Chipit scan tool

[ToyTruck]

Has anyone bought this scan tool from Chipit?

Chip It OBD II Scan Tool – CODE READER/ERASER

Great price, just wondering if anyone's tried it out and got all the readings.

 

[Old.Tony]

That's competition for the Scangauge, which is priced at about $200. I wonder what the displays are like?

Personally I have a bluetooth OBD adapter and Torque software on my smartphone that provides me with access to a fair amount of information from the ECU (including everything listed on that page, error code reading/clearing too).

 

[jjohn]

Nice find,
I notice it reads coolant temp as well. I'd like a system that ALERTS higher than normal temps. Every car should have a temp alert. How many do damage cause you got your eye one the road instead of the gauge.

 

[RustyNav09]

mate they are well priced and competition as said before for the Scangauge units. ive heard alot about the bluetooth units that old.tony was talking about and linking to your smartphone(htc,iphone,samsung galaxy,etc). they are pretty accurate and sometimes free :S.

i was gonna through this in with my chip bit i thought if the car blows up i get a patrol replacement so im not gonna bother .

 

[Old.Tony]

Nice find,
I notice it reads coolant temp as well. I'd like a system that ALERTS higher than normal temps. Every car should have a temp alert. How many do damage cause you got your eye one the road instead of the gauge.

That's a feature I enjoy on my smartphone using the Torque application. I can set alarms for many different items too long to list here. I currently have a coolant temp alarm set for 110C. I had it at 104C but kept triggering it when climbing hills with the van attached. Since the temp rarely rose above 106, I decided that a "fault" level would be about 110C. I guess I'll see how much further that needs to be pushed over summer!

 

[jjohn]

That's the ticket. Thanks Tony

 

[Old.Tony]

There's a caveat, John.

Instead of buying a $129 tool that's specifically designed for the task, you need to buy a decent smartphone (mine is a Samsung Galaxy S II which costs around $800 outright), you need an ELM-327-compliant OBD II Bluetooth adapter (got mine for around $55) and you must have data services enabled on your phone (so a "talk only" plan is worthless). The cost isn't cheap to go this way - unless you already have a smartphone with a decent data-included plan, in which case the cost is the BT adapter plus $5 for the software from the Android Market.

 

[jjohn]

Yeh, good point.
I'm not at the New phone point yet with my contract, sadly.
I'm not panicking about the temp alert thing, but read plenty lately about cost of repair to turbo diesel baked eng's.
Just sent a Q to chip-it as to whether or not there scan tool has an temp alert system.
Cheaper to go this way for now, then use it in the other rigs I drive when I get the smart phone.

 

[ToyTruck]

The other thing I like about it is I don't have to look up what the error codes mean. Be great to get some inputs on people who've used it.

@Tony
That's a great excuse to get a smartphone, unfortunately the finance manager is wise to these things, she's an engineer. Probably quicker and easier to get a gun license.

@Rusty
You get a Patrol if you get your D22 busted? I'd happily do that for you if you were here.

 

[joe2006]

I want one!

Not a smart phone because I can't afford it & I'm not all that clever but one of those scan thingymijiggies.

I hope the topic keep going because I would like to make sure I'm not being compulsive.

I fear however that if there are no problems, there will be no error codes & the unit will sit in my shed alongside all of my other compulsive purchases?

 

[Old.Tony]

I want one!

Not a smart phone because I can't afford it & I'm not all that clever but one of those scan thingymijiggies.

I hope the topic keep going because I would like to make sure I'm not being compulsive.

I fear however that if there are no problems, there will be no error codes & the unit will sit in my shed alongside all of my other compulsive purchases?

Judging by the appearance of the tool:

* It's powered by your OBD port so it's just the single cable coming out
* It will fit in one of those suction-cup windscreen mount mobile phone holders

It doesn't have to sit in your garage, if it displays real time info.

Robert! What say you?

 

[joe2006]

Not hearing anything I don't like.

I am getting quite excited.

Fuel consumption figures would be the decider I reckon although it makes no mention.

 

[Old.Tony]

The ECU does have information on what it thinks is the current LPHK and my Torque application does pick this up and displays it in real time. This might be in the "plus many more" listed on the web page.

Robert should be at work. Call him! 1800 78 48 82

 

[joe2006]

Nope,

While it does lots of other stuff better than some readers, I have confirmed that there are no "fuel trims". For that I require a scangauge.

Bugger.

 

[Rich64]

I reckon I'll get 1 of those Chip It units, the guy that installed my chip uses 1 all the time , he swears by them. I recently bought 1 of those bluetooth OBD scan jobbies from the internet, and when it arrived, in small print in the "instructions" it says " not for diesel engines" D'Oh !! Oh well it was only about 20 bucks..

 

[Old.Tony]

Rich, what kind of device did you get? If it's just a bluetooth adapter for an OBD port, then it doesn't matter WHAT engine, the software in your computer/smartphone is what interprets the information. Could you post up a link to the device on eBay or the web site you got it from?

 

[SideStep]

The ECU does have information on what it thinks is the current LPHK and my Torque application does pick this up and displays it in real time. This might be in the "plus many more" listed on the web page.

Robert should be at work. Call him! 1800 78 48 82

Old Tony I like all that you are saying about it. My phone and data plan is keen on teaming up to be put to good use other then the daily Alexis Texas downloads!

Where did you buy your plug thingy and what is the android app called?

Cheers.

 

[Old.Tony]

Old Tony I like all that you are saying about it. My phone and data plan is keen on teaming up to be put to good use other then the daily Alexis Texas downloads!

Where did you buy your plug thingy and what is the android app called?

Cheers.

Jason found the plug in this post linking to DealExtreme: $54.67 ELM327 Bluetooth OBD-II Wireless Transceiver Dongle.

I had my doubts about it working, but it does when you have the right software and hardware talking to it.

An android-based phone (like mine) can make use of Ian Hawkins' Torque application. I'm sure there'd be something in the Apple market if you have an iPhone.

 

[SideStep]

Jason found the plug in this post linking to DealExtreme: $54.67 ELM327 Bluetooth OBD-II Wireless Transceiver Dongle.

I had my doubts about it working, but it does when you have the right software and hardware talking to it.

An android-based phone (like mine) can make use of Ian Hawkins' Torque application. I'm sure there'd be something in the Apple market if you have an iPhone.

Yeah thanks for the info mate. I'm on android also.

 

[KraftyPg]

Not really competition for the SG given it does a lot more and is priced accordingly but it would want to be a hell of a lot more accurate that SG given the price that's for sure. There is a common fault with all OBDII scanner/readers and this one may suffer from the same inaccuracies but it still does a lot more than SG.