Over Drive

Originally Posted by harveyrv

I actually installed a temp guage on my trans when I installed the trans cooler but now you've got me thinking about this stupid thing.........

Same here. When I rebuilt the engine in my Astro, I went ahead and installed the trans cooler, temp gauge sending unit, and routed the wire, while it was easy to do. It was a few months later when I actually got around to actually mounting the gauge inside and connecting it all up.

The one gauge I find myself still wanting is a tach, so this little gadget may be the ticket.

I'm assuming you can arrange the gauges in groups of 4...say one page of 4 with fuel economy stats, and maybe the second page of 4 would be for various temps, and then maybe a third with engine performance, etc??
I also really like the idea that it's portable, so you can move it from one TV to another. Very cool.

Originally Posted by ED-n-KEL

Same here. When I rebuilt the engine in my Astro, I went ahead and installed the trans cooler, temp gauge sending unit, and routed the wire, while it was easy to do. It was a few months later when I actually got around to actually mounting the gauge inside and connecting it all up.

The one gauge I find myself still wanting is a tach, so this little gadget may be the ticket.

I'm assuming you can arrange the gauges in groups of 4...say one page of 4 with fuel economy stats, and maybe the second page of 4 would be for various temps, and then maybe a third with engine performance, etc??
I also really like the idea that it's portable, so you can move it from one TV to another. Very cool.

I am not sure whether you are referring to the Aeroforce that Bill has, or the ScanGauge that I have, but I will give some details on the ScanGauge II.

On a lot of vehicles when you plug the unit in, a bunch of info is automatically available. Outside of the regular gauges, some of these are: Fuel Pressure, Throttle Position Sensor, MPG, GPH (Gallons per Hour), Ignition Timing, Air Intake Temperature, Engine Loading, etc. In addition to these, you can plug in a code and get: Transmission Temp., Torque Converter Slippage, Transmission Gear Ratio, and a bunch of other stuff. Basically, most anything that goes through the vehicle computer can be displayed on the Scan Gauge II.

In the gauge mode, 4 things can be displayed at 1 time. I have Transmission Gear Ratio (to know exactly what gear I am in), Torque Converter Speed Ratio (indicates whether the torque converter is locked or not), Current MPG, and Transmission Temperature. You can put any reading in any location. You can also reset the Current Mode at any time......I do this to see what my mileage is on 2 lane road @ 55 mph vs. a stretch of interstate @ 65 mph, or watch the mpg go south with a couple of stoplights in a hilly town.

With 2 button pushes, I can switch to the Trip Mode. There are 4 different time periods that can be viewed. Current (since the engine was last started), Today, Previous Day, and Tank. Some of the things viewed with these are: Hours, MPG, Max. Water Temp., Max RPM, Max. Speed, and I can’t remember exactly what else. When viewing the Tank Mode, it will also indicate total gals. of gas used, gals until empty, total hours and hours until empty, and cost per mile.

When setting up the ScanGauge, you need to enter the gas tank size, type of fuel, engine size, and a couple of other items. The 1st and 2nd gas fills need to be entered also, and subsequent if you want to keep the Tank Mode accurate. The data entered during fill up is number of gallons (until you get a good overall average), and cost per gallon. I no longer need to adjust the gallons, as the ScanGauge is within a 10th or 2 either way of my actual fill-ups.

There are also multiply display colors available, as well as a custom color function.

If a check engine light comes on, the ScanGauge can read the malfunction code. You can also reset the check engine light via the ScanGauge. That in itself would have saved me $70 diagnostic fee when I didn’t tighten my gas cap enough on another vehicle I had.

When I 1st got the ScanGauge, the functions were overwhelming for a bit until I read the manual and experimented with it. Now, it is a neat little tool to try and tweak my gas mileage, and also it is a better way to keep tab on my truck critical information.

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by mtnguy

I am not sure whether you are referring to the Aeroforce that Bill has, or the ScanGauge that I have, but I will give some details on the ScanGauge II.

On a lot of vehicles when you plug the unit in, a bunch of info is automatically available. Outside of the regular gauges, some of these are: Fuel Pressure, Throttle Position Sensor, MPG, GPH (Gallons per Hour), Ignition Timing, Air Intake Temperature, Engine Loading, etc. In addition to these, you can plug in a code and get: Transmission Temp., Torque Converter Slippage, Transmission Gear Ratio, and a bunch of other stuff. Basically, most anything that goes through the vehicle computer can be displayed on the Scan Gauge II.

In the gauge mode, 4 things can be displayed at 1 time. I have Transmission Gear Ratio (to know exactly what gear I am in), Torque Converter Speed Ratio (indicates whether the torque converter is locked or not), Current MPG, and Transmission Temperature. You can put any reading in any location. You can also reset the Current Mode at any time......I do this to see what my mileage is on 2 lane road @ 55 mph vs. a stretch of interstate @ 65 mph, or watch the mpg go south with a couple of stoplights in a hilly town.

