icarsoft i930
- Thread starter Bakins
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I like the touchscan software to use with the elm327 intertface and can be downloaded online.
I got the elm327 usb version and the free software that came with it was the limited version of scantool and not very good.
The touchscan software can be downloaded for a 14 day free trial period so you can try it out and get to grips with it, if you like it after that it's only $24.95 plus free lifetime upgrades.
I downloaded the software and really liked it, it works with the bluetooth, wifi or usb version of the elm327 interface, it as all the feature you would expect also it's reasonably priced, have ago for 14 days free before you buy or don't.
I got the elm327 usb version and the free software that came with it was the limited version of scantool and not very good.
The touchscan software can be downloaded for a 14 day free trial period so you can try it out and get to grips with it, if you like it after that it's only $24.95 plus free lifetime upgrades.
I downloaded the software and really liked it, it works with the bluetooth, wifi or usb version of the elm327 interface, it as all the feature you would expect also it's reasonably priced, have ago for 14 days free before you buy or don't.
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I'm thinking of getting a D3 soon so would need a reader that can access all systems on it. This looks good for the money, provided it does what it says.
Elm systems only access OBD2 compliant engine ECU's.
I have a cheap blue tooth Elm tool that connects to my GS4 via an app called Torque. This reads every OBD2 compliant ECU I've tried it on, including my V6 Freelander. It only has access to the engine ECU though.
Elm systems only access OBD2 compliant engine ECU's.
I have a cheap blue tooth Elm tool that connects to my GS4 via an app called Torque. This reads every OBD2 compliant ECU I've tried it on, including my V6 Freelander. It only has access to the engine ECU though.
GrumpyGel
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Yes, the £5 ODBII reader I got was basically as good as a £5 chocolate frying pan on my '99.
So it looks the 2 options are the Hawkeye and the i930.
Presumably both of these can read and clear the codes on the engine/ABS/SRS systems on a '99 L Series. Has anyone determined what benefits the Hawkeye has over the i930 for the extra £200?
So it looks the 2 options are the Hawkeye and the i930.
Presumably both of these can read and clear the codes on the engine/ABS/SRS systems on a '99 L Series. Has anyone determined what benefits the Hawkeye has over the i930 for the extra £200?
bg_freelander
Active Member
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I got my i930 yesterday and i would recommend it to everyone. The SRS light is no more active on the dash. It has been erased by this tool. I dont know how much would have to pay for this by the dealer, but i'm happy.
It communicates not only with the engine, but with the srs, abs and another ccu in the car.
Kliment
It communicates not only with the engine, but with the srs, abs and another ccu in the car.
Kliment
I just got the i930 today. On the L-series it covers the SRS, ABS and CCU(Read values, not program) modules. I kinda regret not buying the Hawkeye.
If you got the 1.8 (early & late), TD4 or the KV6 this might be good value for the money.
If you got the 1.8 (early & late), TD4 or the KV6 this might be good value for the money.
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Hippo
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Interesting fred this.
When I bought my Hawkeye in 2010 it was either that or something from Black Box Solutions. I wanted something more than the elm27 I'd bought previously. The Hawkeye had been used by others but not many. I could only find 1 person who'd used the BBS product, if I remember correctly. The amount of info on the web was low for both products. The Hawkeye crept ahead as there was more peeps using it with a FL1 at the time.
It was said earlier in the fred the Hawkeye is eggspensive. It is but it depends how much you use it I guess. It's more than just a pcb. It's got a lot of development work behind it to create it. The price will reflect this and also combine the market factor of what they think it will sell for. You could go down the route of only buying one when you need it. That way it won't be something you buy but don't use.
