UltraGauge - Anybody have/tried one?

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joe2006

joe2006

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Has anybody used an UltraGauge in a D40?

http://www.ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/index.htm

They seem to do everything the Scangauge 11 does & maybe a bit more. They appear smaller & are available with a windscreen mount, although the mount is currently out of stock until the end of the month.

Scangauge 11 are unavailable until later in the month as well so I have a bit of time to decide.

I realise that there is an Australian distributor for Scangauge but despite an assurance by phone that they would answer an e-mail I sent, they do not appear interested, so I am unsure whether having a "local" distributor is necessarily an advantage.
 
Apart from it's size it doesn't look like a bad bit of gear.

I'd be weary about any company offering 67% off a product though, either the product doesn't sell for anywhere near the price they claim or no one is buying them, companies down knock two thirds off the price for the benefit of the customer.
 
Unless there's a whole new model about to be released and they need to dump the old stock.

It's not like that hasn't happened before. Who here can spell "Harvey Norman" or "Good Guys" or hell, just the word "Sale" ?

Even in the car industry - but at least they call it "End of model run-out".
 
That's true, at which time you'll feel like a real goose in 3 weeks time when they bring out the new model (because you ticked the box that said "keep me informed about new products") and you find out they are selling it at a discount of 80% and it's only $20 more.
 
KraftyPg said:
That's true, at which time you'll feel like a real goose in 3 weeks time when they bring out the new model (because you ticked the box that said "keep me informed about new products") and you find out they are selling it at a discount of 80% and it's only $20 more.
Click to expand...

And yet again, THAT's never happened before either, has it? :rofl2:

At any rate, it does present an opportunity to get one of these devices at a reasonable price. If I recall, a similar tool made by the Chinese was at a similar price direct from Hong Kong.
 
Well my SG is now 3 updates from the current model and it works the same for me now as it did back then and I can't be bothered getting it updated.

There is generally nothing wrong with older products if they are being run out for newer models, it's just like buying a Persian rug, buy last weeks model and you can have it for 99% off.
 
If you check some of the comments on the net, it looks like the UltraGauge has been selling for the "discounted" price since at least late last year.
 
They could be as honest as the oil companies and genuinely offering a bargain. I'm not suggesting the product is no good, it looks quite useful but I don't immediately trust any company who offers such a discount. 10-20% reasonable and justified 60% or more and I start looking for that gift horse unless proven otherwise.
 
Yeah reckon the discount is BS although it is odd that the superceded (non-metric capable) model is listed on the site for $200. Possibly because there may not be any and it makes the EM model discount look genuine?

Anyway I will probably get on board when the windscreen mounts are in stock & I can report to you buggers how inadequate I am with technology.

Now my suggestion as to how these things could be better is bluetooth.

We can get one of these things, copy it and incorporate bluetooth. Just plug the little transmitter thing into the OBD11 port & stick the other bit wherever you like, not having to worry about wires.

Now I will hold the intellectual property and you two guys can worry about the design & program. I will take 50% of profits and you two can have the other 25%.

Oh & I reckon the production costs can come out of your 25% as well as the costs related to any litigation that arises.
 
Already do that with my phone, Joe. No need to have yet another gadget hanging off the windscreen - the phone's already there, and I can use Torque (Android app) which talks perfectly to my ELM327-compliant bluetooth adapter.
 
BT adapters for most of the newer items like this work quite well. There is literally hundreds of these sorts of things around ranging from iPhone apps to full diagnostic systems and as the newer ones get more things added to them BT is becoming more widely used.

For me the cable isn't an issue because it's all behind the dash to my SG but using a windscreen mount like this thing shows does make that a little bit harder, which is part of the reason I wouldn't go for one.
 
Notify me when you've made your first million then I'll consider 30% as worthy of getting out of bed for :ha:
 
The UltraGauge turned up today. It is a tiny unit (about the width & height of a credit card).

So far all it has told me is that the "protocol" of the Navara is KWP2000 (apparently an inefficient protocol) & will give me 42 of 79 possible gauges. Hope they all actually work.

Need to print off the 55 page instruction manual before I can have much of a fiddle.

An edit to the above is that the vehicle appears to support a total of 42 separate gauges however the number including those expressed in metric is 79 gauges. There are a few that are neither imperial or metric eg % engine load.
 
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Not yet. Need to print the instructions at work. Will have a go tonight.

The biggest concern was that it wouldn't be compatible. Phew!
 
After a fiddle & fondle I can list the gauges that are available & will update this post if anybody wants to know what they are. There are too many to list if nobody is interested and quite a few are things I would never consider using anyway.

One gauge that is not available on my D40 via Ultragauge is battery voltage.
Outside ambient air temperature is also not supported (not surprising seeing as I have no sensor) although I have found intake air temperature (while moving) to be very close to the outside ambient air temp, at least as displayed on the Allans Sweets advertising billboard on the Hume Hwy!

Of some concern was the unit was causing the indicators to miss a flash occasionally. If anybody buys one of these units & has the same problem with the indicators, I would suggest you activate the "Forced Protocol" as described on page 39 of the instruction manual. This solved the issue completely and has to do with the KWP2000 protocol used by my Navara.

I need to fill the tank again to get fuel consumption figures and while I might do that tomorrow, the vehicle would have only done a couple of hundred ks since the last fill so the figures might not be particularly accurate. It is also stated that it is best calibrate distance travelled using road markers. There are none around here so that will have to wait. I notice that there is about 3kph difference between the Ultragauge & GPS figures at 100kph.

Can't say anything about engine check codes because I have none however happy with the unit so far, just hoping that the fuel figures will be reasonably accurate and will be able to view/clear engine check codes if the arise.
 
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