New Ultraguage (1 Viewer)

[1973Guppie]

got this morning in my email, thought it was cool. I may move to one of these.....

UltraGauge OBDII Scan tool and Information Center

 

[nigelsiam]

How much is it? I got mine on Amazon a couple years back for like $12 and use with Torque App on Android and it's been great. Don't spend too much they all do the same things. The magic is in the software.

 

[george_tlc]

$80 on their website (discounted). Seems a lot for a BT dongle. Ultragauge does claim they use a newer architecture versus the older ELM based units and claims it is faster. Not sure what faster means, it's not like OBD2 data rate is fast - only in the 10kbit/s range from what I can tell. Ultragauge also claims their dongle is not compatible with ELM based software - so it might not work with Torque (WAG here).

Anyhow, Torque is a very stable, configurable and well proven product. I see no reason to purchase the ultragauge BT product unless I had an iphone (I use android based phones), which it claims compatibility with some newer flavours.

cheers,
george.

 

[nigelsiam]

$12 OBD II bluetooth + Torque + Android = FTW!

 

[1973Guppie]

anyone have a link for the $12 bluetooth piece?

 

[Steve W]

I had given up on finding a good OBD solution,........this thing is just what I have been looking for.
I already placed my order.

FYI, its quite different than Torque.

 

[george_tlc]

I use something similar to:

Super Mini OBD2 OBDII ELM327 v1.5 Android Bluetooth Adapter Auto Scanner Torque

Steve W: Yes, we know it is not Torque. Torque is an app that runs on an android device and talks to BT dongles such as linked above. Torque is highly configurable. I used it both with my android phone and also on an android tablet. Works great, lasts long time, inexpensive!

The ultragauge product appears to be a proprietary BT dongle and runs with their proprietary software. I'll stick to Torque Pro and a generic BT dongle, <$15 for the entire solution under ANDROID.

cheers,
george.

 

[1973Guppie]

yes but for those whom have an apple?.....

 

[Steve W]

George_tlc,
Sorry, but I think you may have missed how the new ultragauge is different.....much different.
I had been in the market for a scantool a month or so ago...I spent a lot of time looking into it, but could not find what I was after.....and gave up. So when I read the OP's post and ran to the website and read about it, I could not believe I had missed this one in my previous searches

 

[george_tlc]

Steve W: Feel free to enlighten me/us about what it does that Torque doesn't. I'm happy to get your input on what it does better/more etc.

cheers,
george.

 

[george_tlc]

yes but for those whom have an apple?.....

Yep, and that's why I wrote in my 1st post of the thread, that this 'appears' to work with iphones etc with BT. If that's the case, then yes, it's a possible solution for the apple crowd.

For android, BT ELM + torque and for <$15 you're up an running. The iphone folk (as always ) have to pay more for their solution...

cheers,
george.

 

[ppc]

With the Apple don't you just have to tell Suri to fix any problems? That's worth a couple grand don't you think?

 

[george_tlc]

With the Apple don't you just have to tell Suri to fix any problems? That's worth a couple grand don't you think?

You have to bend over first though

cheers,
george.

 

[Steve W]

Steve W: Feel free to enlighten me/us about what it does that Torque doesn't. I'm happy to get your input on what it does better/more etc.

cheers,
george.

George…..why do I feel I’m walking into the lion’s den?

Listen, I’m no expert….and just a couple of months ago, I never even heard of these things. So I'm happy to be corrected.

My experience starts when my brother shows up and shows me his fancy new gauges on his Samsung S4. That got my interest. But as the weeks unfolded, my brother started reporting all the issues.

He has a 2013 Ford passenger vehicle of some kind, maybe a focus. It worked great in that vehicle. But it would not work in his wife’s Audi nor in a friend’s VW. Apparently it was not a Torque issue (or whatever the app was) but the adapter. So he buys another adapter with a different brand. Now it seems to work in the Audi and Ford, but still will not work in the VW. But he is okay with it, as it works on his cars. Then on a Monday he is running late to work only to find that his battery is dead. Ultimately after a week or two, he traces it to the Adapter. Somehow the Adapter is draining his battery. He got in the habit of unplugging it each time he was not driving……until he forgot, and again had a dead battery. Apparently his battery was damaged the 2nd or 3rd time and he had to replace it $$$$.

