Car Chip E/X - guy at work got this!

[Titan4x4Aggie]

One of the lead test engineers here at work got a Car Chip E/X and brought in the user's manual. This thing looks really cool. Lots of neat features, including an accident logger.

You can also set 4 parameters to log (5 second sampling rate) from a choice of 23 parameters, including the following:

RPM
Throttle position
Engine load
Fuel pressure
Fuel system status
Short- and long-term-fuel trim
Battery voltage
Timing advance
Coolant temperature
Air flow rate
Intake air temperature
Intake manifold pressure
Oxygen sensor voltage

Man, I want one of these. This would be too cool. Might even be more beneficial for parents.

[frankyD]

I imagine. these are great for monitoring teenagers or employees in company vehicles.
They could be valuable evidence in court in some traffic situations.

[raskm]

Why would you want this?

[phillipyang]

Just to log the activity. To see your performance gains and such.

[the head]

The CANscan thing that I bought does this. And I can watch it realtime (somewhat). But I guess if you can wait to see the data or don't want a laptop sitting next to you, this would be the ticket.

[frankyD]

I've been checking out the scanning software. Thats where my money will go.
but this device is convenient if you want to monitor someone elses driving.

[Titan4x4Aggie]

you can log 300 hours of data, and look at fuel trim changes (short and long) to see what all is going on.

eric, you got any more info on that CANscan thing? why is it better?

[Titan4x4Aggie]

i found some info on the CANscan device:

http://www.ghg.net/dharrison/canscan.htm

sounds similar to the car chip, only newer and faster. since the car chip runs off of the standard obd-II, it might have more universal use (down to 1996 vehicles), which kids will be mostly driving.

still, both look like neat goodies. how much was that CANscan? if you got it free, how much are we expected to pay?

the car chip website lists their's for $180 (the E/X version).

[Titan4x4Aggie]

okay, i've done more reading, and it seems some new cars dont accept the old OBD-II software and hardware.

can this CANscan thing take data and store it (up to a certain number of megs, like 256 MB), or do you have to do all data takes and storage with a laptop / palm pilot?

[the head]

It was $160 because I bought the USB cables. Not sure how much data it stores, enough for me - it is a set amount but I don't recall what it is (like 40,000 data points if I remember correctly).

Never said it was better...

[SUBTITAN]

Originally Posted by Titan4x4Aggie

okay, i've done more reading, and it seems some new cars dont accept the old OBD-II software and hardware.

can this CANscan thing take data and store it (up to a certain number of megs, like 256 MB), or do you have to do all data takes and storage with a laptop / palm pilot?

It's a PC or Palm type tool.

[Titan4x4Aggie]

never said it was worse...