PLX DM100 Mini Review / What's a Good AFR Gauge?

[Uncle Rusty]

Hey guys, just wanted to post a mini review of 2 gauges I picked up recently, and also wanted to see what anyone else with a Supercharger or Turbos is running to monitor their AFR. For the Supercharger I picked up a Mechanical Roush Boost Gauge as well as a PLX DM100 Touch OBD2 Scanner Gauge. I had a chance to wire everything up and get it installed earlier, and overall it wasn't that bad but wiring, soldering, and cable routing get tedious pretty quickly as I'm sure most of you guys know. For power I used an Add-a-circuit to the Fuse box, and I utilized a frame ground under the driver side dash.

So far I'm liking the Roush at least, since you can't go wrong with a mechanical gauge. The PLX on the other hand, is a bit disappointing especially considering the fact that it cost me $220 from AM. This thing has a ridiculous amount of lag in the readout-- it's impossible to use for RPM or any sensor that's real time as it lags about 2-3 second behind the actual engine. I realize OBD2 isn't the fastest interface out there but I'm getting more responsive readouts using my Nexus Tablet and the Torque app with the OBDII Scanner I have. I'm not sure if it's just the gauge or this is normal, can anyone with a PLX or an Aeroforce compare? At the very least it's probably fine for watching Air temps, coolant temp, etc but that's about it. It's pretty sad that a Bluetooth connection consisting of a $23 Wireless OBD2 scanner and $5 Android App are more responsive though.

Primarily I wanted to use the gauge for AFR purposes, but it looks like it's far too slow to be useful in that regard. I'm going to talk to AM tomorrow about it to see if this is normal or not, but if it is I'm definitely going to return it. I just watched a video of an Aerforoce in a '12 GT reading out AFR, and holy shit that's about 10x more responsive than this PLX I have. Anyone on here had any experience with the PLX, Aeroforce, or simply a decent AFR Gauge? Is OBD2 worthless, and should I look into a dedicated gauge that could possibly splice into the factory wideband sensors, or is my PLX maybe just bad or not as quick as the Aeroforce?

 

[Weather Man]

Text was so faint, I could not read.

Hey guys, just wanted to post a mini review of 2 gauges I picked up recently, and also wanted to see what anyone else with a Supercharger or Turbos is running to monitor their AFR. For the Supercharger I picked up a Mechanical Roush Boost Gauge as well as a PLX DM100 Touch OBD2 Scanner Gauge. I had a chance to wire everything up and get it installed earlier, and overall it wasn't that bad but wiring, soldering, and cable routing get tedious pretty quickly as I'm sure most of you guys know. For power I used an Add-a-circuit to the Fuse box, and I utilized a frame ground under the driver side dash.

So far I'm liking the Roush at least, since you can't go wrong with a mechanical gauge. The PLX on the other hand, is a bit disappointing especially considering the fact that it cost me $220 from AM. This thing has a ridiculous amount of lag in the readout-- it's impossible to use for RPM or any sensor that's real time as it lags about 2-3 second behind the actual engine. I realize OBD2 isn't the fastest interface out there but I'm getting more responsive readouts using my Nexus Tablet and the Torque app with the OBDII Scanner I have. I'm not sure if it's just the gauge or this is normal, can anyone with a PLX or an Aeroforce compare? At the very least it's probably fine for watching Air temps, coolant temp, etc but that's about it. It's pretty sad that a Bluetooth connection consisting of a $23 Wireless OBD2 scanner and $5 Android App are more responsive though.

Primarily I wanted to use the gauge for AFR purposes, but it looks like it's far too slow to be useful in that regard. I'm going to talk to AM tomorrow about it to see if this is normal or not, but if it is I'm definitely going to return it. I just watched a video of an Aerforoce in a '12 GT reading out AFR, and holy shit that's about 10x more responsive than this PLX I have. Anyone on here had any experience with the PLX, Aeroforce, or simply a decent AFR Gauge? Is OBD2 worthless, and should I look into a dedicated gauge that could possibly splice into the factory wideband sensors, or is my PLX maybe just bad or not as quick as the Aeroforce?

 

[baldtaco]

Hey guys, just wanted to post a mini review of 2 gauges I picked up recently, and also wanted to see what anyone else with a Supercharger or Turbos is running to monitor their AFR. For the Supercharger I picked up a Mechanical Roush Boost Gauge as well as a PLX DM100 Touch OBD2 Scanner Gauge. I had a chance to wire everything up and get it installed earlier, and overall it wasn't that bad but wiring, soldering, and cable routing get tedious pretty quickly as I'm sure most of you guys know. For power I used an Add-a-circuit to the Fuse box, and I utilized a frame ground under the driver side dash.

So far I'm liking the Roush at least, since you can't go wrong with a mechanical gauge. The PLX on the other hand, is a bit disappointing especially considering the fact that it cost me $220 from AM. This thing has a ridiculous amount of lag in the readout-- it's impossible to use for RPM or any sensor that's real time as it lags about 2-3 second behind the actual engine. I realize OBD2 isn't the fastest interface out there but I'm getting more responsive readouts using my Nexus Tablet and the Torque app with the OBDII Scanner I have. I'm not sure if it's just the gauge or this is normal, can anyone with a PLX or an Aeroforce compare? At the very least it's probably fine for watching Air temps, coolant temp, etc but that's about it. It's pretty sad that a Bluetooth connection consisting of a $23 Wireless OBD2 scanner and $5 Android App are more responsive though.

Primarily I wanted to use the gauge for AFR purposes, but it looks like it's far too slow to be useful in that regard. I'm going to talk to AM tomorrow about it to see if this is normal or not, but if it is I'm definitely going to return it. I just watched a video of an Aerforoce in a '12 GT reading out AFR, and holy shit that's about 10x more responsive than this PLX I have. Anyone on here had any experience with the PLX, Aeroforce, or simply a decent AFR Gauge? Is OBD2 worthless, and should I look into a dedicated gauge that could possibly splice into the factory wideband sensors, or is my PLX maybe just bad or not as quick as the Aeroforce?

This bums me out, I just ordered one to try instead of the Aeroforce which I normally use. I may just send it back if it lags that bad, let us know what AM says.

 

[Uncle Rusty]

So I talked to AM and they mentioned that not a whole lot of people have used this gauge in the Stang yet, but they were definitely willing to do a return even though I'm right over the 30 day mark. AM also suggested I talk to PLX, so I gave them a call and they indicated it's primarily dependant on the type of ODB2 connection on the car. They suggested that I could try it out on another vehicle, so I might give it a try on my 15 Golf to see how it runs in comparison. That said I think most likely I'm going to end up returning and going with the Aeroforce or maybe just a dedicated AFR gauge.

How did you like the Aeroforce? It seems to be pretty responsive from what I've seen online, but I'm also not totally sold on the small screen and have heard it can be hard to read on a sunny day.

 

[baldtaco]

I loved the Aeroforce had it in my last to cars both with wideband attached and they worked great. My only complaint was even with the cars under a car cover on hot days the screens would turn black until cooled off.

 

[cb900f]

I had the AEM Failsafe gague. Reads boost and AFR. Worked quite well, even had USB interface for datalogging.