The Hawkeye comes with 1 license code. You can choose which vehicle you want it to work with. After that you can buy additional licenses. A FL1, FL2 and D4 are all considered different vehicles. There's also the opportunity of a full license too, covering all LR's on its list. In comparison the BBS product (can't remember the model) was locked to yer vin plate. Hence it can only work on the vehicle who's vin pate it's locked too. That's quite harsh as it's resale value drops considerably unless you sell it with the vehicle. The Hawkeye won't suffer with this so much if there's buyers wanting one which is locked to the model your Hawkeye is locked too. BBS may offer additional license options but I never looked into that. Probably because the cost would be higher.
After sales support is low for both devices. This seems to be a general rule in the odbii world. You have to be realistic that they won't come with a manual giving you jamesmartin's knowledge of LR repair. Unfortunately most don't come with a manual at all. There's a basic getting started type leaflet you can down load normally. The way to get round this is to become familiar with the product you buy before you need to use it for repair. BBS have diagnostic info online which I've used. Also taken a copy of it for the future. They also allow access to a forum if you buy one of their products. Hawkeye (made by Omitec/Bearmach) have a technical email you can contact for help.
I don't know about availability of BBS firmware updates but my Hawkeye has just been update from v5 to v7. They previously updated from v4 to v5. Both upgrades were done free if you post it to them. They even sent it back for free. You can update it yerself if you buy a programming cable and mains psu. The updates are mainly for newer vehicles but also some additions/changes to existing vehicles. I don't know what the rule is on updates or if they continue to be free in future.
Pricewise the Hawkeye was betterer value for money than BBS. If I remember correctly the BBS device was a bit more eggpensive. The BBS would also be locked to my vin plate. It claimed to do everything I would want but I can't confirm this. Both products were a lot more money than the lesser options available at the time. These seem to have grown in claimed ability over time. It's possible they may have stolen the firmware from other products or simply eavesdropped the comms to see what's happening. Either way this is a callus way to create a product. It could suggest why they can sell their device at a much lower price as they don't have such a high initial development cost to recover. Another reason for reduced cost is they may not have done the same level of testing. They must have multiple vehicle set-ups to develop a product like the Hawkeye. If they don't then they can't do formal testing. You could argue a product designed to talk to odbii standards can talk to any odbii compliant vehicle. But then again we also see different products pull out different amounts of data from the same type of vehicle, despite them all stating they do everything. The "everything" may be all the standard stuff, and not manufacturer/vehicle specific stuff.
The head line features both Hawkeye and BBS had available looked similar at the time. I did try to look at it in more depth but if yer not sure what yer looking at or not convinced by the hype around the product is true, then you have to go on gut feeling. Both products gave me more confidence in using it on ma hippo than a significantly cheaper device which I felt was untested and untried. A trip to the main dealer would be required if you were to delete the vehicle settings either by mistake, or because yer device isn't doing it's job propper.
Has the Hawkeye been any good? Yes but not always. I originally bought it because I had auto gearbox problems. I wanted to know if there were any faults codes in the auto's computer. The Hawkeye can read them and also show live data when yer driving. Unfortunately not all values are read correctly from the auto's computer data, or the data available isn't correct in the first place. Incorrect register perhaps. That's a bit of a sod but at least I could read/clear the auto gearbox computer fault codes. I did the same as most would and bought a cheap elm27 scanner originally. Waste of money unless all you want to do is read/clear engine computer codes. If that is what you want then they are value for money. The only risk is buying from a crap source. There's so many fake elm27 products out there that you really need to buy from a proper supplier/shop.
Would I buy another Hawkeye? Yes. If I were to buy a FL2 or other LR product I would go for the Hawkeye. Familiarity with the product and how to use it and what it already does to my FL1 would give me the confidence I need. I could add an additional license to my Hawkeye or sell it as a FL1 licensed Hawkeye and buy a new one and set that to FL2. After factoring in the sale of the FL1 licensed Hawkeye the new one would only cost approx £75 going by the completed sales on eb ay. The good thing about the Hawkeye is it does have a reasonable resale price. It's a shame there doesn't seem to be the same level of interest in FL odbii diagnostics like there is with LR's TD5 engine and nanocam.