With 2 button pushes, I can switch to the Trip Mode. There are 4 different time periods that can be viewed. Current (since the engine was last started), Today, Previous Day, and Tank. Some of the things viewed with these are: Hours, MPG, Max. Water Temp., Max RPM, Max. Speed, and I can’t remember exactly what else. When viewing the Tank Mode, it will also indicate total gals. of gas used, gals until empty, total hours and hours until empty, and cost per mile.

When setting up the ScanGauge, you need to enter the gas tank size, type of fuel, engine size, and a couple of other items. The 1st and 2nd gas fills need to be entered also, and subsequent if you want to keep the Tank Mode accurate. The data entered during fill up is number of gallons (until you get a good overall average), and cost per gallon. I no longer need to adjust the gallons, as the ScanGauge is within a 10th or 2 either way of my actual fill-ups.

There are also multiply display colors available, as well as a custom color function.

If a check engine light comes on, the ScanGauge can read the malfunction code. You can also reset the check engine light via the ScanGauge. That in itself would have saved me $70 diagnostic fee when I didn’t tighten my gas cap enough on another vehicle I had.

When I 1st got the ScanGauge, the functions were overwhelming for a bit until I read the manual and experimented with it. Now, it is a neat little tool to try and tweak my gas mileage, and also it is a better way to keep tab on my truck critical information.

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!!!

I just ordered one ......are you happy now......

If I keep this up, I won't be able to afford to put gas in this thing at all.....

I keep getting tempted. The miser in me doesn't want to spend the money, but the engineer in me wants another new toy.

Both of my trucks are big enough that towing the TM is not a major strain and they both had a trans temp gauge, so I don't have a lot of motivation.

Honest officer, I was not distracted by using a cell phone. I was fiddling with a little adjustable gauge on the dash and that is why the accident happened.



Is it not possible to plug in a laptop and display all this stuff? What is the cost of going the laptop route instead of buying a scanner? It would just be a plug, a cable and some software.

Originally Posted by mtnguy

When I 1st got the ScanGauge, the functions were overwhelming for a bit until I read the manual and experimented with it. Now, it is a neat little tool to try and tweak my gas mileage, and also it is a better way to keep tab on my truck critical information.

It was the ScanGauge that I was looking at.
Very neat little tool.
Thanks mtnguy for all the additional info.

I spent a $100 on just code scanner a while back, so this seems very reasonable.

Wayne
Now that you will have a Scan Gauge, you will know how much gas you can't afford.

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by PopBeavers

I keep getting tempted. The miser in me doesn't want to spend the money, but the engineer in me wants another new toy.

Both of my trucks are big enough that towing the TM is not a major strain and they both had a trans temp gauge, so I don't have a lot of motivation.

Honest officer, I was not distracted by using a cell phone. I was fiddling with a little adjustable gauge on the dash and that is why the accident happened.



Is it not possible to plug in a laptop and display all this stuff? What is the cost of going the laptop route instead of buying a scanner? It would just be a plug, a cable and some software.

I think this might be what you are thinking of:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/OBD-I...motiveQ5fTools

There's lots of stuff available under OBD II:

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_trkparm...d=p3286.c0.m14

I thought about this too but it doesn't seem real practical and it would take up a lot of space.

For fifty bucks I can discard my miser attitude.

I get paid to write programs of large computer systems. I took a JAVA class in 1999 and have never had a reason to use that language. I wonder what I could do with a bit of hardware and my own software. There might even be some free down loadable source code for me to start with.

Real time graphics on a laptop screen of my fuel economy, or lack thereof.

Plot fuel economy and transmission temperature simultaneously.

Suck all the data out and then run it through some software to look for correlations.

Log the data and then in real time compare current values to historical data, reporting any significant deviations from the historical data.

Annotate a Google map displaying actual mpg between cities as I drive across the Sierras to go camping. I'd have to suck the data out of my Garmin GPS to do that. Oh the joy of accessing data from two devices all at the same time.

This is the kind of thing that causes Computer Widows, wives that never see the husband all week after dinner because he is busy with the computer fooling around with hardware.

So many gadgets and so little time.

Originally Posted by PopBeavers

Honest officer, I was not distracted by using a cell phone. I was fiddling with a little adjustable gauge on the dash and that is why the accident happened.

Is it not possible to plug in a laptop and display all this stuff? What is the cost of going the laptop route instead of buying a scanner? It would just be a plug, a cable and some software.

My son ran his car off the interstate and into the woods, because he had is laptop on the seat next to him fiddling with it.
The car was totaled. He escaped with a severely bruised hip and lots of other cuts and minor bruises...(thank God for seatbelts!).
Another first hand experience I would not recommend.

Originally Posted by harveyrv

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!!!

I just ordered one ......are you happy now......

If I keep this up, I won't be able to afford to put gas in this thing at all.....

Wayne, I am so glad that I can help you stimulate the economy.

Give everyone a report after you get the ScanGauge II and after you have used it for a trip or 2.

I can't buy any more toys (er, I mean tools) for my towing needs......with the ScanGauge, Pressure Pro TPMS, and a Tom Tom on top of my dash, I just don't have any more room.