Garmin ecoRoute HD Vehicle Diagnostics Communicator HD
Garmin ecoRoute HD Vehicle Diagnostics Communicator HD
- Includes simple installation instructions; it only takes an average of 5 minutes.
- Offers accurate fuel consumption data that can actually help you improve MPG.
- Reads Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTC), allowing you to view more than 4,000 trouble codes and reset the check engine light.
Garmin’s ecoRoute HD transforms your nüvi into a real-time onboard diagnostics computer saving you gas, time, and money.
Get Real-Time Diagnostics
ecoChallenge view.
Gauges view.
Fuel economy view.
Transform your compatible nüvi into a real-time diagnostic computer with ecoRoute HD. This easy-to-install device not only provides fuel and mileage reports, but you get more accurate fuel consumption/conservation data by tapping into your vehicle’s diagnostic system. Calculate your carbon footprint, engine performance, and more all through your nüvi.
Save Gas…and a Trip to the Mechanic
With ecoRoute HD, you not only
List Price: $ 99.99
Price: $ 99.99
More GPS with Customer Reviews
W. Hunt "SegWayne"
January 25, 2012Very interesting add-on..,
Just bought a “new” (to me) car and wanted a way to check the diagnostic error codes (if there were any) as well as the general health of the engine. So far while I wish the EcoRoute HD were cheaper, it fits the bill nicely.
Installation
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Even thought the EcoRoute HD came with a seemingly thick manual (that I haven’t read), the installation literally couldn’t be easier.
1) Find your car’s OBD-II port
2) Plug in the device
3) Start your car
4) Go to EcoRoute on your GPS and follow the instructions. Takes about a minute.
The Good
——–
– The EcoRoute HD provides good feedback on what your engine is doing. There are many, many different (about 10) on-screen gauges to look at, some useful like the Tachometer, some not so much, like the Throttle position gauge.
– The ability to read and reset the diagnostics errors could be EXTREMELY useful if you’re someone who likes fixing your own car. Especially since all cars are now computerized.
– Installation was a no-brainer.
The Bad
——-
1) Where to put it?
On my car (a Mercury Grand Marquis), the OBD-II port is on the right of the steering wheel, between the wheel and the center console. Unfortunately there isn’t a single flat space (within the 6″ reach of the cord) with which to use the provided two-sided tape to secure the EcoRoute HD itself out of the way. I had to essentially shove it behind the dash, sitting on top of the center “transmission hump”. If you have a front wheel drive car, or one that doesn’t have such a place to sit the device, it might get tricky keeping it out of the way.
What I don’t know is whether or not shoving it behind the dash actually affects the readouts that are shown on the GPS.
2) The gauges can’t be set to come up automatically.
I love my 5″ display, Garmin GPS (1490LMT?) but honestly, when driving back and forth to work every day, I don’t actually pay a lot of attention to the map display. I already know where I’m going and how to get there. What I would like — and again, I admittedly haven’t read the 50+ page manual — is a way to set the default on my GPS to automatically display the gauges instead of having to start up the GPS, tap on “Tools”, then “EcoRoute”, then “gauges” every time I start the car.
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|Omega Man "Technoanalyst"
January 25, 2012It works! Has already paid for itself!,
I bought this for use with my overpriced Garmin nüvi 3490LMT and it seems to be working well. I’ve noticed no problems with it, and the EcoRoute application seems to be working just fine. Kind of cool how it tells you how many $ worth of gas you burned on your trip whenever you shut the car off. Hopefully this thing will eventually pay for itself in gas savings, assuming I listen to it’s “advice”.
The little instrument dashboard screen on the GPS is kind of cool, and you can change the gauges around to display different instrumentation so you’re not just looking at a replica of your instrument cluster.
People who are complaining that it updates too slowly should know that this is the fault of OBD-II and NOT the garmin hardware. The standard OBD-II protocols have data rates of 1.2kbps to 41.6kbps and most cars except for some Ford or GM cars, and some cars made after 2008, will only do 10.4kbps (that’s 0.0104Mbps or 1/100th of a megabit). Ford or GM cars might do 41.6kbps, and cars no older than 2008 (when the CAN bus OBD-II standard became mandated) may do 256kbps to 500kbps. According to Garmin FAQ, the device implements all of these protocols but it’s hard to say which ones actually work on which cars. On most cars I’d expect it to end up using 10.4kbps which is slower than the dialup modem I had 20 years ago. In any case, the Garmin seems to be doing pretty well given that it’s limited by OBD-II which was never exactly intended for high-speed Internet connections. The other thing to keep in mind is that the more parameters the thing is “streaming”, the more delay there is since more parameters = more data = more of the amazing 10.4kbps bandwidth used up.
The ecoRoute device is also not intended to allow you to reprogram the fuel map for performance tuning your car or something. It’s not a general OBD-II tool or a vendor-specific register coding tool. Don’t expect it to replace a “real” scanner/coder/whatever. I’m just surprised that it will actually look up engine trouble codes and let you reset them.
Installation and setup are very easy and I ran into no problems except for the fact that the little adhesive strips that it shipped with aren’t sticky enough to stick to *anything*, not even smooth plastic. (I did clean off the area I was trying to adhere the thing to before hand.) I doubt they’d even stick to polished plastic. Pretty sad since they keep going on about how you’re going to die if it doesn’t stay attached to something away from the pedals (where it can’t end up under the brake pedal etc). This is a pain for me because there’s absolutely nothing under my dashboard that I can use the zip ties to tie it to. Given all their overly cautious safety warnings though, you’d think they’d ship the thing with some serious adhesive. Anyway, use the zip ties to tie it to something if you possibly can. Those are very unlikely to break. If those won’t work, use Velcro Industrial Strength (though you can buy a smaller amount than that roll.)
Also make sure that it’s actually possible to unplug the thing without completely removing it as a mechanic (or emissions inspector) is going to need to plug his rig into the connector at some point. They and you will be annoyed if they have to cut zip ties or rip off adhesive to completely remove the thing just to service the vehicle, and they might not reattach it fully.
My only other complaint is that the app on the GPS doesn’t give you access to all of the data that the Android app does, even though it should be able to, and there’s no iPhone app. (My guess is that the lack of an iPhone app is mostly Apple’s fault since doing anything with Bluetooth on an iOS device is “iPhone hardware accessory development” which requires all kinds of extra contracts and stuff to get access to the needed API and documentation. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple also wants some sort of royalty for every “Made for iPhone” device sold. Very annoying.) Anyway, fixing anything missing from the GPS app is just a matter of a software update anyway, so maybe they’ll eventually fix that.
Overall I’m satisfied with this for what it costs. It’s not supposed to be a general diagnostic scan tool or something that can reprogram your seat adjustments using some protocol that only your car manufacturer knows and won’t document for any other company. If you need to reprogram your fuel map or troubleshoot some sort of engine problem, you should get something else. But for what it’s supposed to do, it seems to work just fine and though it’s not super cheap, it’s not ungodly expensive either.
UPDATE: I did have one…
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