Product cost doesn't just cover the "pcb in a box". The manufacturer has to make a profit and also cover their development costs. Development if often ongoing. Perhaps this is why the cheaper versions don't do what they say on the tin. Product testing would need all 4x FL1 set-ups just to test all FL1 options. Someone selling something for £50 and promising the earth has either stolen the firmware or hasn't done as much development. Harsh I know but the risk factor is a trip to the main dealer on a truck to get your computers re-programmed. That's still a possibility with a Hawkeye.
Most devices on the market only do the main odbii stuff. It's called EODB in Europe. Any claim they may make beyond this will require manufacturer specific development. For example P codes in a certain range are manufacturer specific. It's this information that takes the product much further allowing a greater depth of diagnostic information. This separates the more expensive products from the cheaper ones.
Any Hawkeye troubles? Yes. Some of the displayed data is incorrect. In particular the auto gearbox menu. I did suffer with comms problems when using the auto gearbox computer option but these seem to have been resolved with the v7 firmware upgrade. Hence the problem has been fixed in a free firmware update. I did once loose the synchronisation between the immobiliser and engine computer when re-programming a remote fob. This could be down to bad luck but at least I was able to use my Hawkeye to monitor the live data to work out what was wrong by a process of elimination. Also had access to all computers so I could check each of them for error codes.
The best use I've had from my Hawkeye is being able to diagnose things as a homer diy'er, clearing error lights for others and telling them what codes they have and why, and the diagnostic we did on the green FL1 with auto gearbox drive problems. The green one had 2x different garages look at it with different diagnostic devices. The owner was told neither could talk with the gearbox computer or it was dead. We never managed to solve it as it was sold on due to a house move but we did find out about all sorts of stuff and solve some of its troubles. We think one of the bands snapped. There's a fred about it on ere. 2x failed abs sensors making the speedo jump to max when the electrics were on. Thinking back it certainly had a lot of different problems. All things considered my Hawkeye has paid me back its initial cost from the use I've had from it. I guess that's dependent on how troublesome yer FL1 is.
To assist future repairs I've filmed my Hawkeye's menus/data for comparison. I've uploaded these to you tube. Still got some more to upload. These show live data etc so could be used as a comparison to other products. Still on the lookout for other FL's to film the menu's on for future reference.
When I bought my Hawkeye in 2010 it was either that or something from Black Box Solutions. I wanted something more than the elm27 I'd bought previously. The Hawkeye had been used by others but not many. I could only find 1 person who'd used the BBS product, if I remember correctly. The amount of info on the web was low for both products. The Hawkeye crept ahead as there was more peeps using it with a FL1 at the time.
It was said earlier in the fred the Hawkeye is eggspensive. It is but it depends how much you use it I guess. It's more than just a pcb. It's got a lot of development work behind it to create it. The price will reflect this and also combine the market factor of what they think it will sell for. You could go down the route of only buying one when you need it. That way it won't be something you buy but don't use.
The Hawkeye comes with 1 license code. You can choose which vehicle you want it to work with. After that you can buy additional licenses. A FL1, FL2 and D4 are all considered different vehicles. There's also the opportunity of a full license too, covering all LR's on its list. In comparison the BBS product (can't remember the model) was locked to yer vin plate. Hence it can only work on the vehicle who's vin pate it's locked too. That's quite harsh as it's resale value drops considerably unless you sell it with the vehicle. The Hawkeye won't suffer with this so much if there's buyers wanting one which is locked to the model your Hawkeye is locked too. BBS may offer additional license options but I never looked into that. Probably because the cost would be higher.
After sales support is low for both devices. This seems to be a general rule in the odbii world. You have to be realistic that they won't come with a manual giving you jamesmartin's knowledge of LR repair. Unfortunately most don't come with a manual at all. There's a basic getting started type leaflet you can down load normally. The way to get round this is to become familiar with the product you buy before you need to use it for repair. BBS have diagnostic info online which I've used. Also taken a copy of it for the future. They also allow access to a forum if you buy one of their products. Hawkeye (made by Omitec/Bearmach) have a technical email you can contact for help.
