Best OBD II software for '99?

[skywise]

I'm just about to enter the Camry world (picked up a '99 LE V6) and being something of a geek car person want to get OBD II hooked to my laptop.
From a quick peek on Ebay, it looks like the ELM ISO is the best pick for an interface to the Camry's ECU.
What's the best software to link to the Camry? Both for useful code interpretting and for nice looking live displays? (gotta show off a guage panel to friends! )
Also, what OBD II to USB adapters have worked well for everyone?
(here's one I found on Ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...MakeTrack=true )


Sky

[leasaunce]

where do you connect that thing to???

whats the point of that??

[Camry-rulez]

the OBDII connector is under there (where the red arrow is) I think that in the 4 gen it is alsow there

[skywise]

Originally Posted by leasaunce

where do you connect that thing to???

whats the point of that??

Since where you plug it is already answered I'll cover what's the point.
The OBD port is a link straight into the ECU of the Camry. Everything the ECU knows can be read through the port as well as the cel(Check Engine Light) codes. You can reset the cel as well through the OBD port. (course, it'll come right back on if you haven't fixed whatever made the light come on in the first place)
For the geeky Camry users among us, you can hook the OBD port to a car mounted laptop and get a live display of almost anything the car knows as you drive.
These include simple stuff like RPM and speed, but on top of that you can get graphs/gauges of other things like:
oCalculated Load Value
oCoolant Temperature
oFuel System Status
oVehicle Speed
oShort Term Fuel Trim
oLong Term Fuel Trim
oIntake Manifold Pressure
oTiming Advance
oIntake Air Temperature
oAir Flow Rate
oAbsolute Throttle Position
oOxygen sensor voltages/associated short term fuel trims
oFuel System status
oFuel Pressure
Alot of these would be boring to setup as a gauge (like fuel pressure ) but some would be quite interesting to watch as the car is driven (or raced)

Another good use for this would be proactive maintenance (oh gawd, my manager's vocabulary is leaking through), you could graph the car's sensors as a baseline and later if you feel the car isn't feeling well you could run another set of graphs and get a clue as to why there isn't quite so much power or fuel economy is sucking.

Sky

[Camry-rulez]

now I have a little question. What about the 3VZ-FE engine where the OBD II contector is not available... how can I connect my car to a laptop etc...???

[88 LE]

Originally Posted by Camry-rulez

now I have a little question. What about the 3VZ-FE engine where the OBD II contector is not available... how can I connect my car to a laptop etc...???

3VZ-FE (92 - 93 Camry) is not OBD-II.

To check for error codes you jumper TE1 & E1 on the diagnostic connector in the engine bay.


http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...3d8013edfc.jsp

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...3d8013ee16.jsp

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...3d8013ee21.jsp

[Camry-rulez]

thx

[JoeB]

How did eBay give you the impression that an ELM based ISO OBD2 scanner would be the best for the Camry, price alone? One of the things I need out of an OBD2 scanner is speed. This is primarily limited by the car's ECU however I bought an ELM based scanner from Digimoto and also bought software from another vendor plus there's 1 software you can get for free if you have the ELM hardware. What I found in every case was the ELM hardware is DOG slow! I was getting like 1 parameter/second update rate. So if you are trying to monitor timing and you want to log RPM and timing together, you get 1 timing data point every 2 seconds. Definitely not enough data to work with.

I bought this other one called Car Code and the interface is much quicker, not great but usable. The only problem with that one is, the interface sucks. If you want an idea of how bad, look at their web site and try to figure out what to order. Very smart guy, built a good product but needs to hire someone else for the graphics and web site.

Recently, I was looking at EASE Diagnostics. They claim to have a very eay to use interface and an extremely fast data rate. Of course, their rate can be extremely fast and it will still depend on the speed of the ECU which seems to be a limiting factor. The other down side for EASE is the $350 price tag. Talking to a rep there, he said they are changing their price structure any day and they expect the price to be around $150 for the personal version. -JoeB

[skywise]

It was a process of elimination, they were the only auction that mentioned the Camry specifically.

Do you have a URL for the software for the ELM interface?

And please get back to me when you get the EASE interface/software, I'll be interested in how well it works.

Sky

[JoeB]

Originally Posted by skywise

It was a process of elimination, they were the only auction that mentioned the Camry specifically.

Do you have a URL for the software for the ELM interface?

And please get back to me when you get the EASE interface/software, I'll be interested in how well it works.

Sky

Sky,

Don't worry about it saying Camry, all you need is for it to support the ISO standard although the fact that is does say Camry means you'll probably get the enhanced data as well.. As for a link for the software for the ELM interface, ELM is a hardware box that goes between your car's OBD2 port and your PC. There are several OBD2 scanners that use that same interface. If you are talking about the free one, it is http://www.scantool.net/software/sca...et/index.shtml . The ScanTool software is free but you need the ELM hardware for it to work. So for example, if you bought the Digimoto scanner http://www.digimoto.com/ , Then you could download the software from ScanTool and it would work on that same hardware since it is both ELM and ScanTool is free. -JoeB