Maxitrip for $100

[biggy boy]

I agree whats the point in making and selling something that is ridiculously inaccurate.
And on top of that those MFs didn't respond to any of my Emails.

[smartzuuk]

There'll always be knock-offs, and of course I tried the PLX Kiwi out when it was released to great fanfare and hype last year... but you know, the ScanGauge will always come out on top. And I buy 50 at a time.

[gtg465x]

Of course the ScanGauge is the best... no one's denying that. But honestly, if people are worried about gas mileage, there's a good chance they don't have a lot of money to throw around. So if they can come close to a ScanGauge for $50 to $70 less, then a Maxitrip looks very attractive. I'm happy with mine.

[biggy boy]

Originally Posted by smartzuuk

There'll always be knock-offs, and of course I tried the PLX Kiwi out when it was released to great fanfare and hype last year... but you know, the ScanGauge will always come out on top. And I buy 50 at a time.

Hi there I purchased my Scangauge from you on line, works great.
And you have the best price for us Canadians on online. I checked as many places on line and by far yous was the cheapest. plus I got it really quick.


Thanks!
Glen

[biggy boy]

Originally Posted by gtg465x

Of course the ScanGauge is the best... no one's denying that. But honestly, if people are worried about gas mileage, there's a good chance they don't have a lot of money to throw around. So if they can come close to a ScanGauge for $50 to $70 less, then a Maxitrip looks very attractive. I'm happy with mine.

Ya well that POS maxitrip was waisting my time.
And for me anyway saving on gas is more then just about saving money,
Hell if it was all about money, I would not be drivng a full size pickup

Glen

[Ricketts]

I returned my two Maxitrips to Princess Auto last week, their return policy is great!

The concept was nice, but, as usual, failed in implementation. So much junk from over there is the same. If it doesn't have Melamine or lead in it, it just doesn't work quite right

Or the ATO fuses that weren't fuses, just pieces of wire that would melt the plastic of the "fuse" and some of the wiring in your vehicle. But I digress.

I finally got to use the code reader section of my SG last week...my truck threw a code! Not that I am happy my truck threw a code, but I finally got to see it in action. Replaced the sensor that was bad, and all is well.

Rick

[gyro_john]

I bought mine yesterday Sat 20091114 from Princess Auto in Saskatoon. They are having a sale for around the $80 mark.

Before I bought it, I wanted to research the thing, and my search brought me right here. So thanks to all of you for the good information.

I thought maybe someone would benefit from my observations, and there are just a few that have not been made by others.

Here goes:

1. The units can be set to either litres or US Gallons, but not imperial gallons. That's sort of too bad, because I grew up in MPG and have never really mastered Litres per Hundred Kilometres without calculating the conversion, but apparently I'm about to.
2. Voltage displayed reads a bit high: my car reads 15.0/14.9VDC running, and about 13.7 stopped. I haven't compared it to a good DVM, but I know that's a bit too high to be accurate. Still not too big a deal as long as I know its reading about 5 - 10% high.
3. It does display instant and avg litres/100km and (haven't tried it) it SAYS MPG as opposed to 1/MPG
- BUT manual also seems to be saying that it will display 1/MPG, not MPG?
4. The usb port is only for updating the firmware; not for uploading trip data to a computer. You only get to see your saved data on the MaxiTrip screen
5. The backlight is always on and is a slightly blue-ish white. Plenty bright enough yet not so bright as to be distracting. The unit stays on for several seconds after shutdown, presumably while a filter cap discharges. It comes on right away at startup.
6. I set the clock, then 6 hours later it was several hours out.
7. It seems to always fire up in the main menu mode so I always have to tell it what I want to display. Maybe the manual will tell me how to specify a default screen, but I haven't yet found any such.
8. Missing from the box: mounting sticker. I used 1" of velcro with double-sided sticky tape on it. No problem.

Bottom line:
I expected that, for this price, it would be buggy and/or have weird features and/or missing features. I was pleasantly surprised that, when I plugged it in, it started to work about as well as I could have expected (the abovementioned snags aside).

What it does for me:
1. Nag function: If I leave it set to display instantaneous L/100km, then it really encourages me to be gentle with the throttle. That's not a bad thing.
2. Diagnostic Trouble Code reader: I've been wanting to get one, and never quite parted with the money. Never needed one yet either, but now I have one for when a car develops a problem.
3. Gauges: I have now displayed, for the first time on this car (2000 Saturn L-series 2.2l 4 cyl) things like:
- ignition advance
- coolant temp
- throttle position sensor
- Manifold absolute pressure
- Intake air temp (how cold is it outside this morning?)
This gives me more insight into how the sensors should be working when I ever have to start troubleshooting them.

I would buy this again at this price.

If any of you want to communicate with me about this, please respond via e-mail, as I'm not even a lurker here.

nospamjohndotnospamwetzelatnospamshawdotca

Remove the nospams, change dots to periods, change at to @ and you have a valid e-mail address. Please do not repay me by giving my email address to any more spammers.

Regards to all, and thanks again for the info I got here.

[cfg83]

gyro_john -

Good luck with the Maxitrip. It seems sensitive to heat, so I would keep it protected from direct sunlight. Give it TLC. I do that with my SGI too.

CarloSW2

[gyro_john]

Update: I mentioned the clock lost time? Well apparently the clock STOPS when the car is shut off. I checked the date and time after work today and it thought it was still lunchtime two days ago.

That's pretty retarded, so I'm now suspecting that they knew the shipped version of the firmware was iffy, and that's why they included a baby CD with a new version of the firmware and a firmware updater utility.

I'm going to get the latest version from Autel's website and try that.

And apparently my OBDII port continues to supply power when the car is shut off, because if I unplug/replug the RJ11 connector, the display will come on again. So it's not like the Maxitrip is not getting power to run its clock.

[SVOboy]

Got this email today:

I was researching the MaxiTrip and came across this thread.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...00-a-9377.html

I just wanted to pass some information regarding this item because I think your members who owns this unit might be interested in a firmware update.

I wrote to the manufacturer asking questions about this unit, I got a reply and a new version (1.2) firmware update. I don't know what the new version does different from V1.1. But according to a reviewer on Amazon the new version fixes the distance traveled problem.

I am not a member and I don't want to sign up just to do 1 post. If any of the members in this thread is interested in the update just send me an email to chu_dave@yahoo.com and I can forward the message with the firmware update attachment.