GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I am going to replace the passenger info box thingie w/ a gauge that displays the mpgs, instant mpgs, etc. Looking for some rec's and opinions, especially from other Viber's and what works and what doesnt.

Thanks.

I have yet to try any solutions; but I'm planning to. And when I do, it would be by using an ELM327 OBD2 Bluetooth dongle, in conjunction with Torque on an Android phone.

I personally have an Ultragauge. It's a great little gauge, and can show up to eight different displays. Brightness adjusts via a light sensor. I love it, and it's really helpful.

It's the blue gauge almost center in this picture.

KITT222 wrote:I personally have an Ultragauge. It's a great little gauge, and can show up to eight different displays. Brightness adjusts via a light sensor. I love it, and it's really helpful.

It's the blue gauge almost center in this picture.

I like that, how did you mount it?

Velcro to the center bezel. It slightly overlaps the A/C button and the vent, but I'm fine with it.

How accurate can the mpg value be? I like my gps as it accurately tell me my mph.

jake75 wrote:How accurate can the mpg value be? I like my gps as it accurately tell me my mph.

It will need to be calibrated, but it's simple enough. Sometimes it predicts high, sometimes it predicts low. On long highway trips it could be very optimistic or under-estimate, but then again I only have it half calibrated.

canadave wrote:I have yet to try any solutions; but I'm planning to. And when I do, it would be by using an ELM327 OBD2 Bluetooth dongle, in conjunction with Torque on an Android phone.

I think that's a good idea but I hate cords and things not looking flush. I even dislike the aux cord out of the radio. I imagine the battery drain would be tremendous if you constantly run it.

KITT222 wrote:Velcro to the center bezel. It slightly overlaps the A/C button and the vent, but I'm fine with it.

you have a picture that shows your setup in daylight?

mrbravo2000 wrote:

KITT222 wrote:Velcro to the center bezel. It slightly overlaps the A/C button and the vent, but I'm fine with it.

you have a picture that shows your setup in daylight?

Not currently, but I can see about getting one tomorrow.

mrbravo2000 wrote:

canadave wrote:I have yet to try any solutions; but I'm planning to. And when I do, it would be by using an ELM327 OBD2 Bluetooth dongle, in conjunction with Torque on an Android phone.

I think that's a good idea but I hate cords and things not looking flush. I even dislike the aux cord out of the radio. I imagine the battery drain would be tremendous if you constantly run it.

The mini ELM327 doesn't have a cord; it's a very small dongle that just plugs directly into the OBD2 port, no cords whatsoever due to it being Bluetooth, which wirelessly connects to your Android phone. There is a similar dongle, slightly more expensive (but less expensive than those ScanGauge/UltraGauges) that can work with iOS over WiFi.

As for battery drain, I've no idea about that. The drain on the ELM327 is supposedly quite minimal. The drain on a phone, I'm not so sure, but there's plenty of internet threads about it if you care to research it.

with the scangauge, and others that get power from the ODBII port, the power is cut when ignition is off, so battery drain is not an issue

joatmon wrote:with the scangauge, and others that get power from the ODBII port, the power is cut when ignition is off, so battery drain is not an issue

Not necessarily true. The OBDII port on most (possibly all?) vehicles is powered even with ignition off and key out. ScanGuage and others have actually had to work pretty hard to come up with various ways depending on the vehicle to detect when the car is off and power off all but the bare minimum the device itself needs to re-detect startup. Several iterations of firmware have done this less than successfully and lead to battery drain problems on some vehicles. My ELM327 dongle certainly gets power even with the vehicle off, though it eventually puts itself to sleep. I opted for one with a physical power button that definitely cuts the power connection so I can be sure it won't drain the battery when I'm not using it.

you're right, and thanks for correcting me. I guess I assumed since the scangauge went off with ignition off, it cut power, but looking at the wiring diagrams I see I was wrong, terribly, dreadfully wrong, and not too proud to admit it.

canadave wrote:

mrbravo2000 wrote:

canadave wrote:I have yet to try any solutions; but I'm planning to. And when I do, it would be by using an ELM327 OBD2 Bluetooth dongle, in conjunction with Torque on an Android phone.

I think that's a good idea but I hate cords and things not looking flush. I even dislike the aux cord out of the radio. I imagine the battery drain would be tremendous if you constantly run it.

The mini ELM327 doesn't have a cord; it's a very small dongle that just plugs directly into the OBD2 port, no cords whatsoever due to it being Bluetooth, which wirelessly connects to your Android phone. There is a similar dongle, slightly more expensive (but less expensive than those ScanGauge/UltraGauges) that can work with iOS over WiFi.

As for battery drain, I've no idea about that. The drain on the ELM327 is supposedly quite minimal. The drain on a phone, I'm not so sure, but there's plenty of internet threads about it if you care to research it.

I looked into that dongle, that's pretty dope. I like that. I've seen the scan gauge but the screen looks plain and seems to be hard to look at. I have an Android and a Windows Phone and it appears both have programs that support the feature with an app. I might ant brain drain on the phone but I'm glad you answered the vehicle battery issue as well. I saw the Torque app, looks impressive from the screenshots.

Besides the water drip along the front window trim, the lack of a mpg display is what I dislike the most on the vibe. I rented vehicles all summer and the mpg display (along with the ECO light / flower) really changed my driving habits. I need that because I have a lead foot.

I too like the Torque app and I run it on my old LG Vortex phone. I have a silicone cover on it and it fits almost perfectly in the right dash opening. I even have the charger cords running behind the radio faceplate from the power supply further down.



There are a lot of different gauges and things you can set up on it, but I use the instant MPG, ave MPG and speedometer all the time, and the temp gauge and a few others quite often.

I saw the newer mini adapters on ebay, and I will probably order one of them since the one I have is rather large and sticks out of the dash a bit much. I sometimes hit it as I leave the car. I did get an extension cable for it so I could mount it under the dash, but haven't mounted it.

Avid fan of the ScanGauge here. I have the ScanGauge e in the Vibe. Doesn't have all the bells and whistles as the SG-II but it's more in tune with the fuel economy nerd.

For those of you running Torque Pro, how accurate have you found the gas mileage to be? Mine seems to be a little optimistic. What kinds of calibration have you done (volumetric efficiency or MPG trim)? I guess I just need to fill up, take a long trip, fill up at the end, and compare the results, unless anyone else can share their numbers and get me closer.

IanVS wrote:For those of you running Torque Pro, how accurate have you found the gas mileage to be? Mine seems to be a little optimistic. What kinds of calibration have you done (volumetric efficiency or MPG trim)? I guess I just need to fill up, take a long trip, fill up at the end, and compare the results, unless anyone else can share their numbers and get me closer.

Mine is a bit optimistic too, but I haven't worried about it much. For my GT, I have the engine size at 2.4, weight at 1500 kg, e10 fuel, 13.2 gal capacity, 0.0 boost adj, 6400 max RPM, 85.0 volumetric efficiency, 1.0 for MPG trim, and 1.0 speed multiplier. Mine reads about 25-26 MPG while my calculations are about 24-25. I really use it for the MPH and the instant MPG so I can try to drive more efficiently. Love coasting at 255 MPG!

Ah, I missed the e10 gas, good call. I had "petrol" selected, so I bet that threw things off a bit. I probably won't be getting 40mpg in town anymore, darn it. I also love seeing 255 when I coast in gear, because I know it really means infinite, since there is zero gas and non-zero miles. Having that display up has really changed the way I drive, I start coasting way back from stop signs and try to only brake from about 10-15 mph. There aren't usually cars behind me, but when there are I just keep in mind that I'm saving them gas too!