Scan master or direct scan

[JoeNational]

Ok not to sure what each one is, i mean i know a lil bit but nothing to what i should know. I am a computer tech. for the NYC so all this stuff is right up my alley, but what the hell does each one do. i heard direct scan can give you more than scan master but what is more exactly? and how does each one work etc... thanks.

[DCVING 6]

A little basic info...

The scanmaster is about the size of a radar detector which allows you to mount in the cocpit area so you can see some real time numbers while driving, like knock retard and O2 volts among other things.

Direct scan is the computer program that will allow you to data log your runs at the track. You can go back and look at your number and tune accordingly.

[scottyb]

Generally:

Scanmaster can be left on the dash and is great for daily driving use.

Directscan needs a laptop and is better suited for racing and data logging for later review.

[TurboJim]

ALDL based scan tools are slow. Each data "packet" is sent out every .75 to 1.25 secs. A lot can happen in 1.5 seconds. They are good for monitoring trends, seeing what fuel trims are doing, pulling codes etc, but you cant do realtime stuff on them. Imagine, you're relying on a data packet updated every 1 sec. Your car goes thru 4000rpm under acceleration in one sec. Your ALDL based scan tool said you had 2* knock retard.....well, it was 2*, but was it 25* between data packets? Was it 25* before the 2* or after the 2*. What RPM was the highest knock retard? Hard to say right? Yea, I know SM will recall that, but it can only display what info it received. If the highest value wasnt in the data packet, well, you just wont know will you

Direct scan uses a card edge connector and goes into a ISA looking slot on the ECM's mainboard. Direct scan gives you up to 18 frames PER SECOND! Can still miss a lot I guess, but not nearly as much. Its about as close to realtime as it gets.

So, if you want something that looks nice in your car, and will spit out trouble codes, and some other very useful data, which may or may not be current and accurate, go with the Scanmaster. I had one, theyre great for exactly what I said above. But if you plan on going hardcore, and really tune your setup, and have a cheap old laptop running DOS (Wont work under XP, works up to Win98SE as far as I know, dont know about Win2K) Go with DirectScan.

[Fuelie600]

Great explanation Jim. JoeNational, one other thing. You can run DS on a XP lap top, just can't run it through XP itself. It is DOS based, so What I did was to partition my hard drive and create a start up disc from Win 98 to boot from. Later Brian

[JoeNational]

Right I got ya, great explanation you said exactly what i was told by Paul from Rons custom. 18 frames per second is as good as it gets before you go with DFI or FAST so most likely since I do have access to a cheap old laptop i will probably go with directscan, thanks a lot guys for the explanation.

[BoostKillsStres]

Joe,
Another nice addon to Directscan is a knock gauge, that way you can see realtime knock events and lift when needed if your pushing to close to the edge of your tune or get a batch of bad gas or whatever. I have this setup with a Caspers on the a pillar and really like it.
HTH