What are the American automotive scanners?

[Bennylava]

I've had it with these chinese scanners. I've got an Autel, and I also have the $1,600 flagship Launch. It's all down the Chineses' age old inability to hire a competent translator. Too many times I've struggled to understand what the thing is telling me, only to later find out that it was just because it's written in bad english. Costing me time and money.

I'll be researching the problem on youtube, and someone will be using a Snap On Solus. And sure enough it's the same problem. Only the Solus actually makes sense. It doesn't say something like "Cam sensor code viable read". Or some other nonsense. I've had enough.

So what are all the known American brands? Here's the list I've been able to come up with, so I can (hopefully) find something for the right price:

Snap On
Innova
OTC
Drew Technologies
Youcanic
FIXD

 

[finn]

Maybe learn Chinese?

OTC is owned by Bosch, and it looks like they discontinued their higher end tools..p

Drew was acquired by OPUS

 

[CGarage]

Isn’t there a YouTube channel with a gent who reviews all of the scanners on the market?

Maybe it is ScannerDanner?

 

[xjfish]

Snap On is your best option for what you're describing and they are typically easy to use and interpret.

 

[Bennylava]

Snap On is your best option for what you're describing and they are typically easy to use and interpret.

Yeah I've been doing some reading and it looks like they're the top dog. You can get the $3,500 current model on ebay for $1,500. But then of course, no warranty.

Also it's very expensive to update the software. So you'd probably not wanna do it until it you finally just had to.

 

[zendriver]

I don’t have a super expensive scanner, but I thought they all just gave a code the description of the code and then various levels of live data, function tests, resets,etc

What other displayed information do they offer That can be-hard to understand?

 

[Bennylava]

I don’t have a super expensive scanner, but I thought they all just gave a code the description of the code and then various levels of live data, function tests, resets,etc

What other displayed information do they offer That can be-hard to understand?

The information itself is not hard to understand, in fact quite the opposite since we have the help of the internet. But since each manufacturer seems to call up different screens, that doesn't work with bad english.

If it was always the same, you'd finally get the hang of it and just know what they meant. Hopefully anyway, their english is pretty bad imo. For example I recently did a 2014 F-150. It was quite different from the 2006 Chevy 1500 I did later.

Bear in mind this is using the top models and they have many different screens and data that you can read. Makes it frustrating when the words are nonsense. I've been looking at snap on and apparently people say it's much more intuitive in general. I'm tired of trying to decipher what the chinese meant.

 

[M635_Guy]

I think it's less Chinese vs. not spending the money to have the software push the database to the background, and the databases between manufacturers, models and even model years are all over the place - there's standardization...until there isn't. I'd guess part of that is whole generational platform refreshes bring in a whole new set of tech and data structure that isn't necessarily similar to the last gen. Etc., etc. - I can think of a lot of reasons why those databases are so variable and thus prominent in what you're looking at.

Innova has some companion apps that try to do this, but they have some pretty annoying limitations. Maybe they've fixed them. At least if you buy in the upper end of their range it's a single device (vs. having to use your tablet or phone to run the companion "explain it to me" SW), but for me it often capped or cropped some of the information, Their Support said "Sorry!"

I think Snap On's scanner does correlate the information better, but it's still pretty technical. If you're a trained tech, that won't be a problem.

 

[dnschmidt]

Some of it has nothing to do with the scan tool manufacturer. Different car families call the same thing a different name. That's not a Chinese problem. Snap-On is the safe choice but you're paying three times as much for the same functionality. But hey, it's your money.

 

[Bennylava]

I think it's less Chinese vs. not spending the money to have the software push the database to the background, and the databases between manufacturers, models and even model years are all over the place - there's standardization...until there isn't.

The whole thing reminds me of reading directions to assemble a chinese product that has a lot of steps. At some point it dawns on you that nobody who worked on the directions spoke english.

 

[richfinn]

The latest Launch scanners are equipped with A.I. and "code search" function which links direct to relevant info/videos.

The translation issues aren't much of an issue once you get around manufacturer acronyms and abbreviations.

You will definitely sacrifice overall functionality for superior language translation in my experience, my Autocom (European manufacturer) has almost perfect English but can't display many PIDs/or carry out the Service Functions and bi-directional tests that my Launch X431 can