January 12, 2005

CarChip (Davis Instruments, $139 standard model, $179 E/X model, available at some Sears and automotive stores or at www.carchip.com) lets you easily record and view useful and interesting information about the performance of your car. Plug CarChip into the OBD II (on board diagnostics - more about that later) socket of your car, and it records the same data used by your car’s computer. After you drive your car, unplug the CarChip and connect it to your computer (using the included USB or serial adapter cord), download the data and then view the information as text or graphs. The graphs are especially cool, with the data plotted against time.

CarChip comes in two models. With the standard model, data recorded includes date, time and duration of each trip, time you started the car, driving time and when you shut the car off, speeds you traveled (recorded every five seconds), and number of times you hard braked or accelerated. You can log up to 75 hours of trip details before CarChip needs to be downloaded. If your car’s "check engine" light comes on, you can read the DTC (diagnostic trouble code) and get a "snap-shot" view of the sensor readings at the time of the problem to help you figure out what’s going on. You can also have the CarChip reset the "check engine" light the next time you start your car.

The E/X model records up to 300 hours of trip data and, in addition to the parameters listed for the standard model, allows you to select four other engine parameters to monitor (out of a possible 23). The parameters include engine speed, coolant temperature, accelerator pedal position, various oxygen sensor voltages, spark advance, intake air flow rate and others. The parameters you chose are all displayed graphically or as a text log when you download the data from the CarChip. Think your husband or child has a heavy foot on the accelerator? Here’s a way to find out. An additional feature of the E\X model is the accident log, which is automatically generated in case of an accident and shows the last twenty seconds of speed data.

CarChip has many uses: Intermittent problems with your car’s performance can be a headache for you and/or your mechanic to figure out. You may end up spending money for trial-and-error repairs trying to solve the problem. By using CarChip to log data for several days of driving, you might be able to catch misfires in spark timing, abnormal coolant temperature behavior, poor air flow rate, faulty oxygen sensors or others. Armed with this kind of information, you could save time and money on repairs. And with many states adopting emission testing at the time of car inspection, you might spot problems prior to testing and fix them beforehand.

It’s enlightening and educational to check your driving habits, speed, acceleration and braking and to compare your habits with other members of the family. Have a family contest to see who’s the best driver, and you might be surprised.

Where you ever ticketed for speeding when you were sure you weren't? CarChip could provide data to prove your claim. Similarly, if you’re unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident where your car speed is in question, the accident log provided by CarChip could help, one way or another.

Fleet managers can benefit from the data provided by CarChip in documenting vehicle and employee time in service, speed violations, accident logs and more and it’s tamper-proof.

CarChip can be used in vehicles built on or after 1996, the year the United States EPA settled on a standard format for the engine computer data and connector. The EPA required all cars sold in the U. S., regardless of where they were made, to incorporate an OBD II compliant standard interface. The current models of CarChip are compatible with almost all makes and models of cars built on or after 1996, but the few exceptions that use some variation of data format are listed on the company's Web site, www.carchip.com.

The software that’s included with CarChip allows you to display and/or save the downloaded data from the chip. Once downloaded, you can choose to leave the data on the chip and add more data to it when it’s plugged back into your car or clear the data from the chip’s memory. You can view several types of data logs: Trip, Activity, Trouble, Accident or a Summary log. The program allows you to assign the downloaded sets of data to different vehicles and/or drivers. Data logs or graphs can be printed or exported as comma delimited files for use in spreadsheets or database programs, and the graphs can be exported as WMF or BMP graphic files or text files. You can customize the display by setting thresholds or range bands for various parameters and choose standard (US, metric or SI) or custom units of measurements.

CarChip is a useful, easy-to-use tool that lets you view the inner goings-on of your car to check its performance.

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