NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #23/NN_1992_23.iso/spool/rec/autos/tech/13727

Internet Message Format | 1992-10-08 | 1.6 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!dtix!darwin.sura.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!ucbvax!XEROX.COM!Michel_Denber.WBST147
From: [e-mail]
Newsgroups: rec.autos.tech
Subject: Re: GM diagnostic harness
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 8 Oct 92 13:29:00 GMT
Sender: [e-mail]
Lines: 25


    "I just saw a ECM diagnostic tool at a local discount auto parts store.
The cost was @ $40.00. There were three models available. One for each American
car manufacturer.

So they are available and they are fairly inexpensive!"

Sure they are.  And did you know you can convert any black and white TV to
color with a simple $20 conversion kit?  (It's a piece of colored plastic you
stick to the screen).  Actually, these $40 "tools" are really great.  For the
people who sell them, that is.  They allow you to do the same thing you can do
with a $0.01 paper clip: read the ECM codes.  If you want to do what the
original poster was asking (read the serial data stream, not just whatever
codes may be set) you're talking a Scan tool and some major bucks.  The best
bet I've seen so far is still Rinda Technologies' Diacom PC software package at
$300.  If this $40 doohick can do the same thing, *I'd* like to see it!

Oh, and Lechmere's is selling a satellite TV antenna for just $29.95.  Of
course, the dish is only 4" wide and it only receives ordinary local VHF
stations (almost as well as a bent coat hanger), but why pick nits?  It's good
to see the spirit of P.T. Barnum alive and well in America.  Caviar empty.

            - Michel

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