other than that you should be good to go.

I'm not an expert, so if you have specific software questions, you should contact the company or person that created it via their preferred support contact means. I have no plans to begin supporting people with this process either, but if something needs clarifying, I will gladly take comments to improve the guide for others. You can consider using my other guide on pulling your SKC now, if that's why you're trying to use your cable with VCP drivers.