OBD ii SCANNER
 

Does anyone have any experience with a lab top interfaced OBD scanner? I have a 01 X5.

something like this:

OBD II OBD2 2 SCANNER CODE SCAN TOOL RS232 CAN BUS COM:eBay Motors (item 380186318526 end time Dec-15-09 14:59:39 PST)

I believe it's the ELM 327.

Which one is generally better? a Hand held unit or an interfaced one?
Thank you in advance.
H.

anyone??? i know threads get lost sometimes!

Just wanted to weigh in on a code reader solution I got that seems to work great on my 2004 Tundra and also on my wife's 2006 BMW X3. It's a Bluetooth OBDII connector that you pair up to and Android powered smart phone. Here is a little write up/review I did for it and for the Torque Pro app, hope it helps some folks, reading these codes and being able to get information from your ECU is awesome! I was able to read some codes on the X3 (the seemingly common P0174 and P0171 Too Lean Bank 1 and 2 codes) and clear them which turned off the SES light.

http://24f554c823a5bc6186e5-0abca687...m327thumb2.jpg
ELM327 Bluetooth OBDII Reader and Torque Android App Review

Ok search eBay for inpa USB cable. Set up a laptop of choice to run INPA for you. It will be way more advanced than any code reader. And for the $40 that it costs (assuming you have a laptop) you really can't beat it.

One of the best interfaces is BMW Scanner 1.4, check eBay. Really robust, simple yet powerful.

I also use the Bluetooth ELM scanner with the App Torque (on my android phone) and Torque Pro (On an Android Tablet).

I keep the scanner in the car and if I get a SES I can use the scanner and phone to determine why I have a SES.

It's more than a scanner, it can read real time data from the ECU such as Short term and Long Term Fuel trim, It can clear trouble codes and it can look up any codes that you have on the web if you have access to the web. It can also read pending fault codes, which are codes that have not occurred enough to set off a CEL or SES light.

I use to use Carsoft 6.5 when I had a E34 but now I use the app Torque for all my cars that are OBD II.

This is the unit I use for ODBII. So far it's worked on every car I've hooked it up to... It does other stuff besides just reading codes.

OBD-II (OBD2) Scan Tool Software and Hardware - ProScan

ELM327 V1 5 Bluetooth Mini Small Interface OBD2 Scanner Adapter Torque Android | eBay

ELM327 Bluetooth Version CAN BUS EOBD OBDII Code Scan Tool

elm327 is very good