Apparently the issue is that All these Chinese Adapters are ripped off from US designs and the Chinese don’t get it completely right. Also I hear that they are also illegal…they are not licensed by the FCC (Don’t really know what that means)

He ultimately stopped using it altogether...it was causing and costing him nothing but grief. But there was more along the way. He discovered that it was not a very practical overall product because it requires the phone to be present otherwise it loses data. For example, the distance and fuel gauges are all wrong because he almost always forgot to start the app, or would not have his phone with him, or he was using his phone for another app. He also complained that it had trouble connecting....I guess Bluetooth connection would simply fail sometimes and no data would be captured.

I’m sure I have left more out…but this is getting toooooo long already.

The bottom line is that UltraGauge had a few of the features I was looking for that finally checked all my boxes:

1. The Adapter keeps working even when the phone is not there (gathering data)

2. The Adapter and App were designed together, so there should not be any connection issues

3. The Adapter can be updated, just like the app (hence if there are any issue, they can be corrected by the vendor…plus the promise of new features)

4. The manufacturer is very well known and their other wired products are reported to be solid, and connect with everything and will not drain the battery (so users say) .....oh and it comes with a 1 year warranty.

5. There was something else….but I can’t remember…..It will come to me eventually

 

[george_tlc]

Steve W. Ok, interesting thoughts/comments.

FCC - if you are worried that the BT transmitter inside your mostly metal car is going to radiate and bother other folks equipment... well, there's bigger things to worry about

Anyhow, I'm sure you'll be happy with your purchase. There are many many many folk that are happy with Torque, their $5 - $10 BT ELM interface unit. I've not seen connection issues, but some folk have purchased $5 ELM units that they've had issues with.

Distance? I have a GPS to tell me where I am. Odometer to give me elapsed distance. Fuel economy - ha - the gauge is there to tell me if I need to fill up. I guess I'm old school since all those frills (that barely work anyway since the vehicle fuel system really doesn't have that accurate a fuel flow meter and certainly no idea what is going back into the tank)...

Summary:
Basically nothing that isn't already provided by Torque in terms of configuration, gauges, etc etc. So, there really isn't anything special about the Ultragauge product (other than compatible with newer Apple stuff). From you initial comments it appeared that the Ultragauge stuff was something very new/special in terms of features. I own an Ultragauge unit (the older type with display - it sits in the glove box as an emergency backup).


cheers,
george.

 

[Pin_Head]

yes but for those whom have an apple?.....

If you have an ios device like an iPhone or iPad, you use a WiFi OBD-II port interface instead of bluetooth. It is like $17 instead of $10 for the BT device that won't work, but who cares? iOs and Windows are specifically designed to not recognize knock off chips that have been copied by the third world manufacturers, like the ones selling ELM 327 BT knockoffs.

Google WiFi OBD-II and pick one.

 

[Kernal]

Do any of these devices communicate with Windows phones?

 

[Dragos80]

What do you mean windows phone? I use my phone anywhere, by the door, by the window, out side, in my car, on the beach...


I've used the $10 ELM for the past 10 years with Torque without any issues.

 

[george_tlc]

Do any of these devices communicate with Windows phones?

Google windows phone obd2 etc and you can see that there are a few apps that communicate with ELM dongles. So, it would appear that yes, you can get something working with your windows phone. Of course this begs the question of 'wtf do you have a windows phone for?'

cheers,
george.

 

[Douglas S]

Torque and my cheap dongle work perfectly on every vehicle I have tried, including my Audi which could not be read with the scangauge I tried.

It's worked for me personally on VW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Audi, and Ford. I have no doubt it would work just as well on others.