Scan Gage II vs UltraGauge EM

[crossout]

going to order them for sure in a few weeks! i will be sure to post how i like about them..

[alpha1]

I have had the ultraguage (UG) a few weeks. I bought the velcro attachment to the dash. The 6 or so screens that you can scroll through are plenty. I rarely scroll. I usually have 1 screen with mph + instantaneous mpg + trip MPG + coolant temperature + some others that are there for looks but I rarely read. It is a nice device.

The price says before rebate. This means it's $9 or $10 more than what you initially read. Also add about $10 for shipping; so, about $80.

I unfortunately started to do the rebate thinking it would be an on line rebate. Going through the procedure took about 30 minutes of filling in the information online and running the tests in the car. I then thought I would hit the button and submit....No such luck. It now says print this and mail it in....What a joke.... My minimum stick something in the mail for a rebate is $10 due to the stamp price and aggravation of trying to track if I ever receive the rebate...

I did not submit the waste of time to me rebate. $80 price

Just wanted to post to let someone who values 30-45 minutes of their time more than $9 - .45 stamp = $8.55 be aware it may not be worth your time and effort to go through the lengthy process.

The gauge is working fine and I like it.

[Gealii]

Originally Posted by alpha1

I have had the ultraguage (UG) a few weeks. I bought the velcro attachment to the dash. The 6 or so screens that you can scroll through are plenty. I rarely scroll. I usually have 1 screen with mph + instantaneous mpg + trip MPG + coolant temperature + some others that are there for looks but I rarely read. It is a nice device.

The price says before rebate. This means it's $9 or $10 more than what you initially read. Also add about $10 for shipping; so, about $80.

I unfortunately started to do the rebate thinking it would be an on line rebate. Going through the procedure took about 30 minutes of filling in the information online and running the tests in the car. I then thought I would hit the button and submit....No such luck. It now says print this and mail it in....What a joke.... My minimum stick something in the mail for a rebate is $10 due to the stamp price and aggravation of trying to track if I ever receive the rebate...

I did not submit the waste of time to me rebate. $80 price

Just wanted to post to let someone who values 30-45 minutes of their time more than $9 - .45 stamp = $8.55 be aware it may not be worth your time and effort to go through the lengthy process.

The gauge is working fine and I like it.

Print the rebate out scan it then email it to them they say it works, but the rebate is almost impossible to get. I filled it out just like they told me to and what luck i didn't get it

[mackerel]

I don't know why people think the UltraGauge isn't customizable. It has three screens that you can scroll through. Every one of the six display options on each screen can be set to a number referencing a function. I have mine set to include instant MPG, ave. MPG, DTE, fuel remaining, and tachometer on the first screen. (I can't remember off the top of my head what #6 is.) I know I could lose my entire instrument cluster and be able to get what I need to drive out of the U.G.: Speedometer is a set-up option too.

I like that the U.G. automatically adjusts to ambient lighting conditions.

I have it suction cupped to the middle of the windshield. The cord runs over the dash to the left to the OBDII. My sister commented that it was the smallest GPS she'd ever seen...

I use it in the Subaru. Pablo won't take OBDII.

[Joeggernaut]

For the UG rebate you can submit the documents via email, takes maybe 5 minutes. It took about 4 weeks before they gave me my rebate money.

Idea for mounting if you don't like things stuck your windshield and want the wires hidden.

[COcyclist]

I recently purchased an Ultra-Gauge after owning and using a ScanGauge II for six years. I put it in a recently acquired Grand Cherokee 3.0 diesel. I bought the Ultra-Gauge because seemed much cheaper when looking at the on-line site. I ended up adding a mounting bracket (not included) and shipping which bumped the price up to close to $90. I must say I have been disappointed in the Ultra-Gauge. It was cost more the price shown on the website, the website shows a U.S. address but it is made in China and I found it very difficult to set up and to calibrate (I still haven't gotten the mpg to read accurately) The manual is online, sixty pages. (I suggest you look it over before you buy) I spent a couple of hours in my driveway with the key on and my laptop on my lap trying to understand the manual and configure the four gauges I really wanted (instant mpg, average mpg, coolant temp, and intake temp). The ECM voltage alarm on the default setting kept going off while I was driving. I spent more time in the driveway figuring out how to disable the alarm. To me the display looks cheap and is only black and white (pale green numbers at night). The Scangauge II display looks pale yellow with black lettering in daylight the blue display at night to matches the gauges in my Golf. The Ultra-Gauge is controlled by three buttons on the back of the unit. The Scangauge has five buttons visible on the front. I do not recommend fiddling with the Ultra-Gauge when you are driving. OTOH I routinely change gauges on the Scangauge while on the fly. The latest letdown was when I discovered that the Ultra-Gauge will NOT display fuel cutoff during DFCO or figure it into average mpg on a diesel (Deceleration Fuel Cut Off- many modern engines inject NO fuel during engine braking). I like seeing the instant mpg go to 9,999 mpg on the ScanGauge during engine braking in in the Golf. I have a seven mile grade not far from my home.

