OBDII monitoring

[RF Overlord]

This morning, the "Check Engine Soon" light on my company-issued work van came on (an '01 Tonka-toy oops I MEAN GMC Safari)

Anyroad, it got me thinking about OBDII scanners, and I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or experience...

I was looking at the AutoTap KAT2PEPT for Palms, which will also read Ford's enhanced parameters...if it saves me even one trip to the dealer, it's probably paid for itself...

[Donny Carlson]

Auto Zone will give you a reading for free.

[SergntMac]

I'm waiting for the next gen Superchips hand held programmer. Jerry mentioned a while back that a version is in the works that will live data log. He said "after the first of the year," and I can't wait. I hope this product gets released. Live logging would be a real handy option when tuning your MM. Fingers crossed...

[Marauderer]

The top two that I am aware of right now are Autotap and OBD-II. OBD-II is currently the best bang for the buck, but before you buy you should consider what you want it to do. If it is just to check and remove engine codes and maybe a little "intelligence" gathering, the OBD-II is superb. If you want to be able to datalog for tuning on your own like with the SCT Pro Racer Package or send off the data to your tuner (but you will still need a Wideband O2 or lots of dyno time), then there are two things to wait for. The first is a new version of Autotap that is due out with real time data logging and the next is the much anticipated SCT data logger. Last time I talked to Jerry they were getting close, but still no firm dates (still in development). I'm waiting on the SCT version to match my SCT tuning package. Having values and parameter labels match up will do wonders for my custom tuning efforts.

The reasons why you would want to wait to buy a better unit for tuning is due to the capture frame rate of the current version (autotap and OBD-II). They do great when monitoring a couple of values, but when you up the number of parameters, especially all those needed when you do your tuning, they both get miserably slow. I've seen them get as slow as 1 update per 1.5 - 2 seconds. Doesn't sound that bad huh, but consider a good tuning WOT run is equal to your 1/4 mile time that is only 5 - 8 updates total. Not enough to see how much timing you are running per RPM, let alone fuel trims, MAF #\min, TP, VS, Load, Trans Temp, Fuel Pressure, etc.

BTW - I have never tried a palm version, but I can tell you that I have seen laptop speed become an issue with update speed. Now I do not know this for fact, but it is an educated guess that the palm version would again be much slower than the PC version, which could further hamper real data collection efforts.

[Logan]

Well... Ummm... Ditto what Bill said. :) I have nothing to add.

[MENINBLK]

The easiest and most flexible OBD-II reader I have seen and own is the Alex Peper ODB-II reader.
All you have to do is to buy the cable from Alex, and download his software
into your Windows based Notebook or Laptop PC.
Alex's cable attaches to a serial port, and you connect the other end to your vehicle.

You can get real time data streams, and record them for playback.
It will read all codes and reset your PCM.
It is also the least expensive option available that is worth MORE than what you actually pay for it.

Go here to read up on what Alex has available...

http://www.obd-2.com

[JohnE]

I use Alex's car code, obd-2.com Great product for the price. But like Bill said, it's not real-time. It gives access to stored codes and allow you to reset the computer too.

John

[MENINBLK]

Originally posted by JohnE
I use Alex's car code, obd-2.com Great product for the price. But like Bill said, it's not real-time. It gives access to stored codes and allow you to reset the computer too.

John

I don't understand what your meaning of REAL TIME is...

I've used Alex's software to do REAL TIME monitoring and recording.

Pete...

[JohnE]

I consider real-time having about (2-20)k samples per second. When logging data, you want more points captured than it takes to see all changes occur. It's about data resolution.

Normal OBDII is fine for vehicle speed. It's not fast enough to capture max actual RPM's of shiftpoints. And not usefull at all for tranny pressures. But some data is better than no data.


John

[MENINBLK]

Originally posted by JohnE
I consider real-time having about (2-20)k samples per second. When logging data, you want more points captured than it takes to see all changes occur. It's about data resolution.

Okay, that makes more sense to me.
You are looking for a really fast, high resolution scanner.

How fast can the PCM in the Marauder deliver data ?