Which 4 gauges do you use on your ScanGauge II?

I am a little frustrated with my new Scan Gauge II that I just received yesterday.

It has a bad cable that only works if I bend it a certain way. The unit came with a scratch across the front. And for some reason it only stays on for 5 seconds if I do not have an XGauge setting updating. I am not sure if this is a cable issue.

Another thing I do not like I all the misc info out there. On the Scan Gauge Web site they show three settings that I wanted to use 'State of Charge', 'Traction Battery Voltage' and 'Traction Battery Current'. I tried them and none of them work. I came to the conclusion that the settings posted on the site are not for Gen III. I would it kill then to post what Gen of Prius they work for?

The MPH seems like it is 2MPH off compared to my GPS and the radar detector that also shows MPH. This has a directly effect MPG. I noticed on the spread sheet there is a different MPH setting. I wonder how I get the Scan Gauge II to use that setting to calculate MPG.

Part of me wants to return this broken unit and get a cheap OBDCII cable and connect it to a single board computer running Windows. There seems to be a lot of free tools for Windows.

 

varies a little sometimes, but in general ... injection time, ICE
kilowatts, longterm fuel trim, and HV battery voltage. Everything
else I need is on the analog panel.
.
Xgauge programming particulars can be found at the CleanMPG thread
and derivative links.
.
_H*

 

I (eventually) found that one setting asked me if I had a gas car, it turns out the correct answer is hybrid car, this setting prevents the 5 second shutdown.

I would at least do part one. I have enjoyed my SG on my Gen II but cannot advise you about xgauges

I forgot the original question: engine RPM, Water temp, Air Temp, Battery Voltage on a Gen II.

 

Thanks for the info.

Maybe the settings are the same from Gen I II and III. Maybe the issues I am having is this note:

CONF?: YES, BUT FAILS OF "UPGRADED" SCANGAUGES (3.15*)

I am sure mine is the latest rev.

 

In the old days, the company was quite responsive in replacing defective part units and cables. I haven't read the right threads to know whether or not that is still true.

As Jimbo already mentioned, the 5 second timeout comes from not having it set for Hybrid mode.

That section predates GenIII, and I see no update since putting one of these in my nonhybrid two years ago.

For that level of accuracy, I don't trust my GPS or roadside radar detectors either. Use the roadside speedometer check stations and a clock that display seconds.

As for this relating to MPG accuracy, remember that ScanGauge cannot directly measure MPG because the bus it plugs in to lacks the required information. (At least, that is true for older cars that can use ScanGauge.) Instead, it makes its best estimate from what is available. After everything else is computed, there is another fudge factor (calibration factor) multiplied in, and this slowly gets dialed in as you tell ScanGauge at each refill how much fuel was really used. Any systematic bias in MPH or anything else just gets rolled into this fudge factor.

When you finally get this calibration factor dialed in, don't depend on it staying there. It will change with seasonal or regional changes to fuel blend, and may change with drastic changes in car usage, e.g. short commutes vs. long road trips.

 

I have a 2007 Prius with a 4kWh Enginer PHEV. The 4 gauges I use to optimize PHEV use are Traction Battery Current, State of Charge, Hp, and Traction Battery Voltage. I don't really get much from the voltage reading and do alternate between that and the traction battery temperature as I'm having a heck of a time down here in Ft. Lauderdale with the heat adversely affecting the traction battery and I'm studying the situation now. I'd prefer to have temperature up all the time, but I lose one of the other battery gages due to the SGII's inability to run multiple xgauges of a certain type at the same time.

I find the Hp gage is as important as the rest and does not seem to be talked about much here. At highway speeds, the auxiliary battery pack MUST replace some of the Hp off the gas engine if there is to be any fuel efficiency increase. You can actually see the "current" and the "Hp" gauges trading off load between each other depending on what the Toyota battery management system is telling the ICE and electric motors to do as it tries to accommodate the supplemental power from the PHEV system.


This tool is absolutely invaluable for figuring out how to use the plug in.

When I was just a gas guzzling hybrid my favorite gauges were current, mpg, accelerator pedal position, forced EV mode on/off and occasionally, ignition advance and fuel injector duration.

 

That fixed the 5 second power off issue. I am sure I can figure out the rest of the settings. By any chance is their an FAQ for the Gen III Prius on first setting up the Scan Gauge III. So far I have the fuel is Hybrid, the engine is 1.8L, the gas tank is 11.9 Gallons.

If there is not one I will be glad to put one together. It would be nice to have a list of important settings. A simple example of turning on and off both the seat belt beep and the reverse beep. I think I read you can set the TPMS codes for new sensors. That would be nice to have all in one .pdf document.

 

I will give them a call tomorrow.

 

I just made a 229 mile trip to a 75 year wedding anniversary. The trip gauge on the Scan Gauge II showed I drove 219 miles. It was off 10 miles or 4% off. I will do some reading on getting it tuned.

 

Here is a pic of my Scan Gauge II, it only works if I bend the cable like in this pic.



