Thread: New OBDII scantool - Beta testers?

Looks impressive. I like the fact that it uses the same command set as the ELM chip. The baud rate is a definite plus for the CAN bus.

I may have to pick one of these up.

Originally Posted by NiSlo

I've done a quick search, but couldn't find an answer. I thought I read something a while ago where someeone was saying that you can't use a serial to usb converter with the scantools? Ie. Using a serial scantool with a converter into a usb port. Am I making this up or is it possible?

I bough the serial tool a few months back, my system has changed lisghtly and the abaility to use usb would make things MUCH easier.

While it may be true what Paul says about his tool, there is some truth to the fact that not all USB to Serial converters will work. I've experienced this quite often to the point I purchased a PCMCIA card for my laptop from Quatech (www.quatech.com).

They have several varieties to include 1, 2 and 4 serial ports on a single card. I believe that the majority of programs that don’t play nice with USB to Serial adaptors are those written in the Window’s 98 and earlier. If you have a DOS based program I’d say there’s about a 90% chance that it won’t work with a USB to Serial Converter. This is due to a missing driver commonly used in DOS and abandoned in Windows XP.

Michbound and DM2, thanks for the input.

I'll chase one down and let you know how I go.

Just got mine today. Talk about fast shipping! Ordered it late Monday night and received it this morning. Can't wait to try it out.

How are the response times on these? Is it a relatively quick response (ie. will virtually monitor speed/RPMs in realtime) or is there a bit of lag between the car's onboard computer and the computer?

What software do you all use with this interface to read it? I am hoping to have a nice interface into the RoadRunner frontend, so I was fishing for some suggestions.

Also, is there a difference in performance between the USB and Serial interfaces?

I love the low price of these modules, just trying to make sure it works well first. Sorry... low prices always make me a skeptic... not to mention I'm a cheapskate, lol

Thanks for the responses!

Originally Posted by ctsoccer13

How are the response times on these? Is it a relatively quick response (ie. will virtually monitor speed/RPMs in realtime) or is there a bit of lag between the car's onboard computer and the computer?

What software do you all use with this interface to read it? I am hoping to have a nice interface into the RoadRunner frontend, so I was fishing for some suggestions.

Also, is there a difference in performance between the USB and Serial interfaces?

I love the low price of these modules, just trying to make sure it works well first. Sorry... low prices always make me a skeptic... not to mention I'm a cheapskate, lol

Thanks for the responses!

Response times vary based on what protcol your vehicle supports and also the number of parameters that you monitor simultaneously, the OBD II spec defines different timeout's for responses and that will factor into the response, for CAN you can expect about 25-30 refreshes/sec, for rest of the protocols about 8-16 refreshes/sec.

All the ELM327 software packages will work with the OBDPro, some of the better ones are digimoto and PCMScan which are commercial packages, but the free ones such as wOBD, Scantool.net etc all work just fine, RoadRunner specific packages - maybe someone else can chime in for that.

No performance difference between the USB & Serial.

Thanks
Paul
www.obdpros.com

Originally Posted by NiSlo

Michbound and DM2, thanks for the input.
I'll chase one down and let you know how I go.

Just a quick update. I've finally got a usb to rs232 (serial) converter cable and it works perfectly. I got a cable with a male usb plug at one end and a male rs232 plug at the other, so it simply replaces the standard serial cable that goes between the OBDpros module and the pc that ships with the serial verison of the OBDpros.

The module itself works flawlessly

Originally Posted by NiSlo

Just a quick update. I've finally got a usb to rs232 (serial) converter cable and it works perfectly. I got a cable with a male usb plug at one end and a male rs232 plug at the other, so it simply replaces the standard serial cable that goes between the OBDpros module and the pc that ships with the serial verison of the OBDpros.

The module itself works flawlessly

Did you have to load Window XP device drivers for the usb serial dongle?

Yeah, the one I got needed an additional driver that came with it on a mini-cd. Once I ran the installer, it worked fine.