I have been considering getting a handheld OBD-II scanner for use with
Volvo (2007 model year), and am looking for advice.

I gather that there is a spectrum of answers, from $50 to $5,000.

What features are essential, desirable, or useless? Why?

What brands are good, are bad?

I have been google trolling, and one recommendation that comes up is
that the reader should be CAN (or CAN bus) compliant. (CAN is a
communications bus used to connect things together in a car.)

I do like the idea of recording while driving, and later graphing.

Likewise, having the reader contain the dictionary of codes, with the
ability to update over the web, sounds almost essential.

The home computers are MacOS, which may or may not matter for this
updating over the web.


Thanks,

Joe Gwinn

it is critically important that you figure out which ones will actually read
your car's data - they all read the P-codes, but it is the manufacturer's
data you want to read. I use an AutoExray unit that was about $600 - the
less expensive units just read the P-codes and didn't help me with my issues
(which are bizarre issues unique to this particular series of cars and
year). Call the vendors, look at hte web sites.

there are also units that work with a laptop that are worth considering, but
I haven't seen anything that works with a Mac - but a PC laptop is cheaper
than a decent scanner, so just buy a laptop if you want to go that way



"Joseph Gwinn" wrote in message
...
I have been considering getting a handheld OBD-II scanner for use with
Volvo (2007 model year), and am looking for advice.

I gather that there is a spectrum of answers, from $50 to $5,000.

What features are essential, desirable, or useless? Why?

What brands are good, are bad?

I have been google trolling, and one recommendation that comes up is
that the reader should be CAN (or CAN bus) compliant. (CAN is a
communications bus used to connect things together in a car.)

I do like the idea of recording while driving, and later graphing.

Likewise, having the reader contain the dictionary of codes, with the
ability to update over the web, sounds almost essential.

The home computers are MacOS, which may or may not matter for this
updating over the web.


Thanks,

Joe Gwinn

On Feb 14, 4:50 pm, Joseph Gwinn wrote:

Likewise, having the reader contain the dictionary of codes, with the
ability to update over the web, sounds almost essential.

Thanks,

Joe Gwinn

If the reader does not contain a code, I suspect a search on the
internet will find it. So
I would not pay much extra for having the dictionary contain the
codes. A shop would have more use for that since it saves time.

Dan

Joseph Gwinn wrote:

I have been considering getting a handheld OBD-II scanner for use with
Volvo (2007 model year), and am looking for advice.

I gather that there is a spectrum of answers, from $50 to $5,000.

What features are essential, desirable, or useless? Why?

What brands are good, are bad?

I have been google trolling, and one recommendation that comes up is
that the reader should be CAN (or CAN bus) compliant. (CAN is a
communications bus used to connect things together in a car.)

I do like the idea of recording while driving, and later graphing.

Likewise, having the reader contain the dictionary of codes, with the
ability to update over the web, sounds almost essential.

The home computers are MacOS, which may or may not matter for this
updating over the web.

Thanks,

Joe Gwinn

You aren't likely to find scanner software that works with a Mac as the
market of Mac users who also DIY auto work is exceedingly small. You
should be able to find a used Wintel laptop quite cheap ~$150 that will
work just fine with the scanner packages since they don't require much
horsepower. Take a look at the "auto enginuity" scanner package, it has
it's limitations, but will do your code reading, clearing, display /
graph live data, log data while driving, etc.

Joseph Gwinn writes:

I have been google trolling, and one recommendation that comes up is
that the reader should be CAN (or CAN bus) compliant. (CAN is a
communications bus used to connect things together in a car.)

What's important is that it be compatible with the physical layer used
by your car -- at one point, there were three different physical
layers, all of which could claim to be OBD-II. While I think CAN is
universal now, you'll want to check that.

Joe: Make sure the reader that you decided on is fully compatable with
Volvo's interface. VWs require the use of VCDS to do any adjustments
within the computer system on the car and standard OBDC-II readers can
only access the standard P codes in the system VW's system reports out
over 10K more codes that the readers can't dechipher. Don't know
about Volvos, but I do know that you don't want to drop the cash on a
reader that won't do the job for you.

