Mopar1973Man

OBDLink and Azpen Tablet I know there are people curious of what this is. Everyone knows I've been a big supporter of ScanGauge II live data tool. Sad to say time for ScanGauge II to slide over and take second place now. OBDLink OBDII tool has way more abilities and features over ScanGauge II. OBDLink is dongle is a more or less plug and play tool that is completely wireless can be used either with Bluetooth or WiFI for some Apple devices. Myself I bought OBDLink LX dongle and using with a Azpen A729 tablet I bought from TigerDirect. Totally between the two devices there is $100. This is $60 cheaper than ScanGauge II and much more user friendly. The best part off this is you are no longer limited by a cord. That's right you can take your mobile device out to the engine area and see live data and error codes while working with the engine. No longer limited by a cord! Setup of Vehicle Information When you plug in for the first time OBDLink App will ask you to create a vehicle profile. Most of this is common sense like make "Dodge", model "Ram", year "2002", etc. The juicy stuff like volumetric efficiency and brake specific fuel consumption I'll cover below. Volumetric Efficiency This number is what is used to calculate your MPG and fuel flow numbers. As for completely stock 1998.5 to 2002 Dodge Ram the Volumetric efficiency is 63%. As for figuring out offset number is rather easy. Just fill up your truck at a fuel station allow the nozzle to cancel on it own. Now drive a god amount of distance 100 miles or more. Hopefully come back to the same fuel station and pump (this is for accuracy). If not now take note of the gallons of fuel consumed and the gallons pumped. Now divide the two number to get a percentage offset. Now ADD that percentage offset to the 63% stock number and you'll have you new offset number. In my case it was 63% + 14.5% = 77.5% Volumetric Efficiency which is my new calibration. Make sure to have the "Intake Manifold Absolute Pressure" set for Fuel calculation method being the Cummins ECM does not supply fuel flow rate so it calculated from boost pressure hence why it shows no fuel flow at idle. Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) This number is what calculates the horsepower and torque numbers. For the 1998.5 to 2002 Dodge Cummins the brake specific fuel consumption is 0.393 as documented by Cummins designers. Like with my setup I'm running +50 HP injectors, Edge Comp on 5x3 on a SO Engine. So to add it all up 235 HP plus 50 Hp Injectors plus 120 HP Edge Comp I should be able to reach 405 HP at the flywheel. I done it several times where I touch 400 HP with the high mark. So the math is fairly close to right for flywheel power (torque and horse power). Look at about 4:22 in the video below I nearly touch 400 HP in the video. I've saved a few screen captures of being just over or at 400 HP several times. Creating Gauges As for creating gauges you can use the OBDLink App gauges to create digital or analog gauges. I tend to favor the analog gauges because its easier to look at needle positions or swings to see what going on vs rolling numbers which takes more though process and visual focus at times. My panel uses the analog gauges primarily but I used color ranges to note normal ranges and dangerous ranges. Like lets look at recreating the coolant gauge. The factory gauge is 140 to 240 span. Make sure to select "Engine coolant temperature" from the sensor list. The rest is optional the way you want it. As for setting the ranges and colors this is really easy too. Select "Style" and then select "Range". Now add a range you want. Set your colors and the value of start to end of the range. Like the red band on the coolant gauge I set for 220 to 240 in a red color. You can add as many as you wish. Personally I added the cold band so I can tell if the engine is cold yet or not at a glance. Then added the green normal band (Range1) so I can tell if it operating normally. Then the red zone (Range 0) which I would stop the truck and let it cool off if it reaches that zone. Data Logging There is wealth of data that you can data log in the OBDLink App. I'm set up more so for trip data. Now you can track your data for months or years with the OBDLink App where the ScanGauge II could only do day and tank and no logging of data over time. Like June 11th to June 17th was RV trips and towing my 8,000 pound RV. June 7th was quick move in the yard. Then June 26th was the making of the video which I got on the throttle deep and heavy.