Thanks Tugly! Wait just one minute... Isn't your AE Class in the 7.3 forum? Now, how is a 1990's EEC-IV PCM based Bronco FTE Brother supposed to find that? I hope you posted that nugget in the Bronco, F150, and Superduty forums also.*


(*You can omit the Nissan forum...)

 

Hello from the 6.0 forum

I personally would like to see a forum dedicated to OBDII devices. Maybe a bunch of sub forums dedicated to specific devices would be too much work but I think just one forum on the general subject would get enough traffic to be worth the effort. The threads could sort themselves out.

When I bought my 6.0 several years ago it was my first diesel, I'd wrenched on all my own stuff all my life. In attempting to learn about it I used Google a lot and found myself on FTE quite regularly. Compared to other sites it had consistently better info, nice, helpful members, and when things did get heated there where level headed moderators who weren't afraid to nudge them in the right direction. It wasn't long until I was a paying member and proud to be here. Point being, first time visitors who sign up, post a question, and get a good answer that works for them are more likely to hang around and become paying members. I can assure you from first hand experience that many first time posters have no idea about OBD diagnostics. Having a place to point them that would literally "unlock the door" to a whole new aspect of diagnostics, filled with good info from the many knowledgable members here would go a long way toward turning the curious "drop in" poster into a FTE Fan. It would also help more experienced members become more knowledgable, and give our expert members who have gotten to a point that teaching has become a fun experience a place to help us folks who are still learning.

Just as an example, I posted this thread a while back so I'd have someting to refer the completely uninitiated to. Hard to say how many times we had posted different parts of this info over and over again the last few years. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...eral-info.html While it's far from complete, it does work ok as a starting point.

 

My .02... My Crapped out 7.3 is what got me to FTE in the first place, and Tugly's Years and Miles of research is what turned me on to AE and the repair of said truck. And in return, I paid this forum for membership in gratitude. I'm a Die Hard DIY'er, and if it wasn't for These Scanner threads....Half of our trucks would be up on Blocks, or in the dealerships. So exactly how would consolidating all this Data under one banner be considered a bad thing for the Membership???? We haven't hurt anyone HERE lately.....(that I know of anyway)

 

because you would have 5000 people trying to read 5 million questions trying to figure out what is wrong with their truck. and after 2-3 pages, they will say the hell with it and either ask in their engine forum, or go somewhere else where they probably will not find an answer either.

 

Yes, True, But That's what we're doing Now with the Search function, Looking at 15 pages and filter those down to the ones I want to research for my application/Truck....
Okay, I spoke my Peace, I'm Out...

 

I have one question for long-timers following this - particularly the moderators:

I see we have a tuner thread. Was this something that was part of the original scheme, did a mod pull this out of a hat, or was there a movement like this thread to make it happen? If it's the latter, I can see where the mods will hold the opinion that the thread will wilt. Tuners are particular to the vehicle, because a gas tuner is not on the same planet as a diesel tuner - and tuner technology is not growing in earnest (no new thing every month). Besides... it's $400-plus to become a member in that discussion, leaving out anybody not in possession of a Buck$Zooka.

Torque Pro alone brings people from the Quarter Caliber firing range - with some OBDII/app packages running as low as 10 bucks... a roll of quarters. How many times have we seen "Torque won't hook up to my OBDII adapter"? What in the hell does this have to do with the 7.3L? Many of us have been kindly elbowed for going off-topic, but this one is a draw for more readership?

OK... how about this one: I just acquired a new computer today - Odroid, a whole new concept. Since there is no scan tool thread, I would drag a bunch of diesel guys through techno-mumbo-jumbo on how to configure it to remote in from the tablet to use AE on the device.

 

Hmmmm, Intriguing, An Ethernet jack?, maybe 4 Sata or USB jacks. and what might be 2 mini USBs by your thumb??? Looks like some sort of emulator device, or a Particle Beam Weapon?

 

Oh Crap! I just looked it up! You ain't kiddin, I didn't see it with a BT,That would be Epic!

 

We in the 6.0 Forum had a lively debate on this issue ourselves.
These are some of my thoughts on the subject.


A simple code reader can pull codes but is in no way a scan tool. Or monitor for that matter. A scanner[scan tool] can initate tests[bidirectional] communication. No monitor can do that. Not even Dashboss unless their developement has progressed even more than I Last read about. The old Star and WDS could not do that just through programming. And as best I remember not even IDS 1.
Now a scantool can do relative compression;pu;se width; command actuators open or closed; power balance;command vgt;IPR;Clutch fan turn off injectors one at a time and more.
Not all scantools are equal. For Ford IDS can do way more than a Genesys3 or any hand held scanner because they have limited memory and data storage.
Whereas a computer based scanner has the whole computers assets to use all that are available.


I think there should be one most scanners are cross platform and setup and operation would be the same no matter which platform was used, only Ford scanners are Ford specific and Forscan.
There are people constantly posting about how to configuer scan gauge; edge;torque pro etc. Shure specific useage for a specific vehicle should be in the specific forum, but something is needed on how to work with scanners in general. They all work pretty much the same in general and that can be complicated enough.
I am not shure what good it does discussing it since in the origional thread management has pretty much made up it's mind.

 

Is there any unique features of this unit?
It looks very similar to other android units that cost less.
Just curious.

 

You mean other than the 4 USB ports?

I'm looking into all of this, they quite literally landed on my lap. I have a project where I am installing about 25 42" monitors and developing the information to be displayed on the screens. I have a box of about 25 of these Odroids, and they will be mounted to the back of each monitor. Since I'm working with them, I'll look into making something like this an honest-to-gawd carputer. Install it behind the dash with a Portable Apps thumb drive, a BT dongle, a WiFi adapter, the AE adapter and security dongle, and slap AE on there.

I would then use remote software to control the device from the tablet. This is all preliminary and I have no freaking time because of work and the Diesel Data Dump project. I'll be looking into this in the coming months.

 

This might work for your project better:
MK809 III B Quad-Core Android 4.2 Mini PC Google TV Player w/ 2GB RAM / 8GB ROM / Bluetooth - Black - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

I've been playing with similar units for a while now, they are super cool. Most have bluetooth and wifi built in.
No doubt a killer car computer could be made from one of these, you can buy the GPS unit to plug in, and be able to use computer for GPS, diagnostics, and media.

 

AE is Windows-based. I can boot into Windows with a thumb drive and run AE on a device capable of running windows, but I haven't tried anything with this yet... and I won't for quite a while.

 

See, there go the neighborhoods! 6.0 and 7.3 scan tool enthusiasts educating each other by talking to each other...

Could this cross-fertilization happen even more efficiently in a top level forum dedicated to scan tools?

The cream will always rise to the top, if there is a top to rise to.

(Or must our respective computer EE whiz kids be locked up in their respective tribal divisions/subforums?)

 

AE runs on wine in linux, and wine is being ported to android, so I imagine that pretty soon AE will be able to run on android.
I have never had luck running OSes from USB sticks, it works, but the sticks seem to die after a short while. You would think theres a high end stick that might last longer, but I have yet to find one.