I decided to pick myself up an UltraGauge for Christmas. There hasn't been much discussion here about them, so I figured I would get the ball rolling by posting a confirmation that it works on the 2nd gen MZ3 2.5l L5-VE ECU. I got mine less for the realtime MPG support, which is already displayed on my MZ3's OBC display, but more for missing basics like engine coolant temperature, and to get a view at things like STFT/LTFTs, MAF readings, Manifold pressure, intake air temp, and so on.

It taps power parasitically from the diagnostic port using an integral non-removable cable and features a LED-backlit full raster LCD display with ambient light auto-brightness. It can display eight rows of text, and displays simple graphics, multiple typefaces on the gauges. It offers several gauge pages, six gauges per page: top two large, bottom four small. The physical package itself is surprisingly thin and lightweight. There are three buttons (up, down, menu/enter) which by default beep when pressed. They're located on the BACK of the unit, but they're easily used both handheld and while the unit is mounted in its suction-cup holder. The holder is attached to a ~6" flexible stalk on a window suction cup.

My version is the "Dec 2 2010" 1.0 firmware. Firmware updates are said to be free but require the unit to be shipped at expense to the company for updating. In addition to realtime gauges/data, it supports pending trouble codes, trouble codes, and customizable high/low/high+low alarms for each gauge parameter given.

Their forums mention a possible update with extended ecu code support, but they admit they left it out because they thought it'd be too hard to support. Their forum users suggested they either leave it to the user community to support, or just not support that feature, but add it either way.

Here are the gauges it auto-detected and made available in my 2010.5 MZ3 s Sport 2.5l 6-spd:

1. % Engine Load
2. Coolant Temp 'F
3. Shrt fuel trim bank1
4. long fuel trim bank1
5. Intake Pressure abs
6. RPM
7. MPH
8. Timing Advance
9. Intake Air Temp 'F
10. Mass Airflow 1 g/s
11. Throttle Position %
12. Bank1 OS 2 Voltage
13. Run Time ECM
14. Distance with CEL on
15. EGR % Flow
16. Evaporative % Purge
17. Fuel Level %
18. Warm ups TC cleard
19. Dist since TC cleard
20. Evap Vapor PSI
21. Barometric inHG
22. Cat Bank1 Sensor1 'F
23. Battery Voltage
24. Rel Throttle Pos % abs
25. Accel Pedal Pos1 %
26. Accel Pedal Pos2 %
27. Cmd Throttle Pos %
28. Mass Air Flow 2 g/s
29. Instantaneous MPG

There were another 21 gauges derived indirectly, mostly MPG-calculation related and misc like that. Updates appear to occur on a 0.5hz interval.

I think the best thing about this is that the UltraGauge can be had, shipped, for about $75. (Does not include a $9 mail-in rebate available, but you must jump through hoops to get it anyway.) Half the cost of the ScanGauge II, but also offers: twice the screen size and a nice backlit one too, more complex displays, audible alarms, pending trouble codes. The only bit missing are the custom ECU codes, which may show up in a later revision.

A mini-review in video format that I made this morning and posted to youtube:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWWEiR3Ag0Q"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWWEiR3Ag0Q[/ame]

Looks like it could be a cheaper alternative to the DashHawk. I wonder if it is able to read Knock Retard and DISI Fuel Pressure as those are pretty important in a monitoring tool.

I am assuming 'no,' at least until they allow custom PIDs, and then only maybe. I remain hopeful, though. If that firmware update comes out, I'll likely buy a second one with the updated firmware and drop this one in my Civic permanently.

I've definitely learned a bit already in the 18 or so hours I've had mine, I was surprised to see my STFT/LTFTs all close to 0 on the mazda, and that I can go to 100% engine load on the mazda. On the Honda OBD-II telemetry, I can only go to about 73% load, which is about right for the naturally-aspirated elevation loss, and the LTFTs are all in the -12 ballpark. Could just be a difference in how the respective ECUs tabulate it all...

Does it do boost/vac too? I might consider getting one for my CX-7.

Again, unfortunately, no. I believe it starts with a list of 74 possible gauges. (see website link in original post for these). When you connect it to the diagnostic port, it scans and then builds a table with as many of those as it supports on that vehicle. I don't believe either of the ones you mention are present, and so in its current form, the UltraGauge alone cannot give you a complete picture of what's going on in the ECU. Whether or not this will become possible with later revisions and user-custom sensor programming isn't clear, and so for the moment, this product is likely of limited use. It honestly looks as if the 74 gauges are all related somehow to emissions, perhaps they are the only one vehicle manufacturers are required to make easy/free/open to scan?

It addresses my main needs of in having a trouble-code read/clear device, coolant temp monitoring, and just a toy with which to explore what telemetry it does support. For the price of admission, all that's fine, but there's still a sense of 'you get what you pay for.' Again, on the product's user forums, there's a discussion of adding user-custom PID codes/addresses, so there's a possibility of improved compatibility in the future, but if you need that support today, you may want/have to look elsewhere.

This product will likely appeal most to folks who don't already have a diagnostic CEL scanning device, or folks trying to correct grievous omissions (*cough* coolant temp gauge *cough*) in the MZ3.

Cool. I was just trying to get something cheaper than another DashHawk. I have it in my MS3 and I just move it to my CX-7 when I go on roadtrips. If this thing is a cheaper alternative and will do what DashHawk does that would be awesome. Oh well... Thanks for the info. Maybe they'll update it. I'll keep checking. It has potential.

Wow. That's perfect for my needs. Will it work with a 2007 Mazda 3i Automatic (just purchased and pretty basic)? I wonder if its possible to mount it someplace where its more "permanent" looking.
Cool.