I don't know about availability of BBS firmware updates but my Hawkeye has just been update from v5 to v7. They previously updated from v4 to v5. Both upgrades were done free if you post it to them. They even sent it back for free. You can update it yerself if you buy a programming cable and mains psu. The updates are mainly for newer vehicles but also some additions/changes to existing vehicles. I don't know what the rule is on updates or if they continue to be free in future.
Pricewise the Hawkeye was betterer value for money than BBS. If I remember correctly the BBS device was a bit more eggpensive. The BBS would also be locked to my vin plate. It claimed to do everything I would want but I can't confirm this. Both products were a lot more money than the lesser options available at the time. These seem to have grown in claimed ability over time. It's possible they may have stolen the firmware from other products or simply eavesdropped the comms to see what's happening. Either way this is a callus way to create a product. It could suggest why they can sell their device at a much lower price as they don't have such a high initial development cost to recover. Another reason for reduced cost is they may not have done the same level of testing. They must have multiple vehicle set-ups to develop a product like the Hawkeye. If they don't then they can't do formal testing. You could argue a product designed to talk to odbii standards can talk to any odbii compliant vehicle. But then again we also see different products pull out different amounts of data from the same type of vehicle, despite them all stating they do everything. The "everything" may be all the standard stuff, and not manufacturer/vehicle specific stuff.
The head line features both Hawkeye and BBS had available looked similar at the time. I did try to look at it in more depth but if yer not sure what yer looking at or not convinced by the hype around the product is true, then you have to go on gut feeling. Both products gave me more confidence in using it on ma hippo than a significantly cheaper device which I felt was untested and untried. A trip to the main dealer would be required if you were to delete the vehicle settings either by mistake, or because yer device isn't doing it's job propper.
Has the Hawkeye been any good? Yes but not always. I originally bought it because I had auto gearbox problems. I wanted to know if there were any faults codes in the auto's computer. The Hawkeye can read them and also show live data when yer driving. Unfortunately not all values are read correctly from the auto's computer data, or the data available isn't correct in the first place. Incorrect register perhaps. That's a bit of a sod but at least I could read/clear the auto gearbox computer fault codes. I did the same as most would and bought a cheap elm27 scanner originally. Waste of money unless all you want to do is read/clear engine computer codes. If that is what you want then they are value for money. The only risk is buying from a crap source. There's so many fake elm27 products out there that you really need to buy from a proper supplier/shop.
Would I buy another Hawkeye? Yes. If I were to buy a FL2 or other LR product I would go for the Hawkeye. Familiarity with the product and how to use it and what it already does to my FL1 would give me the confidence I need. I could add an additional license to my Hawkeye or sell it as a FL1 licensed Hawkeye and buy a new one and set that to FL2. After factoring in the sale of the FL1 licensed Hawkeye the new one would only cost approx £75 going by the completed sales on eb ay. The good thing about the Hawkeye is it does have a reasonable resale price. It's a shame there doesn't seem to be the same level of interest in FL odbii diagnostics like there is with LR's TD5 engine and nanocam.
Product cost doesn't just cover the "pcb in a box". The manufacturer has to make a profit and also cover their development costs. Development if often ongoing. Perhaps this is why the cheaper versions don't do what they say on the tin. Product testing would need all 4x FL1 set-ups just to test all FL1 options. Someone selling something for £50 and promising the earth has either stolen the firmware or hasn't done as much development. Harsh I know but the risk factor is a trip to the main dealer on a truck to get your computers re-programmed. That's still a possibility with a Hawkeye.
Most devices on the market only do the main odbii stuff. It's called EODB in Europe. Any claim they may make beyond this will require manufacturer specific development. For example P codes in a certain range are manufacturer specific. It's this information that takes the product much further allowing a greater depth of diagnostic information. This separates the more expensive products from the cheaper ones.
