Okay, I slightly misspoke in one post. Perhaps it should have said “I dont think your giving enough credit to the information they do provide”. Please don’t tell me all of this is because of that one thing.
I tend to think he’s misinformed
he joined the website in early March, so I don’t think he came on here to promote his personal product(s)
I would hope you’re using professional tools, considering people are paying good money for you to do the job properly 
Do you use any Fluke tools . . . I’m thinking multimeter, temperature probes, thermal imagers
Now that is one company that stands behind their product(s) 
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Agree with @db4690 — @kravenscroft1316_165014 isn’t here to troll.
I’m not talking about your run of the mill code readers here. I’m referring to devices that can poll fuel trims and other sensor information. I dont accept work for anything I can’t reasonably do and I would never want to be called a mechanic as I lack the patience to do it every single day.
For example if you are getting some unusual turbo noise when letting off the throttle and your car is equipped with a wastegate position sensor you can more easily tell if its working properly. Or if you keep fouling spark plugs and the ECU doesnt throw a rich condition code. Your fuel trims and O2 output be an indicator that your getting too much fuel. Or maybe your running lean because of a clogged fuel filter or a bad fuel pump. Again trims can help solidify the presence of a problem and point you in the direction of a solution.
I’m not trying to say a simple usb plug is a replacement for a 4000$ tool. That was never my intent. I just wanted to inquire as to why more DIYers dont use them. If your willing to fix it why not understand why for instance a manifold leak causes a lean condition and what tools are available that can help to diagnose such a thing that dont cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
Perhaps my initial post was very much vague.
The only module on a vehicle the is required to be OBDII compliant is the PCM. Those high priced diagnostic tools that can communicate with other modules are more costly because they includes the cost of the preparatory software from vehicle manufactures.
OBDII diagnostic data does not include passive restraint data or ABS data, or the other 40 modules in the vehicle, that is manufacture preparatory data that the manufacture controls.
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I have a pretty basic scanner to point me in the direction of the system that is malfunctioning. It has been helpful in the past. Not in the last 15 years because my 2004 PT Cruiser and 2012 Camry have never throw any codes.
A $30 cord would do me no good because I don’t have a cell phone or laptop, only a Mac desktop.
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I think your first post was pretty much on target. Why don’t more people use theses cheap devices to diagnose their cars? Well some do. Some of those who do aren’t much better at actual diagnosis than the counter guy at Autozone who reads those codes for free to sell you 02 sensors you don’t need.
They provide a lot of info, for sure but they are limited. That’s where the discussion went off the rails, so to speak.
For folks who know how to use the data, they are very powerful tools. Limited, but powerful. Knowing when you’ve reached the limits of your $50 tool and call in a pro with professional equipment is key. If you never have to, great!
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So, after all the back and forth, the resolution is that no matter what tool you have, the only tool that really solves problems is the human mind. If you know more, you’ll be better at figuring out what you don’t know. What it takes is a good mind and a good understanding of the difference between knowledge and ignorance. There’s no shame in saying you don’t understand something, and anything you do to help educate yourself is worth doing. If a simple OBD reader is useful, and I agree that it is, fine and dandy. A more capable OBD is better but a simple one is a start. Just like a simple Harbor Freight tool kit might be enough to fix some stuff and maybe start someone on a path to better things later. Scorn and dismissal of someone’s effort to learn to work with stuff is a terrible thing.
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Exactly. Having quality tools and test equipment is very important, but knowing how to use those tools and when to use a particular tool or piece of test equipment is even more important. Knowing how to interpret the results, and knowing what values indicate a particular problem or malfunction is most important, and that knowledge can only be gained through experience.
For example, I work in heating and air conditioning. I went to a service call Friday afternoon, after our inexperienced technician diagnosed a commercial unit as being low on refrigerant and then (after adding refrigerant) as having a damaged compressor that was making a lot of noise. I showed up and found the system grossly overcharged; fortunately this model is equipped with a high pressure control, and the compressor was “knocking” because it was short-cycling repeatedly as the high-side pressure spiked.
The real problem? The indoor fan wasn’t running because the inverter-drive control had failed. The inexperienced technician put his refrigerant gauges on the unit, saw the pressures way too low, and assumed it was low on refrigerant. An experienced technician would have inspected the indoor coil for ice buildup and checked to see that the blower was functioning properly. He also would have added refrigerant slowly, watched to see how the pressures respond as refrigerant is added, and stopped adding if the pressures did not respond in the expected manner.
This type of situation no doubt occurs in the automotive industry. An inexperienced mechanic can certainly overlook or misdiagnose things which a seasoned professional would instantly spot. This is why companies are supposed to be willing to pay for experience, although many employers are too cheap to do this, and instead demand the performance of a $25-35 an hour technician while paying less than $20 an hour. As always, there is no free lunch, and these companies end up with unhappy employees, high turnover, and higher-than-normal levels of employee theft.
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I could probably get more done using made-in-china craftsman tools, for example . . . versus some idiot “know it all” using MY professional tools
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In addition to all the excellent reasons given above… I will add “Laziness” to the list… People are lazy and many if not most would rather be told whats what when they cannot ignore the problem any longer. In addition…once you get this data…you need to actually look up what it means…and if you are lazy this is simply unacceptable, so they would rather ask others what it all means. We cant expect people in general to actually want to do some research or look things up can we?
I mean we get questions on here about where to find a car part or about car reviews…and to ask these questions requires a computer…hooked onto the internet (where search engines live)…see where I might be heading with that? I mean, you logged onto a forum, on the internet to ask us where to find “X” or what is “Y” or any damn thing…and forgot to simply use the “internet”…while using the internet to ask? Perhaps this leans more towards stupidity rather than laziness but I digress…
If you aren’t into cars and repairing them yourself…those in that category may look upon an OBD scanner and rename it “The bad news module” or “The Expenso-Meter” Those not into vehicles would tend to shy away from the information waiting beyond the CEL…and some would rather hide from the info or ignore it to see if it just goes away. Like putting your head in the sand type o deal. lol
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No integrated control on that system? Many cars will disable compressor operation if there is a fault with the blower motor operation or if the evaporator temperature goes too low.
This had nothing to do with cars. I am not a professional mechanic. I am an HVAC service technician. This was a 10-ton gas package unit, not an automotive A/C system.
Ya I know. I was just wondering, that if cars have a mechanism to keep an evaporator from icing, don’t residential or industrial units have the same?
And by the way do you happen to know of any cures for a geothermal heat pump with a cooling loop that wasn’t dug deep enough?
Because most people dont want to work on todays computer driven vehicles. Too complicated for the average person other than oil changes and doing tire pressures .