This is the scratch on the front.



It is not bad. It looks like the front plate is milled and the tool got away from the operator.

 

Another discussion just started on this very topic: Scangauge Miles vs Odometer. No insight revealed yet.

I hadn't notice earlier because I don't use ScanGauge's MPG or trip meters in the Prius. Only other displays are used. The ScanGauge in my pre-hybrid does not have this problem, and its MPG is usually quite accurate when fuel refills are diligently entered. But that diligence has seriously slacked off since the Prius became my primary car.

 

Question 1: Where did you buy your ScanGauge and how long ago?
I'm certain there is a warranty.
Question 2: Have you contacted the place where you bought it and asked for a replacement?
If you haven't I suggest you do that first thing on Monday.

I have heard plenty of great things about Ron DeLong (the inventor of the ScanGauge) and his company, and all my interaction with him have been very positive.

And if all else fails, if you are coming up for Green Drive Expo this summer in Madison, WI Ron DeLong will be there and I'm sure he'd be happy to help make things right for you.

I see you were able to find the thread for Gen III specific x-gauge codes.
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...discussion/64406-scangaugeii-work-2010-a.html

 

I purchased it from the vendor that Scan Gauge recommends on their site “AutoZoneâ€. I received it this Friday and did not get home until Saturday to open the box. After two days it is still under warranty.

I called on Saturday and they do not open until Monday. I will call both Scan Gauge and AutoZone tomorrow. I hope I do not have to wait 6 weeks to get a replacement from AutoZone. I should not have to wait 6 weeks on replacement because of quality issues.

I posted my issue their first. This thread opened later and seemed to be more active. So I started posting here also.

 

Of course, now we've lost the original intent of the thread, which I'm still interested in, i.e. which of the Toyota specific PIDs do folks find most useful, i.e. look at most often on their OBDII readout (specifically Scangauge). On my DashDAQ I'm monitoring coolant temp, ICE actual torque, altitude (from built-in GPS), and SOC on its strip-chart display. I'd like to be watching traction battery voltage and current but I haven't gotten them to enable these yet.

 

I apologize for talking over the thread. When I do get a working Scan Gauge II, I will be interested in thread a lot more. I went to purchase a new one today and the LCD was cracked. I will post more details in the other thread were it belongs.

 

I definitely like to see the coolant temperature (Fwt). When it gets to 157'F, then I know I can do S3 pulse and glides (P&G) or go into S4 with a 3-second stop at that point. I have a lot of short trips and rarely have hot weather, so this is important in my case. I like the average MPG for the trip, which I borrow from the trip meters (need to program an x-gauge to do this). I also use engine load (LOD) so I know when it's truly gliding as compared to showing no-arrows on the energy screen. That was kind of interesting to see the difference and led me to better understand the different stages of warm-up & operation.

For the last setting I've been looking at ignition advance (IGN) because the folks at cleanmpg were bragging up the efficiency at IGN of 14, so I tried that on my last trip, but I found above 60 mph it's not real easy to drop that low, and most of my other driving is at P&G speeds. Besides, I can get a pretty close estimate of that setting just by looking at the instantaneous mpg compared to mph. So I might go back to traction battery current on that one (and negating the need to see the energy screen on the MFD). This is for a Gen-II Prius.

Last week I went on a long trip of 1150 miles, about 1/2 interstate, and I was able to average 52 mpg (with 40/38 psi) and still keep up with traffic. I was pleased with that.

Added in edit:

My last trip was very accurate compared to the odometer. I assume you have now set the fuel type to hybrid so it tracks distance while the ICE is off.

 

Good stuff nerfer! Nice explanations. Keep it comin'!

 

1. RPM I like to know what it is, also tells me for sure if the engine is shut down or not.

2. FWT (ICE coolant temp) tells me where I'm at in the warm up cycle, I keep an eye on it climbing long steep hills in hot weather too (never seen it over 205).

3. Traction Battery Amps (Xgauge) lets me see how much current is going to and coming from the traction battery.

4. Motor/Generator #1 temperature (Xgauge) MG1 seems to heat up quicker than MG2 or inverter coolant so that's the one I usually watch to indicate the temperature of the PSD (transaxle) unit.

That's the four I have called up most of the time. I also look at TPS, inverter temperatures, and other things from time to time.

Don't know if this holds true for all cars or not but my ScanGauge MPH is right on according to my portable GPS, the car speedometer reads about 3% fast.

 

I should mention the battery current shows pretty clearly when you go from stage 1A to 1B if you're driving at the time (also explains that little surge I feel about a mile from my house when leaving in cold weather).

Here's some threads to keep you busy:
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...angauge-best-threads-mileage-improvement.html (this should be a sticky)

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...77-updated-list-gen-ii-xgauges-scangauge.html

I made a user manual awhile back that I felt was more user-friendly than the official one. I haven't updated it for the 2010 Prius.
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-modifications/51100-my-scangauge-user-manual.html