OBD2 FULL scantool for FORD

[65val]

Originally Posted by olopezm

This is such great info.

65val, I've read that there are several "made in China" adapters that are outdated versions of the original ELM327. They still work but since they don't have the latest firmware, it will not support the latest definitions and might have several bugs in the code. When buying one and taking a look at the inside it should clearly read ELM327 on one of the integrated circuits. Chinese fakes have a PIC microcontroller with the 1.0 firmware version (first version of the ELM code) instead of the ELM integrated circuit.

Oscar.

olopezm...thanks for the reply. Those ebay auctions don't show pics of the guts of the units, but do say they are V1.5. Also, if the genuine chip is ~$25, then the price of some of them would indicate that they are fakes. Could another style of firmware (chip) be available currently which will perform as well, if not better, (and be cheaper) than the original design, which is what the ebay units would have in them?

[tempfixit]

I bought the OBDLink SX from scantool.net, little more expensive, I would not trust the ebay cheapo's.

[northern piper]

yes, you certainly want the newest elm chip and not some Chinese ripoff. This is the very reason I'm leaning towards building my own interface vs buying one on-line. Thanks for posting about the scantool.net. I'll check them out for sure.

On a similar note, I managed to find a used pc laptop that was running windows7 that a buddy of mine didn't want any more. I think it's going to become my dedicated scan tool. I wasn't crazy about using my "good" computer in the garage as it'd likely get dirty, bumped etc. This found computer will answer that problem I think..

[onit]

Do you know if this scan tool will work with windows 7 also does the elmscan 5 work with windows 7. All input would be greatly appreciated.