To be fair the Ultra-Gauge has up to seven pages of gauges that can be configured to show four, six, or even eight gauges per page. There is much more info that you can access with the Ultra-Gauge (see page 19 in the online manual). There are audible alarms and lots of trip data and maintenance reminders that can be programmed. If you are a technology geek and enjoy programming and data the Ultra-Gauge may be for you. If you want user friendly and easy access while driving, save up and buy the ScanGauge II.

[alpha1]

I like my ultra gauge and have enjoyed using it. The screens were not difficult for me to set up what my primary watched values were to be on the constantly visible 1st screen (I do set the kids watches and if you have problems with that, you may have problems with this). The mph seems accurate with the device. I like seeing the instantaneous gas mpg even though I know this cannot be exact per millisecond of time and assume any device estimating gas consumed will be off a little without measuring the actual gas in the tank per any time value desired as well as at fill up.
This leads me to a few of the dislikes. One, the estimate of mpg consumed usually appears a little better mpg than actual measured on gas refills but it is not a lot and is bearable. Two, the alarm setting to indicate low fuel is a pain to reset while driving due to having to scroll through different screens than your primary and either resetting the gal of gas to a higher amount or just turning it off. The pulling off the road is not an option for me when driving to work; so I listen and watch the alarm go off which is annoying. Thus my opinion of two is never set the low gas alarm if your real gas gauge works on your vehicle. It's not worth the reset aggregation and the flashing annoys you while driving. I did Disable my ALARM value and I no longer monitor this low gas warning value.
The third thing I would like to repeat that the $10 coupon was not worth my time since I make over $20 a hour and it took 30 minutes to get the data from the gauge and insert it into the form(It will definitely take you longer than 5 minutes as I cannot even walk to the car and back to the house and start the computer to retrieve the form at the website in 5 minutes); Expect to waste 30 minutes on this. I never mailed mine in as I did not want to waste more time monitoring the mail to assure I didn't throw away this $10 with the other junk mail I routinely receive.

But, overall I am happy with the device.

[RedDevil]

Second all of the above. I'm both happy and slightly disappointed with my UG.

Seven screens with up to 8 gauges seems nice, but if you stick to just 6 gauges per screen you will also have the health and open loop indicators while you lose them at 8.

Once you fix it to the dash (I had a hard time finding a vacant spot; you do want to keep it out of direct sunlight as it is sensitive to overheating) you cannot access the buttons easily, as they are on the back of the unit.
At first the FE readings seemed pretty accurate, but with winter gas it seems off. I hardly look at it now as my car has a reasonable FE display.

Swapping screens, which it can do automatically, and you can set the time each screen displays, seems brilliant BUT you need to look away from the device at least part of the time while driving so you really want to keep it simple, just 1 screen in my case; the swaps annoyed me big time.
You can also choose for manual swapping, but as the buttons are on the back of the unit you would not want to do that while driving.

I had to turn all alarms off at first, it was a real PITA esp. the low gas warnings that popped up wit no relation to actual tank fill.
I too spent more than an hour configuruing and reconfiguring the UG.
I now have only the alarms which I find useful.

Nonetheless, I like the readability, flexibility and low price.
I ordered mine from Germany at OBD2-Shop.eu - UltraGauge EM V1.2 and got it in a week, no hassle, no rebate offered neither received. THE solution for buyers in Europe.

[alpha1]

The Temperature in South Florida never exceeds 100 F with the ocean cooling the summer air (within 20 miles of the Atlantic ocean). However I do roll my windows up and leave the car in a sunny hot parking lot but I have never tested the temp inside the car as to 120 or 180F inside where the device is located. However, it always comes on with the starting of the car engine immediately. It does sound like something is expanding in your unit with the heat; strange.

[RedDevil]

I had a thermometer on top of my dash. It went off the scale at 70 Celsius (158 F) and frequently did that when parked in the sun, even with mild summer temperatures. In Holland.
My UG has a place inside the cockpit so direct sunlight can hardly reach it. And no trouble yet.