Ecel, the manual says you should program the scangauge to the lesser amount if you have say a 17.5 size tank to progarm a 17 gallon tank. This is because of MTE and running out of fuel. It says running out of fuel can damage the fuel pump and leave you stranded. When I read the section your talking about, this came to mind. There is also a section that talks about not always filling the tank the same because of the angle of a slope the vehicles on, load of the vehicle to one side, gas nozzle shut off and pump reading. Also expansion in heat and the rate the fuel is pumped have a bearing (I pump the fuel in real slow for this reason). Adjusting the amount of fuel consumption to what you add will be a never ending task IMO.

What I decided to do is what ever is the most I can put into the tank (it may take a number of fills), use that as my high number for programing. If I get fuel and can't refill (which has happen many times) to that high level again, just make a note of the difference and not adjust the scangauge down. Strictly use the stock MTE with the safety already programed into the vehicle for running out of fuel.

Having two gauges is great to compare one another. The hybrid setting is where you program the type of fuel on the scangauge. When I first got it, I programed in GAS and didn't check any further options. The scangauge was going into the sleep mode when the ICE shut off. This is the only place to find the hybrid setting that I've found so far.

It will take me some time to learn how to fully use this thing but hopefully we can all share and learn from one another here.

GaryG

 

Wbruff send an email regarding his scangauge backlight coming on while the FEH is just sitting in the driveway. Mind is doing the same thing it turns out. It must be the PCM and battery computer become active and make the scangauge wake up at times when there is no key near the FEH. The manual says the LED"s will most likely never burn out on the scangauge.

One other good point the FEH has with the scangauge is since it has CAN, you can set the readouts to the fastest setting. The ISO bus may have to be set at the low to normal setting. I set mine to the fastest update rate and it works great.

Did some drafting on I-95 today and the MPG instant readout is really great for it. You can find a sweet spot much easier and back off the tailgate for a more reasonable and safe distance. Truckers are getting real upset when they see you drafting them. Staying as far back as posible but still enjoying great FE is a more happy ride for both. The detail RPM drop is another good tool.

Highway driving in the FEH is going to get much better FE using the scangauge. At 65mph you can adjust pedal position were you see over 60mpg readings and I'm still running on the bad gas my daughter got in Orlando.

GaryG

 

On the scangauge trip O, I found if you reset "CURRENT" for a short round trip, you get a reset each time you turn off the key. The information of your MPG average during that round trip is averaged in the overall "TODAY' average, it appears. In other words, The "TODAY' reading starts after the vehicle sets for 8-10 hours (overnight in most cases) and puts the past readings in the "PREVIOUS DAY" and the old readings in the "PREVIOUS DAY" are lost. My point is, if you want to find a round trip MPG average, don't turn off the key and leave the car at your destination and expect your round trip average to continue.

The nav sys 15min average can be reset for a round trip average because it stores 2,000 minutes (as GPSMAN1 has posted on Yahoo), even if the FEH is turned off during a round trip. I found if both gauges are reset at the same time, the data is very close to each other untill the FEH is turned off. For this reason, the readings will never be close, because of their design.

John, the problem with the scangauge lighting up was discuss a while back below this post. If you can add to it, please do it here on this tread.

GaryG

 

I didn't see this thread until just now.

So far, the Orange Backlight is on every time I check, not just once in a while.
I unplugged it and plugged it back in an hour ago without inserting a key, just to see what happens. An hour later, it is still lit up.

I know you can manually turn the lamp off full time, but it will be annoying to me to have to turn it back on every time I drive at night.

I guess if everyone's does this, that is just how it was made.
If this is the case, and mine is NOT defective...
I sense a hack is in order.
It may take a separate wire, but would be nice to wire it to the dashboard lights.
( Then it will dim according to the panel lights also! )

Oh well. Like you said before, I think it was a reasonable price.
I am surprised there is no oil pressure display.
The FEH will even do that in digagnostic mode.

