O.K. Ive broken down and made up my mind. Im going to get LS1-Edit and AutoTap. BUT.

what a-tap? I like the idea of palm based a-tap IF it has all the ability of one for windows. If I get Edit do I need to spend the extra for EFI-Live?

Ive had a Palm based cell phone for years and just got a new one with Palm 4. So if I dont have to give up anything for the hand held a-tap that would be the way to go for me.

 

I have considered getting Palm based a-tap. The only reason I haven't is becasue you still have to have a laptop to use edit...so why have both. I guess onc you get tuned it would be nice to have the smaller PALM to monitor, but is it worth the $$.

 

I have same question as goldenvelvet. Which ATAP compliments Edit. Doesn't sound like you need EFI Live if you have EDIT already. Is ATAP Windows Enhanced the one?

tks

 

There are 2 versions of ATAP, standard and pro. Standard doesn't monitor very many things. Pro is $100 more but it monitors everything under the sun. They both will monitor other GM OBDII vehicles also. EFILive logs a lot faster than ATAP, meaning it can save more frames per second. EFILive is only a little more than ATAP PRO.

 

I thought the same thing, so I bought BOTH Atap for Palm AND EFILive5 for windows. If you buy both they give you a good break on the price. One thing to condsider though, is your Palm based machine must have RS232. Most of them now have USB which doesn't do much good unless you can get a good adapter. I found an old PalmV for cheap that had RS232.

 

EFI Live rocks! Future plans include it's usage on any GM OBD2.

It's more than just Bi-Directional controls and such. It's speed, it's calculated values, it's automatic averages, it's the programmers listening to our wants and needs for the updates and giving them to us! Did I mention the possibility of printed hard copy reports and possible VIN changes enabled? Wideband integration.

This all makes it worth every extra penny. Updates are free for 1 year.

 

If only those EFILive punks hadn't pulled back
on their once-announced plan to do PCM flash
writing, there'd be some price competition
for LS1 Edit in this market.

 

What about EASE? Does anyone think this is better than EFILive? I was about to get EASE because I have 2 other GM vehicles I would like to diagnose.

 

sounds like EFI Live will play the best with EDIT. The palm I have is based on a palm 4 but it is also my cell phone so it has MANY adaperters to what ever phone or palm. Also the palm/phone is alway with me. Maybe I should get EFI Live and plam a-tap

 

EFI Live all the way.

 

EFILive will monitor generic parameters and system readiness tests for any OBD2 already. They are working on the enhanced parameters for V6 and plan to have them incorporated.

and I was incorrect about the free 1 year software upgrades. There is no limit.

 

Ease is the best of the scanners mentioned.
I spent several months testing all of them and Ease is the fastest, assures it will connect and stay connected and your buying a scanner that can be plugged into ANY G.M car or light truck that is OBD-II ( though they also sell a OBD-I version for older model years).
Anyone making a version that is claiming only LS1 based is really meaning they could not figure out ALL GM parameters including those GM uses on a LS1 based car/trucks.

Ease is the ONLY scanner vendor who not only a tier 2 supplier to GM they even make tools for GM such as the SPS flash reprogrammer and the ONLY of the vendors mentioned that has been tested and approved for EPA I/M smog testing.

Ease being they have a relationship with GM is getting all the insight on how GM does the PCM and OBD-II directly from GM engineering where the other vendors are guessing and backward engineering/hacking.

Ease is the ONLY scanner vendor that makes Palm, Pocket PC and desktop/laptop versions and only scanner that was written for all MSwindows including XP and 2000 with USB support.

BTW, most Palm versions on the market are NOT full GM OBD enhanced, they are a simple EPA scanner and thus only see the parameters EPA has defined thus you never see the 100's of GM special parameters, the predator is a good example of a cheap generic scanner.

 

Check out the prices too....no thanks, I'll pass:

http://www.obd2.com/scantool/data/sc..._gmobd2_pt.htm

 

Wrong, that is the combined version you URL'd that does OBD-I and 2 so it works on all 1982 to present cars/trucks.

the PER-GM2-00 GM Personal Enhanced OBD-II version is $350 is the one you would benchmark against the other vendors mentioned.

http://www.obd2.com/personal/personal_gmobd2.htm

 

How easy is EASE to use and is it REALLY as good as atap? From what I read it says it includes the scan tool so.... Do you not need a laptop for it?

 

Yes $350 is what I was quoted and the salesman sent me a catalog the next day. For which, I din't ask. Looks like it does everything that EFILive does and it will do the same for my Silverado.

 

Ease is all menu and Icon driven and has many features other scanners do not have such as each car/truck you connect to and do recording the scanner saves the recording in each cars own database so next time you connect to that car the scanner remembers that car and if you want to playback a recording you simply click on that car in playback and then select any recording that car has done in the past.

EPA I/M 240 smog and O2 tests is a simple click of an icon and the scanner does the rest.

It has a professional reporting function that can save or printout a report that includes all tests, including the smog test results.

Those that have gotten Ease scanner from me I then also teach how to use and how to make parameters groups that you then just click on and scan/record.
The Meters function will automaticlly show you the realtime, min, max and average values for the functions in a Meter ( dashboard) thus if you had LTFTs you would see while driving or during playback of a recording what your fuel trims averages are without having to export to a spreadsheet and doing all the math.

Later on if you want to upgrade to a Pro version which has bi directional and is the ONLY scanner of this type that also allows you to see all body/chassis modules so you can even scan/record your ABS, A/C, dash console, etc. I can even monitor the angle of seats and rear view mirrors.

It is a solid scanner, I have used mine for 2 1/2 years with over 2,000 cars and not once did it fail to connect and once connected I have done recordings as long as 2 hours non stop and it never drops the connection because GM told them how to properly talk to GM protocols and PCM functions and database.