Oh beloved hive, please edumecate me on ScanGauge or other OBD II Plug in doo dads.

OK, so I’ve been thinking about getting a Scan Gauge or similar for a while, but hadn’t broached the subject with the family CFO, AKA SWMBO or ‘the Spousal Unit’.  Lo and behold there was some kind of pop up video ad on her book of the faces page she showed me and said ‘hey, this looks cool, do you want one’  To which my overwhelming reply was yes, hell yes, yes please oh beloved one.  However, I did ask her to hold off until I researched which one.

So, oh great and powerful hive.  Are all these things created equal?  Is there a stand out?  DO some have added features?

I’d love to say I want one for data gathering on track etc., but let me check……….  Three or four autocrosses and one-track day in the last 10 years suggest otherwise and the fact that my last helmet has now aged out without ever being used.  I keep telling myself that now the kids are older I’ll get back into motorsport again, but let’s be honest, the facts tell me otherwise.  I refuse to give up hope in myself.

What I would use it for is geeking out on road trips.  Monitoring what’s going on.  I love obsessively calculating and recalculating economy (well, lack of) time, ETA, speed etc. etc. when on road trips.  I can definitely see me using it on the go with my phone, but I’d also consider one with its own dedicated display for the daily commute.

Who has one, who likes or dislikes what they have.  Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Looks like Santa’s gonna be good to me this year

Sounds like the same thing I was looking for for my van. I picked up a used ScanGauge II and couldn't be happier with it!

ooooh, sub'd. I'd also love to hear thoughts on bluetooth adapters + phone apps for the same purpose.

My suggestion is to pick up a cheap OBD2 reader on Amazon like this $13 one and pair it with an old Android phone or tablet with Torque.  Torque can do a lot more than a Scangauge can, and of course the UI is completely customizable.  And you might even know someone with a bunch of old Android phones that will let you have one cheap. 

In reply to Tom_Spangler :

I feel another lunch date coming on soon..........

I have a cheap amazon wifi (not bluetooth) one, and the OBD Fusion app for iphone. They give me the codes, they read a ton of stuff (temp, speeed, rpm, MAF, fuel rate, battery o2 sensor, instant fuel economy, boost if you have it, accel rate, will track 0-60, 1/4 mile, etc), and were cheap. Not sure how much the app was, but I want to say about $5 or less. 

Here is the scanner: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y5YFQ63/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Well check back later in hopes of a suggestion for iPhone people

Enyar said:

Well check back later in hopes of a suggestion for iPhone people

Check my post above. OBD Fusion app paired with this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y5YFQ63/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 

I have an old ScanGauge.  For me, it does a better job of being a gauge than it does at scanning.  This could be because it is older and it could be updatable but I have not tried.

It currently resides full time on the dashboard of my Nissan Quest acting as guages.  You see, the odometer LCD on the Quest was bad so for $6.99 I replaced the ribbon cable on the instrument panel.  This requires dis assembly of the entire cluster.  As is the risk, since completion I now have a working LCD for odo, fuel gauge and temp but my Speedo and Tach and no longer accurate.  I have the ScanGauge set to give me Speed, RPM, Volt and Temp.  Works great.  As a scan, not so great.  

For scan and geek-out stuff I use The Android Ap of Torque. I pay the one time $4.99 for the full version which is so much better than the free version

There are tons of tutorials out there like this video 

If you do not have an android handset, go to Walmart and look into the Prepaid cell phone section.  $39 will buy you something Android.  You never need to hook it up to service, you just need the screen. An old handset or Android tablet will work too.  

On my Prius, with a software packet gained from a Prius website, the Torque app will tell me the specific voltaage of each on of the 14 different cells in the hybrid battery pack...way cool.  

Use the $13 blue adaptor shown above.

John Welsh said

On my Prius, with a software packet gained from a Prius website, the Torque app will tell me the specific voltaage of each on of the 14 different cells in the hybrid battery pack...way cool. 

Could you point me to that website?

I called the Toyota dealer to ask if they could do that for me and the service advisor basically said it was not possible they would have to for it on the battery. I didn't believe him but didn't want to argue with him either. 

Scangauge II here. Ive mostly used it to track fuel economy and view/clear codes when needed. Has lots of options of gauges to display, and for some cars or manufacturers you can find information online on how to add additional gauge options.

I am still dialing it in on my current car, have 3 fuel economy gauges displayed to monitor: instant, trip average, and tank average. And maybe rpm or something.

The android gauge setups no doubt net you a much nicer display and are probably less expensive...but since youre using a phone, either gotta keep it plugged in or charge it frequently.

I bought the cheapest ELM327 adapter i could find and torque for my phone. They work fantastic, and have done so for 5 years.

mtn said:

Enyar said:

Well check back later in hopes of a suggestion for iPhone people

Check my post above. OBD Fusion app paired with this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y5YFQ63/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 

 

This is what I use as well.  Worked great for the wife’s 01 Yota and my 16 Ford.

i have a serial to Bluetooth adapter for the MegaSquirt and an old Android tablet, which I think I’ll need to replace as it’s a little slow.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson :

I happen to have an unused scangauge II. I'd be more than happy to send it your way so you can get a feel for what it can do. Only thing I ask is if you don't like it or buy something else send it back.

PM me.

Torque app for Prius

its like you guys read my mind! i was just looking for something like this to ID which cyl was causing the misfire from oil consumption...

:(

In reply to fidelity101 :

If Mr Thompson doesn't want it I'd be happy to send mine to you. Same deal applies.

Torque is a great option, I use it on everything except the MS3.

The MS3 has a Cobb Accessport 3 which, quite frankly, is in another league. It also comes with a much larger price tag but monitors up to 6 parameters live and will export the datalog into an Excel spreadsheet so you can parse them. I think the logging will capture something like 50 different parameters. You mostly think of them as a tuning tool but they're great for data capture if you're trying to diagnose a problem. Probably overkill for your situation though.

I have a ScanGauge 2 with the latest software updates. I really like it. I mostly use it for... the gauges.

I've got an Ultragauge. 

It's like a scan gauge, but much cheaper and with a slightly larger and newer looking display. I really like mine. Be warned their sunction cup mount kind of sucks.

For geeking out on road trips, and seeing a lot of data at once, I would recommend the Torque app and a bluetooth dongle. It allows a lot more customization and can show a lot more data at once.

If you only want to see 4 data points and you want a more permanent installation, the Scangauge is a great option. 

I got a scangauge for my truck to show transmission fluid temp and coolant temp while towing. My dad uses it occasionally so I wanted something he could use as well that didn't require a smart phone. I also have instant MPG and average MPG shown because I can. I've played with some of the other settings, but I find myself just using those 4 gauges. For everything else (toy cars, trips, geeking out, etc) I prefer the torque app because it is a lot more customizable and allows you to see a ot of data all at once. 

I use a cheap plugin WiFi obd adaptor things a OBDCarDoctor app. Works fine for what I want!

The only real advantage a scanguage has any more is that it's easy to hard mount with Velcro so you have it there and on all the time. It let's you monitor things that the stock gauges don't (like actual water temp) and gives you a basic code reader that you don't leave in the garage when you really need it in the car. For everything else, Torque is better.

Do any of the apps get you into ABS or SRS modules?  

Nick Comstock said:

In reply to Adrian_Thompson :

I happen to have an unused scangauge II. I'd be more than happy to send it your way so you can get a feel for what it can do. Only thing I ask is if you don't like it or buy something else send it back.

PM me.

PM now sent, I am, yet again,  blown away by the kindness and generosity of this place.