The EcoRoute ESP will connect your Garmin Nuvi to your vehicle's diagnostics port.
(Credit: Antuan Goodwin/CNET)We stopped by Garmin's booth at the 2009 SEMA Show expecting a new GPS device or news of another OEM integration deal, but we stumbled upon something even better. Sometime next year, Garmin's Nuvi GPS devices will gain the ability to communicate with your car through ESP. In this case, we're not talking about psychic extra-sensory perception, but the EcoRoutes ESP module for Nuvi navigation devices.
The ESP module is a small hideaway box that communicates with Nuvi units via Bluetooth.
(Credit: Antuan Goodwin/CNET)The ESP module is a hideaway box that connects to (and is powered by) your vehicle's OBD-II diagnostics port. The device gathers information about your vehicle's performance and relays that info via a Bluetooth data connection to your Garmin Nuvi GPS device atop your dashboard.
Using the Nuvi's touch screen, users can view a set of customizable gauges, view and clear fault codes when the Check Engine light comes on, and monitor real-time fuel economy and emissions data. The unit also provides data logging for users who want to track their performance and interfaces with the EcoRoutes software that's already present on current Garmin devices.
Garmin's representatives were happy to give us a quick demo of the system in action at their booth on the show floor and it looks pretty slick. Pricing and availability were unavailable at the time of publication, but we're told to expect more information at CES in January 2010, so stay tuned.
It's one of the experiences we dread most: The cursed "Check Engine" light goes on. That's when you're destined for the even worse experience of seeing the mechanic.
(Credit:
CarMD)
The most frustrating thing is you're never sure if it's something real or just a cranky electrical circuit deciding to be difficult. Either way, you know you'll be paying for it somehow. That's why we have high hopes (and prayers) for the "CarMD" to succeed. We know this handy gadget debuted a few months back, but it's worth mentioning again as the weather begins to turn nasty.
The handheld tester reads your car's computer data and stores it for transfer to your PC. The information can then be checked on the CarMD site to diagnose the vehicle's condition, which is rendered appropriately with green, yellow and red lights. If you happen to register one of the latter two, you can get a quick analysis of what may be wrong and a ballpark estimate for repairs. All of this is guesswork, of course, but $90 isn't a bad investment if you own a Jaguar or a BMW.
For the Juan Manuel Fangio wannabe or the parents who fear their daughter wants to be the next Danica Patrick, the ScanGauge II gives insight into what your car is up to.
(Credit:
LinearLogic)
The ScanGauge II from Linear Logic is a painless-to-install car diagnostics reader for $170 and, according to the company, it will soon be getting an add-on to make it even more useful. Currently, the ScanGauge II reads and displays 12 different parameters in real-time.
The recorded parameters track things like fuel usage, average speed, maximum speed, driving time, maximum rpm, distance to empty, and time to empty. The unit separates the data sets by car ride, days and last refuel. So you can learn how long it really takes your car to go from 0 to 60 mph, how far you can get on one tank of gas and how much fuel you are gobbling up on a daily basis. You can also see if your teenage daughter has been speeding.
(Credit:
Linear Logic)
The gauge comes with a wire that you plug in to the OBD-II diagnostics connector located under the dashboard. The ScanGauge automatically syncs without you having to program it or hack into your car's computer.
You can stick the gauge screen on the dash and finagle the wire connecting to the ODB-II port around the steering column so it stays out of the way. If, like me, you have to have everything matching, you can also choose a screen color to match your other gauges. The standard RGB LED screen offers seven ready-made color choices in both high and low intensity, and the ability to customize even more.
(Credit:
Linear Logic)
The exciting news is that the company is testing a processor/storage unit add-on that temporarily plugs into the gauge to download the diagnostics data. The unit will take SD cards, or connect to a PC via USB and comes with interface software for Windows XP. This would enable the ScanGauge to act as a long-term data logger, allowing you to monitor your car's diagnostics over its entire lifetime.
The add-on will be priced under $100 and come with a free software upgrade for the ScanGauge II, according to Ron Delong of Linear Logic. While the company hopes to have the new interface/add-on out in time for the holidays, it just can't guarantee that it will happen.
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