| Got an iPhone...need a scan tool? [message #108648] |
Wed, 15 December 2010 20:44  |
Larry
Messages: 2875
Registered: January 2004
Location: Menomonie, WI
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Just FYI
I found this looking through the October 2010 issue of Popular Mechanics.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/products/car-gadgets-gifts#fbIndex7
I could not find the actual article on the Popular Mechanics web site that brought me to this, so I retyped the article for ya’all. Is this cool or what??
Tool of the month
Scan This
Sooner or later everyone who owns a car has it happen: The dreaded Check Engine light comes on. Noncognoscenti know only that they’ll need to take the car to a repair shop, maybe even to the dealer, to scan the computer for trouble codes. There are afforable code scanners and full-out scan tools around--but if you’ve got an iPhone, iPad or even an iPod touch, there’s a simpler, inexpensive solution. First download the free golink iPhone app, then buy the companies $99 cable an plug it into your car’s OBDII port, which is usually under the dash. Once it is hooked up, you can check the trouble codes, browse through a bunch of engine parameters while some faithful minion drives you around and turns off that pesky light. Use it to diagnose and fix something as simple as a loose gas cap and you can recoup the cost of the cable by eliminating just one service call. But wait, there’s more! The cable also works with CARbonga (speedemissions; $4.99 in the App store) which checks all the car’s safety systems and lets you monitor fuel mileage and carbon footprint as you drive. Want more? Download DashCommand (Palmer Engineering: $49 in the App Store), which give you a set of virtual gauges, displays rpm, hp and torque and uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to provide a graphic representation of your acceleration, braking and cornering while in hot-lapping a a race track. GoLink has just replaced the 10 grand or so of scan tools--and all the equipmetn I lug around to test cars-- with and iPhone and a cable. I hate it. I love it!
In the same issue of Popular Mechanics on the same page is an interesting article about ZDDP.
Larry 
78 Royale w/500 Caddy
Menomonie, WI.
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