I want, I want, I want one!!!!!!

[Storm Shadow]

Hey some of you may know about the OBDKEY diagnostic and gauge tool available, some of the members on here have them. It is an awesome little tool for live data from your ECU. This product is really good but requires an existing PDA with bluetooth. It was also lacking in the looks department, in terms of graphics and sleekness.
http://www.obdkey.com/obd_software.asp just for an idea.

Then I found this!!!!!
the DASHDAQ
OMG, it is s**t hot!!!!!!!

Very sleek, has all the features you would want, really high res display, customizable gauges the works, yes GPS is an additional cost but hey thats not what I want it for. Only problem is the price $695 US, but may be worth it?

Check out the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICSRaSlUgw8

and the homepage
http://www.dashdaq.com/index.html

It is impressive, but still toying with the OBDkey for cost reasons as I have a PDA already, what does everyone think? Should I go with the DASHDAQ, it does look like such a yummy piece of kit, just having trouble justifying the cost. Let me know what you think.

[CNBLU]

Pretty cool, looks like alot of fun:)

[glider]

for what you get that price is quite reasonable

its a linux box built into a touchscreen, that alone is worth a few dollars... before you add the obd stuff and expansion abilities

I wonder if it could be transformed into a car pc with an external hdd.. tho i would suspect the cpu would be too slow for anything significant

[lithium]

looks very fancy!

unfortunately, what they don't tell you is that the OBD-II connection to the siemens ECU in your car can only send back five sensor values per second. that means that if you are looking at the screen with the three gauges (speed, RPM, boost) you'll only see an update to each gauge every 0.6 seconds. this is so slow that it makes those gauges unusable while driving :(

it'd still be nice for diagnosing problems if it logs sensor values though

[Storm Shadow]

looks very fancy!

unfortunately, what they don't tell you is that the OBD-II connection to the siemens ECU in your car can only send back five sensor values per second. that means that if you are looking at the screen with the three gauges (speed, RPM, boost) you'll only see an update to each gauge every 0.6 seconds. this is so slow that it makes those gauges unusable while driving :(

it'd still be nice for diagnosing problems if it logs sensor values though

Interesting point, thanks for the info, wonder if 0.6 of a second will really be that bad, if you are doing 70 km/h and accelerate to say 72 km/h, by that reasoning in half a second or just a little more it will have recorded it. I know the OBDKEY was fairly accurate in terms of lag time between reading and display.

[lithium]

Interesting point, thanks for the info, wonder if 0.6 of a second will really be that bad, if you are doing 70 km/h and accelerate to say 72 km/h, by that reasoning in half a second or just a little more it will have recorded it. I know the OBDKEY was fairly accurate in terms of lag time between reading and display.

if you ask it to just record values for one sensor (eg. speed) your accuracy is at 0.2 seconds which it pretty good. but more than one sensor it gets pretty choppy

i spent a few days a few months ago developing a software data logger for my laptop and ran into the 'OBD-II is too slow' problems. i was hoping i could pull out sensor values fast enough to build ignition timing vs RPM vs load maps, AFR vs RPM vs load maps etc. but no luck :( about the only thing i use it for at the moment is timing speed runs! :)

that said i reckon it'll still make a very shiny addition to your car and a good thing to show passengers! :)

[Storm Shadow]

if you ask it to just record values for one sensor (eg. speed) your accuracy is at 0.2 seconds which it pretty good. but more than one sensor it gets pretty choppy

i spent a few days a few months ago developing a software data logger for my laptop and ran into the 'OBD-II is too slow' problems. i was hoping i could pull out sensor values fast enough to build ignition timing vs RPM vs load maps, AFR vs RPM vs load maps etc. but no luck :( about the only thing i use it for at the moment is timing speed runs! :)

that said i reckon it'll still make a very shiny addition to your car and a good thing to show passengers! :)

Cool, again thanks for the info and expertise, this is what makes opelaus the awesome forum it is.

[Wraith]

That's a pretty cool device and its physical dimensions mean you could mount it just about anywhere...

But as Lithium pointed out (and you can clearly see it in the vid) the multi dial display reaction time is slow and step by step like, which would be annoying to view, as you'd want a realistic, continuous and smooth movement of the needle displays...

Ah well, hang in there and they may improve it, or someone else might produce something better :)

[dieselhead]

I can read 8 times/second from OBDKey on the WM5 phone. Usually I'm only interested in revs and speed when on the go, with other paramethers such as coolant temp and air flow on the second or third screen of OBD Gauge. Refreshing speed and revs 3-4 times/second is good enough for a $200 tool IMHO.
The DASHDAQ looks interesting but to be honest I don't like it's wired. Then, you can transform any $200 WM5/6 GPS into a similar tool, providing you've got something like OBDKey and the right software that is getting better and better for the WM platfom. I already own a laptop and the WM5 phone, so the OBDKey is the right tool form me. I'm not even a Sunday mechanic so don't see why I'd spend too much on gear like this anyway :)

just my 2 cents