Innova 3140 OBD2/OBD1 Scan Tool with OBD2 Live Data, Black & White Screen

I bought this for use with several cars: 1994 Lincoln Mark VIII, 2002 Chevy Astro Van, 2007 Honda Civic, 1988 Ford Mustang, 2003 Toyota Avalon, and a 1997 Mitsubishi Montero. That represents a good mix of OBD I and OBD II cars.I found the OBD I functions to be a VAST improvement over the single-make only units I had before. Since I stink at counting beeps and flashes, a lot of user error is eliminated. It is also nice that the OBD I adapters use a long cord, since some of my cars have the connector mounted under the hood, which makes some tests and troubleshooting difficult.OBD II functions are just as cool as you would expect, but I have yet to use the recording function, but I imagine its cool. I know my buddy has an Actron that locks up from time to time, this one has not locked up on me yet. The all-at-once screen and backlighing features are fantastic.The software is very nice. It is simple and easy to use. I use an old Gateway Pentium III laptop running Windows 98SE with 288Megs of RAM, and it works like a champ. I did not see any information at all on what the minimum requirements are, but most of you will be running something newer/more powerful than my machine. The laptop is so old that it has a real serial port on the back of it, so no USB adapter was needed. Those who need a USB-to-Serial cable might want to consider getting an old used laptop instead, since the one I use was less than $30 on an auction site.Others are having problems upgrading their software and firmware, but I had no such issues. Once I had the software installed I was able to update the software to version 1.33, restart, then update the firmware to 1.02. The software install took a few minutes, but the firmware update took over 15 minutes.I am also impressed with the packaging of the unit. It comes in a cardboard box with a built-in handle and colorful slipcover, and inside the box are two nylon zippered carry cases, both of which can be zippered together so you keep all the parts together. The build quality of all of the parts is top notch, and the MASSIVE (tri-lingual) manual is easy to read. I am disappointed that no paper manual is included for the software.Overall I am very happy with this unit, and am looking forward to using all of the extra features that I haven't gotten to yet.

I chose this code reader because I have a few vehicles that are Pre 1996. So far the investment has paid off. I had three different vehicles that were showing problems and I was able to link this unit up on each one in only a few minutes. On my son's 99 Ford Taurus it identified a problem in the fuel system. It was a loose gas cap. It identified a problem on my 01 Chevy truck,. I used the 3140 to clear this code and it hasn't returned. I even was able to connect to my wife 95 Jaguar XJ6. It identified a problem with Cylinder number 1. This was not good news, oil on the spark plug. But the up side is that I now know were the problem is. The code reader pointed me in the right direction and I was able to locate the problem in a few short minutes. This saved me a ton of time and money not to mention saving me from further damage in that motor.The Equus Code Reader worked flawlessly. The software tells you what to do next to link the unit with a vehicle or your PC. Your guided step by step on the units LCD. That's slick. It's all right there on the screen. You then download the code from the vehicle, then use the Code Reader to download the code into your PC.The software links you up to the Equus support data base, where you can navigate through all the factory codes. To do this. Your PC will need to have a 9 pin RS232 serial port. Equus supplies the link cable with the unit.I have not used the on-line diagnostic support system. So I can't comment on that feature. Filling in all the data for each vehicle is tedious even though I understand why the data is necessary. This is a feature I intend on using in the future.The one black mark against this unit is the PC data link. In this day and age of plug and play. Equus should have this system available with a USB. Most PC's sold today, do not have the 9 pin Serial port on the Main Board. Some people would call it a game port for the older analog game pads and joysticks. I build my own computers and I didn't build one in this system. So I had to ad this port and use a PCI slot on the back of my system. Not everyone is comfortable with this. The serial link works fine, so I cannot mark it down for that reason. My point is that Equus would open up a larger market if they had a USB connection. Customers would find it much more user friendly in that respect.Dennis Johnson[...]