Any Hawkeye troubles? Yes. Some of the displayed data is incorrect. In particular the auto gearbox menu. I did suffer with comms problems when using the auto gearbox computer option but these seem to have been resolved with the v7 firmware upgrade. Hence the problem has been fixed in a free firmware update. I did once loose the synchronisation between the immobiliser and engine computer when re-programming a remote fob. This could be down to bad luck but at least I was able to use my Hawkeye to monitor the live data to work out what was wrong by a process of elimination. Also had access to all computers so I could check each of them for error codes.
The best use I've had from my Hawkeye is being able to diagnose things as a homer diy'er, clearing error lights for others and telling them what codes they have and why, and the diagnostic we did on the green FL1 with auto gearbox drive problems. The green one had 2x different garages look at it with different diagnostic devices. The owner was told neither could talk with the gearbox computer or it was dead. We never managed to solve it as it was sold on due to a house move but we did find out about all sorts of stuff and solve some of its troubles. We think one of the bands snapped. There's a fred about it on ere. 2x failed abs sensors making the speedo jump to max when the electrics were on. Thinking back it certainly had a lot of different problems. All things considered my Hawkeye has paid me back its initial cost from the use I've had from it. I guess that's dependent on how troublesome yer FL1 is.
To assist future repairs I've filmed my Hawkeye's menus/data for comparison. I've uploaded these to you tube. Still got some more to upload. These show live data etc so could be used as a comparison to other products. Still on the lookout for other FL's to film the menu's on for future reference.
Brack
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^^ Nice write up Hippo 
bruno1926
Active Member
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I just bought a Delphi VCI and software and it works on my 2001 1.8 Freelander it does engine, ABS ,SRS, works the actuators and rear window as well as turning the beeps on/off and it works with most cars not just the Freelander. I did look at the icarsoft i930 but wanted some thing that would work on other models/makes due to the kids all having cars.
davidsmith1307
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Does it have any joy with the auto box?
bruno1926
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Not tried it on an auto box due to not having one to test it on but just opened the program and gone to a2003 Freelander and auto box is listed on the diagnostics.
Hippo
Lord Hippo
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Which model/version?
davidsmith1307
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I have to say I'm really interested in these. Hawkeye is great but a bit steep and these look good, a bit like all the Volvo DICE clones.
bruno1926
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Autocom CDP Pro Plus Delphi DS150e. The software is well lets say it didnt come from Delphi but comes with full instructions for installation and appears to work well but probably best not to update the software
but it was £40 less than the icarsoft i930 and works on othe cars too which was a major factor in buying it and not the i930bruno1926
Active Member
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It does seem to cover a lot of different modles and makes which is what I really wanted. I did look at the icarsoft i930 which at £99 -109 isn't expensive but then Iwould still need another unit that does other makes as all the kids have cars and I look after the wrinklies Rover 75 as well as a friend Seat and Mondeo , so this is the best of both worlds. I have noticed thatit has been removed from Ebay no doubt due to the originality of the software but for £ 65 if it lasts a year - 18 months its not expensive. I had a snapon unit years ago but the cost of add ons for various models even made it more expensive to use on other models and makes
bruno1926
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Yep thats the one mine has 2014 software with it instead of 2013. It appears good value as I looked at a distributers site and the same item (granted it had updates) was £1654 + VAT. How they justify some of the prices is beyond me. I work for an Engine parts company and I know what our mark up is and the customers mark up is and it would surprise alot of people I know it did me.
davidsmith1307
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yours is a clone....Yep thats the one mine has 2014 software with it instead of 2013. It appears good value as I looked at a distributers site and the same item (granted it had updates) was £1654 + VAT. How they justify some of the prices is beyond me. I work for an Engine parts company and I know what our mark up is and the customers mark up is and it would surprise alot of people I know it did me.
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