Cheap OBD II works with XP, not Vista.
 

Picked up one of these DealExtreme: $39.75 ELM327 USB Vehicle OBD-2 Scanner Tool

$39.75, from Deal Extreme (free shipping) seen elsewhere for quite a bit over $100.

Works with Scantool.net in XP Pro but can't get it going with Vista. Had to download the virtual COM port drivers from ftdichip.com 'cause the CD-R included only had drivers for Win 98 and 2000.

I've tried sending commands to it and used the test programs from scantool but all that happens on Vista is the USB TX light blinks.

I had to borrow a laptop with XP to see if it worked, can't do that all the time! I need to get the thing to work with Vista Ultimate 32bit.

Welcome to ecomodder,

Wow, they just clone elm 327s and put a big "elm 327" label on the box? That's not too cool.

re vista, work just sent me a new laptop and I had them upgrade it to xp (from vista). The folks who didn't are all complaining of one thing or another. My guess is vista IS the problem.

At home I use ubuntu, Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu no usb problems (or serial or parallel port problems) to speak of, works better than xp in that regard in my experience, and is free (though donations always welcome)

Finally got it working with Vista. Used FTDI's driver cleaner tool then reinstalled the FTDI drivers.

The box has to be connected to the car before any software will detect it. Scantool.net 1.13 works with it, version 1.14 doesn't.

Anyone edited the source to 1.14 and recompiled it to make it work with clones?

I opened the box (it's very sturdy extruded aluminum) and found it has UIFTECH ELM327[V1.2] printed on the PCB. It's very well made, everything surface mount except the connectors, one capacitor, the LEDs and two crystals. There's over 80 parts on the board, so it's not some minimalist POS.

FTDI chip is FT232BL. The chip where the magic happens is a PIC18F2480-I/SO Logo on it is a sort of M in a circle.

Deal Extreme buys most of their stuff direct from the manufacturer, cuts out all other middlemen and passes the savings to their customers.

I'm going to see if any of the software here OBD-DIAG Downloads will work with it.

The main thing I need this for is to log the O2 sensors on a 1998 Mountaineer. It runs perfectly yet it keeps popping a code claiming bank 2 cat efficiency is out of spec.

It's going to get an electric fan and some other things that have been proven to boost the MPG of those big guzzlers. ;) It gets up to 20 on the freeway, which is already higher than EPA rating with the V8. Electric fan ought to get it around 3 MPG more. (WTH Ford didn't put an electric fan on it anyway?????)

Galane -

Welcome to EM! When I had a bloated XP installation (too many apps), the Scantool stuff wasn't reliable,it worked maybe 10% of the time. When I ran a fresh install of XP, it worked fine. I wouldn't touch Vista for this stuff. Here is mine, with an ELM 322 (for GM vehicles) :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ging-1781.html

I don't use it much. The SG is best for day-to-day stuff. That may change if I get a mini-notebook with an SSD (no HD crashes please).

CarloSW2

TouchScan OBD-II Software will work with the Chinese clones. I use it with my $32 ELM 327. You can get a trial version or for $35 get the real thing. The virtual dash is easy to read with none of that fancy crap that makes the dash difficult to read. Just nice clean gauges. I run mine on a HP TC 5700 running full up XP on a 10 gigabyte HD on a 7" VGA monitor in the dash of my 2000 Honda Insight..

I found an older OBD II data logging program that'd talk to my cheap gizmo. It'll only work with COM 1 or 2, no problem to change it.

Logged a bunch of data from the four O2 sensors then used the Excel 2003 chart wizard to make line graphs.

Both bank 2 sensors show their voltage going up and down fairly evenly, same for sensor 1 on bank 1. Sensor 2 on bank 1 is acting different, not varying as much and hovering near the bottom of the range with some higher spikes.

It keeps setting the code for bank 2 cat efficiency below threshold.

Somewhere I can post the excel file for people to look at? Need more data logged/from other sensors?

I'm hoping there's something wrong with it other than a bad cat. There are four cats and they're all welded into the pipes.

the TouchScan OBD-ii software I mentioned earlier has logging capability.

Hey all,
anyone found a free software that will work with the ELM clones? Scantool 113 does work, but I'm wondering if there's more advanced stuff out there which can read more sensor data.
Thanks

I'm still looking for someone to help interpret dat from my truck to figure out if it has a bad O2 sensor or if one of the four cats really is going bad.

I could swap the O2 sensors side to side and see if the code changes its bank indication, but they're a huge PITA to get at, have to remove the console and a floor panel to get to some of them!