Tacoma Dude

As I posted in this thread I got this in the mail today:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=46030


So far it has done everything it said it would:

Like anything else from Harbor Freight, I will be curious to know how long this reader will last. Assuming that my problems are fixed and I have managed to drive 500+ miles with no reappearance of the CEL, I'll post a positive remark and maybe even have a review for Corey to post.

Thanks to 3.4v6 for directing me to this little gizmo

3.4v6

no problem Tacoma Dude, since you have tried it i might spend the $40 and invest in one of these also.

Tacoma Dude

You may want to hold off on that for now...

Let me make sure it works first. It pulled some codes and it's been easy to use but I just want to make sure that the diagnostics are correct. Don't want anyone spending $40 because of a referral I haven't made yet

Bob_98SR5

pete,

cool beans. let us know how it works out. i'm tempted to get the auterra one that MTL has, but at the moment, no more goodies for awhile. though this one could easily slip under the wife radar .

bob

Tacoma Dude

If I was into rating the engine performance and knew what I was doing I'd probably go for that one as well. But I just want that dang CEL to go away!!!

If Rob's fix suggestion works that will kind of confirm the results of this code reader but I think I may go to a garage and see if I can convince someone to run their diagnostics and see if we come to the same conclusion.

That would definitely speed up confirmation on whether or not this thing is working. I'll just have to try to charm someone into pulling the code for free
..or for minimal cost

MTL_4runner

I love my Auterra unit and wouldn't trade it for anything, but if this one works well I might recommend to others not wanting to spend the $200 for the added features the other one delivers. There is no reason everyone who does ANY maintenance on your car should be without an OBD reader....if only to protect yourself from getting scammed at the garage.

ruizs

I have one of these readers too, works great! Gives me the code in the computer, what more can you ask... not bad for $40.

spyder

I'm leaning heavily towards the Auterra and have been trading emails with them regarding features. Supposedly they will have a "Toyota Pack" but it's at least 6 months out. A couple features I'm specifically looking for are the ability to grab the tranny temperature and tire pressures/temps. MTL, do you know of any scanners that would pull these other than the $$$$ toyota ones? A buddy just bought a cable and some shareware software that's pretty basic but works. The up side is there's a Linux version with source code. Figure between the source and using a serial protocol analyzer on the cable (we're network administrators) we might be able to come up with something.

MTL_4runner

spyder, I like the way you are thinking!!!

I would love to develop something that allows you to hook into the other systems in the vehicle. Sadly, I have looked at programming for the Palm and didn't get far (I am a electronics and hardware guy, not a programmer). I am not sure if the ABS and Tranny even use the same protocols as the ECU. What would really be awesome is to be able to program the ROM on the ECU just like a BIOS then take it for a ride and see how it runs. If you could set that up all on the Palm, MAN that would be slick!!! I just don't know enough technically to pull it off by myself. Send me a PM and we can discuss.

halza

My check eng light came on too, I went to the dealer and they want $80 just to diagnose the problem, please let me know if this toy works.

Tacoma Dude

I'm going to see if I can hit up some smaller mom and pop shops this upcoming week to see if they can confirm. If I wait for my CEL light to disappear, I might be keeping some of you in suspense for a good week and a half!

MTL_4runner

I am sure it works.....question is how reliable is it and will it break. Time will tell, but if you need codes pulled and don't want to spend much for other features, you can't go wrong for only $40.

midiwall

Do you have a Schucks or AutoZone around? They'll pull the codes for free - but not clear 'em.

btw, for that unit to be "wrong" it would have to be a serious hack programming job. The trouble code data is pretty straight-forward to display.. The data as it comes back from a request is quite literal. If it's working at all, then I'd say it's working 100%.


This software will pull the T codes? Can you share where this cable and software is?

MTL_4runner

Mark, I'd love to see if a bunch of us could not develop something like I mentioned above.
I know you have some great skills in that department!

midiwall

In theory, it's "easy"... it's just a matter of having the protocol data and the serial->PWM converter. I have the protocol - but only for P codes. It's "not difficult" to start hacking around and figure out the rest, but having a baseline to start from would save a BOATLOAD of time.

The good thing is that at the hardware level from the PC side, it's just low-speed serial data. So that means that something should be able to be written in a portable langauge like Java and remove the platform dependency.

I have no doubt that I could get a simple driver running - but I don't have the UI skills to make it pretty.

If Spyder can point me to Linux code that reads the T codes, I'm willing to take a shot at doing up a root interface for Windows and potentially Java.

If I had to guess, I think Spyder's buddy has the OBDiagnostics.com cable and interface 'cause I know that there's a Linux contingent out there supporting it. I didn't know that they had gotten the T codes.


We'll see!

MTL_4runner

Spyder.....it's up to you to come through for us now bud!!!

Nobody

Just pick'd up one today - works fine..told me the 0500 code for the speedo -hook'd up a relay to manually disable ABS and threw a code- it cleared it also.

Tacoma Dude

Nice!
I cleared my codes and have been going with a fix that Rob (WATRD) suggested. 90 miles and no reappearance of the CEL yet!

Is there a finger crossing smiley?

MTL_4runner

Peter, it sounds like Rob hit that fix right on the head.
I never would have guessed at that one but I have certainly filed it away for later.