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There are quite a few software for laptop and smart phone/PDA programs out there. I have hands on experience with the Torque app for Android based phones and have to say that it’s a nifty piece of software. I can say for certain though, don’t cheap out on the bluetooth OBD2 adapter. For a good set up, it’ll cost you minimum $100 for the adapter and the price for the software…with the software being the cheaper end. You can check the software out for free too…it’s really nice for basic diagnosis as it can give you a lot of information in real time while you are driving!
EFI Live is a really nice piece of software, but it requires a little higher level of automotive knowledge and a bit more money to make it worth your while. You can literally custom tune your cars computer with the program and interface cable, but it comes with a pretty steep price to do that. They do have just the diagnostic software available, but it’s still not “cheap”….cheaper than buying a snap on scanner though! Plus, there is a really good support community behind both that I have discussed.
There are a lot of decent programs out there though, it just depends on what you are comfortable the most with.
This is the main barrier to diagnostic access for the DIY enthusiast. I can’t afford to buy what I would like, and what I can afford may be obsolete in a couple of years. It would be great to have a tool that worked across platforms, that could turn devices in the vehicle on and off to test them from within, and to show real time sensor data. Alas, my eyes are bigger than my wallet, so it’s a simple OBD scanner for now. Maybe one day….
That’s all considering if it’s OBD-II which has real time diagnostics built in. A lot of us pre-96 guys have to settle for something like Megasquirt if we want to get real time diagnostics and by that time, you’re tuning more than just running diagnostics. That’s one reason I really love the OBD-II stuff. You guys have a whole new world of real time diagnostics at your fingertips and I think it’s super great. I’m truly jealous of all the OBD2 toys. I would like to see what is out there and available even if I can’t personally use it since I have OBD1. I think it’s interesting stuff. I’m speaking purely about diagnostics only not tuning programs.
Seems like their is some interest in my idea. I knwoof Digimooandnow Isee something called EFI Live. Maybe Eric could a video on a few and summarize the results.
Quoted From spelunkerd:
This is the main barrier to diagnostic access for the DIY enthusiast. I can’t afford to buy what I would like, and what I can afford may be obsolete in a couple of years. It would be great to have a tool that worked across platforms, that could turn devices in the vehicle on and off to test them from within, and to show real time sensor data. Alas, my eyes are bigger than my wallet, so it’s a simple OBD scanner for now. Maybe one day….
The software may change a lot, but not the communication protocol. I think there are three types across all automotive manufacturers. There might be variants of the three protocols, but you can still talk to your car. Texas Instruments and Microchip both have chips for automotive embedded systems.
http://www.rpi.edu/dept/ecse/mps/sloa101.pdf
– Jeff
If anybody has experience with a few of the phone-app based software tools, I would definitely like to know more as well.
If the main comparison is between Digimoto and EFI Live, this site (getcomparisons.com) provides a pretty good interface for doing simple 1v1 product comparisons. In the mean time, this site seems to have some good information about available tools for OBD II: http://www.webpg.net/
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