CarChip OBDII Scan Tool

[andrewc]

Another tool that's getting some press coverage...

Basically a data logger chip that you unplug and download to your PC via a serial cable. Also there's a "parental control" aspect that lets you track speeds, etc. See below for more info. Comments?

http://www.davisnet.com/drive/products/carchip.asp

"CarChip ($139) fits all 1996 and later foreign and domestic vehicles to automatically record and store 75 hours of trip details, including:

Time, date and distance for each trip
Speed logged every 5 seconds
Hard acceleration and decelerations
Engine diagnostic trouble codes and status of other engine parameters when the code occurred
Idle time
Time and date CarChip is connected or disconnected.

In addition to the above features, the advanced model, CarChip E/X ($179) stores 300 hours of trip details and measures up to four engine parameters every 5 to 60 seconds (and there are 23 parameters to choose from!). "

 

[MOGolf]

Only 4 parameters is pretty limited. If I put in on my other vehicle, I could monitor all 4 O2 sensors and nothing else in that run. Then have to reconfigure, and run another test. Repeat until I found something. Can't reset codes with it. The other tools mentioned in other threads are more useful.

However, this is much smaller and is self-contained. Useful to find a problem if you don't have a laptop to carry along on test drives or to just pull a trouble code.

It comes across to me as more of a novelty, curiosity toy.