least costly way to read INFO subcodes ?

The only full function app that I’m aware of, that seems to be favored by the experts here, is TORQUE APP PRO.
However, it is Android based. You’d need too pick up a Cheap used android phone to run it. There are other IOS based ODB2 apps in the App store that use the dongle. Unfortunately, they don’t have full battery cell reading capability that I know of.

The symptoms you describe, at least on the slower to go green , is that of a normal good condition balanced pack.

My 298k OE pack seems to go green and full green noticeably quicker than when I got the car at 123k. It is just showing me its age.



iPhone X ?

 

I had an old Linux laptop collecting dust. I installed VirtualBox on it and in there I installed an old copy of Windows XP. The laptop has a switch so I can keep the wifi turned off as an air gap. I think the Techstream and cable I got from Amazon were around $20. That is THE cheapest and best I could manage.

 

i think you can read blink codes on the gen2, not sure if that includes sub codes.

 

Best solution is to buy Techstream and an old laptop or netbook. How much could one running windows 7 cost? You might need a cheap inverter as the battery on an old laptop won’t run long but still pretty cheap.

 

Hi @swing

The Dr. Prius app is the only app I've found for Apple users... It's designed specific to hybrid battery functions, but does have some stuff beyond that. Key part of getting it to work is buying an OBD2 reader that actually works. Had to buy one four times and return 'em before I finally got a good one. Here's a buyer's guide written by the creator of Dr. Prius: Hybrid battery diagnostic and repair tool for Toyota and Lexus

 

This is great news. It’s about time somebody did one for IOS.


iPhone X ?

 

None of the apps I know of have the sub codes.
Just the high level codes.
The apps will give other data though like block voltage live, pack soc, etc

So get an inexpensive Windows laptop for under $100. Plus Techstreamfor under $50.
Total of $150 for diagnostic tools is relatively inexpensive.

I am very curious about your new Hymotion system.
Are you saying you bought a NEW system recently and installed it? If so, how much did the unit cost and how much for installation?

 

Dr. Prius app reads hybrid battery subcodes...

 

How did you get it to read the subcodes. I have tried several menu items and never was able to read my brake warning, Red triangle, engine, and VSC cause.

 

Some generic OBD-II apps, like Torque, allow you to load additional PID definitions to read interesting values (battery voltages, coolant temperatures, whatever) if you know what their addresses are and how to decode them. Those originally got reverse-engineered by enthusiasts, some of them right here on PriusChat. It turned out that some of those PIDs were the INF codes.

These days, probably when you get an app like Torque, maybe you can easily select Prius and you get a bunch of Prius-specific PIDs already defined for you. But you can also still search PriusChat (or elsewhere) for those original, reverse-engineered PID lists for your generation of car, and see if the INF codes got figured out. If they did, you should still be able to teach them to something like Torque or any other teachable app.

The thing is, there are a lot of ECUs in a Prius (upwards of two dozen in Gen 3), and for each ECU that has INF codes, somebody would have had to figure out their PID addresses and decoding. You might find that only ever got done for one or two or three of the ECUs, leaving Techstream as the easiest option for the rest.

 

Only reads some of them... Either they show up or they don't show up, no adjustment to get them to show more.

 

Does anyone know if the latest version of Torque Pro already includes all the Prius codes? I recall reading that Prius PIDs were included, but can't remember where I read it so not sure if accurate.

 

get mini vci and techstream. OEM better than anything else

 

I've read of so many people having issues with cables and glitchy software. In addition, one would need a dedicated laptop. For most people this is not worth the effort if an app like Torque pro can ID Prius codes. Of course, Techstream is far more capable, but most people just want the codes/sub-codes.

 

I would guess what most people just want is whatever makes fixing the car problem easier.

There are plenty of car problems where one of the other things you can do with Techstream, like an active test of an actuator or retrieval of freeze-frame values, is what turns a days- or weeks-long troubleshooting nightmare into an easy diagnosis and repair.

 

Sure, but realistically what most people want as you describe is often not practical. For those who are capable of doing repair work like brake actuator replacement, yes Techstream is the way to go. Those people should make the effort to buy a separate laptop with dongle and figure out how to get that software up and running. However, I'd argue that it would be more helpful to a majority of people to use an app to quickly ID codes/sub-codes which will then at least help identify whatever issue has surfaced.

 

Yes, codes help identify issues, which is why my first advice to most posters is to please post the codes.

But in many cases, arguably most, the codes don't give you enough information to identify a cause, or to know what to do to fix it. (There are lots of people who see a code's description has the name of part X in it, so they think "oh, that means I need to replace part X", and then they end up learning why it doesn't mean that.)

So the codes start you off into diagnostic questions you still need to answer. And a lot of times the answer is easy if you can say things like "ok, so what was that voltage at that time?" or "well, does that thing open when I tell it to, or not?", and quite hard if you can't. These are easy questions to think about and ask. They are not on some advanced plane beyond us mortals. By contrast, the situations that often do demand mad skillz and experience are those where you need to invent some way of finding those answers when you haven't got a way to just ask.

 

I have yet to find comprehensive list of Techstream Reciepe. Would anyone care to list theirs?
1 laptop used
2 tech stream reader and link hardware
3 Tech Stream software version to compare to what ever version OS you are running.
4 year and model of your Prius.
Sorry don’t mean to hijack thread.