Craig C.

"Joseph Gwinn" wrote in message
...
I have been considering getting a handheld OBD-II scanner for use with
Volvo (2007 model year), and am looking for advice.

I gather that there is a spectrum of answers, from $50 to $5,000.


Mine is an Equus Innova. I have the bottom end code reader, but a scanner is
better. They seem to make quality stuff. They are a California firm, and
their products are sold under several brand names. The ones sold by Canadian
Tire here are just rebranded Innova instruments.


Steve R.
What features are essential, desirable, or useless? Why?

What brands are good, are bad?

I have been google trolling, and one recommendation that comes up is
that the reader should be CAN (or CAN bus) compliant. (CAN is a
communications bus used to connect things together in a car.)

I do like the idea of recording while driving, and later graphing.

Likewise, having the reader contain the dictionary of codes, with the
ability to update over the web, sounds almost essential.

The home computers are MacOS, which may or may not matter for this
updating over the web.


Thanks,

Joe Gwinn

"Steve R." wrote in message
news

"Joseph Gwinn" wrote in message
...
I have been considering getting a handheld OBD-II scanner for use with
Volvo (2007 model year), and am looking for advice.

I gather that there is a spectrum of answers, from $50 to $5,000.


Mine is an Equus Innova. I have the bottom end code reader, but a scanner
is better. They seem to make quality stuff. They are a California firm,
and their products are sold under several brand names. The ones sold by
Canadian Tire here are just rebranded Innova instruments.



I had an innova unit - no complaints about what it did, but it didn't read
out dynamic parameters, and I absolutely required that (specifically engine
power percentage) to do what I needed to do (my excuese for buying).

In article ,
"Bill Noble" wrote:

"Steve R." wrote in message
news

"Joseph Gwinn" wrote in message
...
I have been considering getting a handheld OBD-II scanner for use with
Volvo (2007 model year), and am looking for advice.

I gather that there is a spectrum of answers, from $50 to $5,000.


Mine is an Equus Innova. I have the bottom end code reader, but a scanner
is better. They seem to make quality stuff. They are a California firm,
and their products are sold under several brand names. The ones sold by
Canadian Tire here are just rebranded Innova instruments.



I had an innova unit - no complaints about what it did, but it didn't read
out dynamic parameters, and I absolutely required that (specifically engine
power percentage) to do what I needed to do (my excuese for buying).

I think I want dynamic parameters also.

I have some coworkers that drive fast Volvos and are likely to know what
works and doesn't work. One of these coworkers may be modifying engine
control programs (the latter day equivalent of changing the camshaft).
I'll report what I find from them.

Joe Gwinn

Don't even think about buying anything that does not support CAN protocol.

I'm not much help on the Volvo but I have used the aftermarket readers
on a laptop. When they work correctly , it is so nice to be able to set
the laptop up in the vehicle and drive down the road dealing with
strange problems.

But the unit I borrowed (was planning to buy) did not have certain codes
for the Explorer I was working on. An e-mail to the support folks showed
that my software had been bought out by a new company, the seller was
responsible for the code updates, the fellow never got around to doing
what he was supposed to. End of story.

Moral of the story: if you need the special codes, make sure it works.

Joseph Gwinn wrote:
I have been considering getting a handheld OBD-II scanner for use with
Volvo (2007 model year), and am looking for advice.

I gather that there is a spectrum of answers, from $50 to $5,000.

What features are essential, desirable, or useless? Why?

What brands are good, are bad?

I have been google trolling, and one recommendation that comes up is
that the reader should be CAN (or CAN bus) compliant. (CAN is a
communications bus used to connect things together in a car.)

I do like the idea of recording while driving, and later graphing.

Likewise, having the reader contain the dictionary of codes, with the
ability to update over the web, sounds almost essential.

The home computers are MacOS, which may or may not matter for this
updating over the web.


Thanks,

Joe Gwinn