On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 09:00:05 GMT, Forrest >
wrote:

>On Mon, 04 Sep 2006 16:14:11 GMT, George
> wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 04 Sep 2006 09:30:42 GMT, Forrest >
>>wrote:
>>
>>>...
>>>
>>>Has one such OBDII reading hardware and software package come
>>>to stand out as being preferable to the competition ? Or just
>>>software, alone, or hadware alone, if they are clearly good.
>>>Price is not as important as that the package be of quality.
>>
>><http://groups.google.com/group/obdII> - new NG?
>>
>>http://www.scantool.net/ - click on "forum" - lots of bitching about
>>varous issues.
>>
>
>Thanks, so this
>ElmScan ISO Scan Tool
>P/N: 420100
>
>or the
>
>ElmScan 5 USB Scan Tool
>
>Would be the preferred OBDII reading hardware devices to use ?
>
>If so, that is again appreciated, if you have gone to the lengths to
>sort out what is best at this time. I do much research, but in that
>cream does tend to rise to the surface, and if this company's OBDII
>reading hardware devices have been deemed to be among, if not the
>best, that saves me a good bit of footwork.

Just to be clear: above is all about interfacing the OBD data to a PC.
There are scan tools at Pep Boys that will read and reset trouble codes.
The 'Elm-type' scan tools let you see sensor readings, etc, in addition
to the trouble codes.

As far as inexpensive tools of this type, my belief is that Elm
Electronics makes all (?) the interface modules, which are relabeled
(re-stickered, really) by various other vendors and bundled with some
software.

I bought an ElmScan 5 from Proscan (http://www.myscantool.com/), so I
got their PC software. I was not terribly happy with their delivery. I
discovered afterwards (scantool.net forum) that other ppl have had the
same complaint.

By the time I got the stuff, I'd already solved the problem I was
working on; so, I just connected it to be sure it worked, and put it
away till the next time. It did 'work', in the sense that it displayed
various sensor reading that looked reasonable. The user interface was
OK.

There is other (PC) software available, including some free stuff, that
I believe would work with this same ElmScan. I haven't tried any of
these.

>It is for a Toshiba, so I would obviously have to ensure compatibility
>of the firmware with Toshiba.

I can't say absolutely that there can't be a compatibility problem, but
I think that the OBD-II interface should be the same for all mfrs.

George