-John

 

Has anyone with a scanguage taken it apart? The reason I ask, is after reading the beginning of the post, I've been doing some research into into the whole obd2 protocols and came across a few interesting things.

Anyway, I'm wondering if the scanguage is implemented using something similar to the elm327 chip ( http://www.elmelectronics.com/DSheets/ELM327DS.pdf ). They provide a pretty nice schematic to be used with all protocols. Now I'm all for the information the scanguage can give, but I do like things to be customizable, and hell, I like to tinker. This looks like a pretty easy way to dump data, first to a laptop, and second to my old Visor, and the wife's iPAQ.

So I'm just curious as to what is used inside the scanguage, as there may be cheaper alternatives to the elm chip. Although the chip (and another required for the board) sell for $37 CDN (together), so the cost isn't too high, but if I can bring the cost down a bit more, I'm all for it.

 

This discussion started over in 'Miles to Empty' but thought this might be better placed in the 'ScanGuage' thread to carry on this topic.



Edited Quotes


Looking at the ScanGuage manual (online), it talks about calibrating/setting the speed or distance up or down to get a more correct reading on the Speed which changes the Distance and therefore the MPG. Just wondering - know both of you are perfectionist, if either of you did this calibration.

In simple terms I guess both the SG and NAV (using the same data for both) are basically using fuel used (1gal, 10gal etc) and using the final revolutions of the drive-train, to come up with the Speed, MPG etc. and the circumference of the tires are the only factor that could change this reading.
I just happened to be in S Georgia a couple of weeks ago and had the CC on 45MPH when I can upon one of those roadside Radar signs with a MPH readout. It showed 47 - so I did a little math and sure enough what discrepancies’ I had been having between the NAV and manual (I know it is not going to be accurate) was about the same.

I know you and others have seen on this forum and others have stated that Ford put in a fudge factor of 2-3 miles (high) on the NAV to make it look better, but after reading both of your comments and what I came up with - they are on the mark - in other words believe and use the MPG figures given by the NAV or SG.

 

"I know you and others have seen on this forum and others that Ford put in a fudge factor of 2-3 miles (high) on the NAV to make it look better, but after reading both of your comments and what I came up with - they are on the mark - in other words believe and use the MPG figures given by the NAV or SG"

That is correct Phillip, I gave up on the manual way but compared it with the SG and NAVi for awhile. If I go to this one gas pump, sometimes I can put over 2 gallons more and get 200 miles (sometime over) at the 3/4 FEH tank level gauge. When I fill now, I know just where the gas level is and confirm it with the movement of the tank gauge, the trip on the FEH and scangauge, fuel burned or used on the SG and the 15 min. average. Finding this information out, let's me know my MPG average all the time. Simply put, if you have the Navi, reset at fillup and know your average tank MPG with the push of a button. When my average tank or 15 min starts dropping, I know it right away and start digging in my bag of tricks to improve. The ICE and CAT warm up is where I go all out each morning. After 10 miles on my regular commute, the Current Trip reading on the SG is around 47mpg most of the time. The tank and 15 min average is the important one to watch so I just do a check of the current trip to see if I'm on track. My average comute is about 40 miles with other things like lunch with my wife or friends and shopping. My new goal is a 55mpg tank average. You gotta master the warmup and the fake shift for EV to get to this stage.

The speedometer on the FEH is higher than the SG by 2-3 mph. I set the tank size at 15 gallons even though I know it's larger. This helps match the data on the Navi. The MTE on the scangauge always reads much higher than the FEH gauge. At fillup, the SG Tank To Empty is near 900 miles and the FEH is climbing on 800 MTE. The trip miles vary a little also between the SG and NAVI. The reason I don't calibrate the SG is because the most important things to me, the fuel used and the 15 min average are so close.

Hope this helps. BTW, xcel posted one of the pictures of my 70.3mpg round trip on http://www.cleanmpg.com/ .... That bunch over there have been on TV lately regarding the Prius Marathon hitting over 100mpg averages. Some of them post here as well and are a great bunch of hypermilers. I'm still learning!

GaryG