Another OBD2 scan tool

[JoeB]

I was just reading a post that had some screen shots from a Toyota Diagnostic tool called EASE Diagnostics so I did a little research. After searching on the board here, I found another member bought one of these at the same time I bought the scanner I'm using now. The problem was, that was $350! I just got off the phone with a rep there and they are going to change their product line-up and pricing. The personal scanner will have features from the professional and the cost will go down to around $150 (guess - he didn't have exact prices). This scanner will do all the generic and the enhanced plus it does extra like air bags.

That's not the best part, he said that if they are collecting like 8 diferent parameters, they will refresh at like 8 samples per second. That is by far the fastest collection I've ever heard of on a scan tool aside from professional tools that are WAY out of my price range. I'll be watching their web site close for this price change. http://www.obd2.com/ -JoeB

[gman]

If anyone knows electronics it's you JB. Can you program it to scan for undercover cops??

[JoeB]

If anyone knows electronics it's you JB. Can you program it to scan for undercover cops??

That is a separate accessory , please don't tell me you need that gman?

On a serious note though. Just so you guys know why I like this so much, I currently have 3 OBD2 scanners. To tune your car properly, you really need this tool. Even the best tuners seem to miss this step. They want to go right to the dyno and tune wide open throttle. If you want your car to run right and you are using larger injectors and a piggy-back EMS, you NEED this tool. Ever wonder why you just took your car for a dyno tune and a few days later you just got a CEL saying bank1 too rich??? It's because 99% of the dyno shops do not tune the closed loop map, they assume the ECU will have range to make the corrections.

So the reason I like this 1 so much ( and I haven't tried it yet - just going on their word) is one of the parameters I need the OBD2 scanner for is timing. I want to record at least vehicle speed, RPM and timing. I'd like to collect more because other things like temp can effect it but the more parameters you collect, the fewer samples you get in a fixed time run (say 3rd gear red-line). On ELM hardware based scanners it's pathetic! you get 3 parameters in about 1.5-2 secs. That means 1 timing data point every second and a half, not enough data! I have this other scanner from Car Code that is better for about $132 it records 3 parameters in half that time so I get twice as many data points. If this is for real, I can record 3 times as many parameters and still get 6 times the data points than I got with the faster one!!

I have no other way to data log timing and I have tons of money in data logging equipment - my setup would make you sick! On a wide open run, you want to log timing so you can see if something is telling the ECU to retard your timing (big loss of power). That is usually knock in our case. In which case you can correct it with fuel or if the A/F is correct it might tell you it's time to do something with your knock sensors (deadening or relocation) if they are giving false readings. I hope it makes sense and helps. -JoeB

[StockSolara]

Thanks JoeB. . . I was looking at it. . . What is the feature "CAN Enabled"? One OBD2 Scanner has it and the other doesn't but I can't seem to find on the website what that feature does.

[JoeB]

CAN is fairly new and stands for Controller Area Network. It will be a standardized protocol to talk to the vehicles rather than all of the different ones we have today. CARB has required all vehicle manufacturers to implement CAN by 2008. Many of the American manufacturers started in 2003, Toyota started in 2004. It has a very fast connection and is further broken down like CAN B, CAN C and CAN D which specify the speed. The common speeds are 250kbps and 500kbps. If I'm not mistaken, I think CAN D is the fastest and will be like 1Mbps.

So to answer your question , CAN Enabled means that it will be able to read the newer cars that use the CAN protocol but as usual, I had to add all those other words. -JoeB

[gman]

So to answer your question , CAN Enabled means that it will be able to read the newer cars that use the CAN protocol but as usual, I had to add all those other words. -JoeB

That's why you are the king on this forum. Feature/benefit qualified and quantified, heck you could even put it on a nice salad.