hey guys. I want to get one the two for my car. I do not however want to have to enroll in college to run the damn thing!! wich of the two are the most user friendly and easy for a dumbass to run? are there any drawbacks to either? I want to use them to tune a street/strip car capable of running high tens to mid 11's.
direct scan or turbo link?
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Swt_86
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Don't have any personal experience with Direct Scan but I can tell you that the Turbolink is about as easy and user friendly as a program can be. It has very well thought out help screens on just about every aspect of the program and the customer support is very good.
86national
New Member
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Go with Turbolink , you can't go wrong with the software , easy setup , great technical support! Ken Mosher is the man ! 
BoostedBug
Contents Under Pressure
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Turbo-Link is the best scan tool i have used...Would not trade it for the world or own a turbo buick with out it!
BoostedBug
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Yes it has fewer frame rates...but when you add up the record time feature it blows the other guys away.... ANd the boost sensing harness.....And it is the only one that runs in WINDOWS!
F
fuzzyBean
Guest
For some reason people like and push Turbo link.
To me the most valuable thing is the amount of data that can be taken in 1 run- being 1/4 mile, 1-2 shifts, etc. You will get 18fps with DS and 1 fps with Tlink. How long does it take for a 1-2 shift? Alot can happen in that time.
The Tlink record time is long, something like 3 hrs. Who cares? Is anyone really going to record data for that long. Especially if they use it for racing.
The Tlink has a nice interface and is more user friendly, but for hard core tuning I think DS is the way to go. The only downfall, and I wish they had it, is that they don't have boost recording.
Do more searches and see what others think
To me the most valuable thing is the amount of data that can be taken in 1 run- being 1/4 mile, 1-2 shifts, etc. You will get 18fps with DS and 1 fps with Tlink. How long does it take for a 1-2 shift? Alot can happen in that time.
The Tlink record time is long, something like 3 hrs. Who cares? Is anyone really going to record data for that long. Especially if they use it for racing.
The Tlink has a nice interface and is more user friendly, but for hard core tuning I think DS is the way to go. The only downfall, and I wish they had it, is that they don't have boost recording.
Do more searches and see what others think
BoostKillsStres
TIRE-FRYER VIA HAIR-DRYER
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I agree with Fuzzy, if I was shooting for high 10's-low 11's I would you want more than 10 or 11 points of data and something in the range of 180-200 points of data is just perfect. Some say thats too much data but you don't have to get that granular if you don't want to but its sure nice to have if the car does something stupid and it only happens for a split second. So you wont have boost sensing, its not hard to make a peak and hold for your boost gauge and it costs nothing to glance over at the gauge at the tops of gears couple times during a run. DS doesn't run in windows, fine with me as I don't want to wait for windows to boot in the staging lanes anyway, dos boots in no time. Don't get me wrong, I feel both products are fine products and I know Ken has put a lot of time, effort and customer service into his product.
Now for a quick note on scanmaster, when I loaned DS to a friend w/ one and used both during 1/4 mile racing, after each run when knock occured, DS always reported more knock than the SM did and the only thing we could figure was because of the slow data rate, it was missing reported knock...NOT good. Now SM was usually pretty close, usually within 1-2 degrees lower than what was reported by DS but if your tuning at a max level of 5 degrees(not condoned) and your actually getting 7.....you get the idea.
The ecm connector can sometimes cause problems with DS as its very sensitive to cleanliness and depth of connection but once you get it set your good.
Just my .02
My choice was lots of data and DS and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a tuning tool. I also have a caspers knock gauge for when DS isn't in the car.
Now for a quick note on scanmaster, when I loaned DS to a friend w/ one and used both during 1/4 mile racing, after each run when knock occured, DS always reported more knock than the SM did and the only thing we could figure was because of the slow data rate, it was missing reported knock...NOT good. Now SM was usually pretty close, usually within 1-2 degrees lower than what was reported by DS but if your tuning at a max level of 5 degrees(not condoned) and your actually getting 7.....you get the idea.
The ecm connector can sometimes cause problems with DS as its very sensitive to cleanliness and depth of connection but once you get it set your good.
Just my .02
My choice was lots of data and DS and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a tuning tool. I also have a caspers knock gauge for when DS isn't in the car.
BoostedBug
Contents Under Pressure
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Oh my bad...i didn't know he was wanting something for race cars. I drive mine daily and play every now and then. I am only in the 11's.
So in my situation where I drive my car more than on Sunday my t0link was the way to go.
So in my situation where I drive my car more than on Sunday my t0link was the way to go.
I don't think anyone "pushes" TurboLink.... it's just boils down to what is important in the tool for your use. Some people need the Windows interface, ease of use, multiple vehicle support, boost sensing, etc. of TurboLink. Some need the expanded data set of DS (espeically if you are cutting your own chips).
More data can be a good thing, if you can do something about it (like cut a chip) ... or it can be confusing and hard to digest if you are just confirming a decent tune. It can also be a great aid in diagnosing problems that are extremely intermitent or have obscure transients that can lead you to the root problem. No argument there.
It all comes down to what you want to use the tool for and what's important to you.
As far as the SM knock, it's probably a difference in the way the knock retard number is calculated, and not missing data. I've noticed that for some reason DS seems to interpret the raw data slightly differently (like they use 255 instead of 256 as a divisor).
BTW, we've been testing the soon to be released next version and it is really impressive to work with some of the later ECMs (like the LT1s). They pump out more data than DS at about 10 frames/sec ... it's pretty cool to see independent O2 sensors (left and right) with their own fuel correction (BLMs and INTs), independent pulse width corrections for each bank, etc. all updating at the fast rate. It really would make calibration work for those motors much easier! I wish there was a way to use that ECM with our cars ... hmmmmmm
More data can be a good thing, if you can do something about it (like cut a chip) ... or it can be confusing and hard to digest if you are just confirming a decent tune. It can also be a great aid in diagnosing problems that are extremely intermitent or have obscure transients that can lead you to the root problem. No argument there.
It all comes down to what you want to use the tool for and what's important to you.
As far as the SM knock, it's probably a difference in the way the knock retard number is calculated, and not missing data. I've noticed that for some reason DS seems to interpret the raw data slightly differently (like they use 255 instead of 256 as a divisor).
BTW, we've been testing the soon to be released next version and it is really impressive to work with some of the later ECMs (like the LT1s). They pump out more data than DS at about 10 frames/sec ... it's pretty cool to see independent O2 sensors (left and right) with their own fuel correction (BLMs and INTs), independent pulse width corrections for each bank, etc. all updating at the fast rate. It really would make calibration work for those motors much easier! I wish there was a way to use that ECM with our cars ... hmmmmmm
BoostedBug
Contents Under Pressure
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Ken if you figure a way out for us to use a LS1 ecm in our cars I will be your ginnie pig and buy one. Just waiting and learning.
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