Obd1 scanner recommendations.

Jeepwalker said:

Little history: The ole Snap-on 'Brick' scanners, Snap-on had done a great job keeping the scanner up to date and it was in service for almost 20 years...

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This chart is old, it's well out-of-date. For example, the Solus family has expanded to the Solus Legend, which is the current model. The '2500 series was supported until '09, but it wasn't sold that long.

Jeepwalker said:

Then .....and this is my point, the software update v10.2 (one year after they stopped updating the 'brick' scanner), Snap-on "conveniently" dropped a whole bunch of new key feature updates, like ABS bleeding. And they added 26,000 Fast Track Troubleshooting tips that went back to 1994. That was a real nice incentive for 'hold-out' Brick users to finally upgrade to the newer Solus. The next 2 years a lot more very useful features added to the Solus.

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When you say they "conveninetly dropped", you mean they ADDED those features...right?

Jeepwalker said:

Personally, I would avoid the first gen Solus Scanners because they still require 'keys'.

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OBD2 "personality keys" are needed on all the Snappy '2500 and Solus-family scan tools...right? My Solus Pro needs 'em; I'm sure the Solus Ultra needs 'em too. Anything newer than that--Solus Edge and Solus Legend--I've never held in my hand.

Jeepwalker said:

graphing on OBD1 isn't really that useful.

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I love it--even on the elderly MTG2500, where it was fairly crude. Having said that, I can work-around if graphing wasn't available. I'd just prefer not to.

Jeepwalker said:

The truth of the matter, most of the time a guy can read OBD1 codes, then google the most likely causes and get good repair information.

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I'll disagree with that. "Codes" are useful, but the real diagnostic power is in the data stream, and the bi-directional control.

Schurkey said:

I'm sure the Solus Ultra needs 'em too.

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Kinda like these?

Wow, I didn't know the MT2500 dated back to 1988.

Solus Ultra (and later scanners) don't use 'Personality Keys'. Not even when using on older vehicles. The job of the Keys (to communicate with various manufacturers' features) ...that work is performed within the scanner. I know from personal use. Solus Pro needed keys.

A very powerful feature which is part of Snap-on scanner software is the Fast-Track Troubleshooter tool. This is a list of common problems on whatever vehilce you are working on. It's often overlooked by user today, but still can come in very handy if you take the time to read through.

454cid said:

Wow, I didn't know the MT2500 dated back to 1988.

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I was working in an independent shop when the Snappy Man walked-in with one fresh 'n' new, in his hands. I wanted one, but thankfully it was so friggin' expensive I never lost sleep over not buying it. The thing was at least an entire month's pay for me. The shop should have bought the thing, instead of trying to make-do with the ancient OTC Monitor 2000 which did get upgraded to a Monitor 4000. OTC ruled the aftermarket scan-tool roost until about fifteen minutes after the MT2500 was released.

3--4 years later, I got a better-paying job with different headaches. Several years later, I bought a used Red Brick for my own (hobby) use--more accessories, half the original price. And that made me the man I am today. Biography ends.

Schurkey said:

I was working in an independent shop when the Snappy Man walked-in with one fresh 'n' new, in his hands. I wanted one, but thankfully it was so friggin' expensive I never lost sleep over not buying it. The thing was at least an entire month's pay for me. The shop should have bought the thing, instead of trying to make-do with the ancient OTC Monitor 2000 which did get upgraded to a Monitor 4000. OTC ruled the aftermarket scan-tool roost until about fifteen minutes after the MT2500 was released.

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My OTC is the Monitor Elite, I think..... I believe that's one after the 4000. It feels ancient to me. It's so slow scrolling though the sensors. I actually have two of them. I think one of them stopped working altogether, and the one that still works can be finicky.

Schurkey said:

3--4 years later, I got a better-paying job with different headaches. Several years later, I bought a used Red Brick for my own (hobby) use--more accessories, half the original price. And that made me the man I am today. Biography ends.

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I see scanners come up for auction locally from time to time. I really should study them a bit more (so I know what I'm looking at) and buy one.

You're gonna love the upgrade.

On your Monitor Elite ...can you increase the baud rate? Maybe it was set real low, like 2400 baud for early 80's cars. That worked ok on vehicles where there weren't many data-points to transfer. But by early or mid 90's, vehicles had a lot more data points. Try moving it up to 4800 or 9600 baud (if possible). But OTOH, IDK if that scanner can access other modules like ABS, SRS, etc.

If you were looking at a Snap-on scanner, I wouldn't get anything less than a Solus Ultra. Just to get away from the keys. But then you'd still need the cable (for legacy connectors), and a OBD1 connector for whatever vehicle you were looking at. You're probably talking $850 for one that'll do more recent vehicles. But if you only want to do your OBS truck, I suppose. But if that is the case, the Tech1 would be the way to go.

If you like OTC, maybe you can buy a more recent OTC scanner (used) on ebay (??).

Jeepwalker said:

On your Monitor Elite ...can you increase the baud rate? Maybe it was set real low, like 2400 baud for early 80's cars. That worked ok on vehicles where there weren't many data-points to transfer. But by early or mid 90's, vehicles had a lot more data points. Try moving it up to 4800 or 9600 baud (if possible). But OTOH, IDK if that scanner can access other modules like ABS, SRS, etc.

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I don't know. I'll have to look. Thanks for suggesting that.

If you discover you can adj the baud on your scanner (which I'm pretty sure you ought to be able to), play around with different speeds. If you start seeing errors, try backing off to a lower baud. If the send/request speed is set too high (for the ecu), send/request data to/from the controller can 'clash' (for example). Like run into each other and cause an error. You can probably google what the max baud is for your yr pickup ecu. Snap on used to suggest a speed in their manuals back in the day. By the early to mid 90's speed wasn't as much an issue as it was in the early to mid 80's when the technology and hardware was in it's infancy. My guess is 9600 would work fine, maybe higher.