Trunk Monkey
Moderator
I picked up my CTS Insight OBD2 reader from Rob (tarmacblack) last week. I've had a Scangauge for about 4 years and wanted to give something a little better a try.
The CTS is a totally different animal than the SG. With it's large, color, touch screen, it has much more eye appeal than the small dot matrix SG screen. The CTS operates in much the same way, pulls power from the OBD port and turns on and off by itself according to signal from that port.
With the SG you choose the 4 things you want to monitor and that's it. With the CTS you have many more options. I usually leave it on 3 "analog" style gauges and two smaller fields, but you can go up to 8 fields at once. You also get customizable wallpaper - bling!
One thing I noticed that the SG had that the CTS didn't was a trip and fuel economy feature. Now, while I say it doesn't have it, it's not like the SG's mileage calculator is something to write home about. I tried to use it when I first got it but found it too difficult to calibrate to any kind of accuracy to use reliably.
The CTS makes recalculating MPH with different tires sizes total cake with several different ways to enter tire sizes (stock to aftermarket metric or overall diameter or percent change).
Another area the CTS shines at is expansion. With it's USB port you can hook it up to your PC and with the provided software get any updates that EDGE might put out, new inputs, or add wallpaper like I mentioned earlier. With the SG you're pretty limited to adding a additonal codes (and only one new one that I know of - tranny temp). tarmac already mentioned the input for a back-up camera and a 5v input for other sensors like EGT or boost (I can dream . . .).
I haven't done a side by side list to see what inputs the CTS has vs. the SG, but it seems like all the ones I used frequently on the SG are present on the CTS. And, if they're not, Rob's told me to let him know and he'll see about adding them in. He's done a lot of work for the Toyota on his own time, which is cool.
All in all, yes, the CTS is more expensive than the SG, but it's apples and oranges for appearance and usability. If cost is your concern I'd look at their smaller model that still has a sweet color screen. I've only had this thing a week and will update this as I play with it more.
The CTS is a totally different animal than the SG. With it's large, color, touch screen, it has much more eye appeal than the small dot matrix SG screen. The CTS operates in much the same way, pulls power from the OBD port and turns on and off by itself according to signal from that port.
With the SG you choose the 4 things you want to monitor and that's it. With the CTS you have many more options. I usually leave it on 3 "analog" style gauges and two smaller fields, but you can go up to 8 fields at once. You also get customizable wallpaper - bling!
One thing I noticed that the SG had that the CTS didn't was a trip and fuel economy feature. Now, while I say it doesn't have it, it's not like the SG's mileage calculator is something to write home about. I tried to use it when I first got it but found it too difficult to calibrate to any kind of accuracy to use reliably.
The CTS makes recalculating MPH with different tires sizes total cake with several different ways to enter tire sizes (stock to aftermarket metric or overall diameter or percent change).
Another area the CTS shines at is expansion. With it's USB port you can hook it up to your PC and with the provided software get any updates that EDGE might put out, new inputs, or add wallpaper like I mentioned earlier. With the SG you're pretty limited to adding a additonal codes (and only one new one that I know of - tranny temp). tarmac already mentioned the input for a back-up camera and a 5v input for other sensors like EGT or boost (I can dream . . .).
I haven't done a side by side list to see what inputs the CTS has vs. the SG, but it seems like all the ones I used frequently on the SG are present on the CTS. And, if they're not, Rob's told me to let him know and he'll see about adding them in. He's done a lot of work for the Toyota on his own time, which is cool.
All in all, yes, the CTS is more expensive than the SG, but it's apples and oranges for appearance and usability. If cost is your concern I'd look at their smaller model that still has a sweet color screen. I've only had this thing a week and will update this as I play with it more.
