Do you have any pics of how you have the PDA mounted in your cab? You can email me if you dont feel like posting them. PM me for my email (trying to prevent more spam from posting email address).
Also, what was the bug you found?
I have been looking at the banks website, but they dont have a lot of info on the PDA setup (cradle installation, what info the PDA provides on your truck).
I have a Sony palm pilot and my wife has the E2, so we are very familiar with the palm. People laugh at me becuase I found an easy way to rip Simpsons episodes from TV and play them back on my palm. Great for layovers at the airport. Banks offers the PDA setup minus the E2, incase you already own one, that is one reason why this setup is attractive to me. Plus I have bluetooth GPS set up on my palm, which would add mapping, routing and added power all on one device (which I already own)!
You're exacly right - if you already own a Tungsten E2, then will take $225 (or $250, I forget) off the price. I supplied my own as they were on sale at Circuit City for $174!!
I will give you one warning about the Banks PDA. The first thing you need to set is the Audible Warning volume. I didn't know it was adjustable. I hooked up the system sans EGT probe. The alarm went off as it thought my EGT's were over 1600 and let me tell you it went right through me and I almost stained my seat!
The Audible Alarm will go off for Engine Coolant Temp, Engile Oil Temp, Engine Tuner Code, Exhaust Gas Temp, and Trans Temp. If any of those parameters go into the danger zone, there will be no question in your mind that there is an emergency and you'll want to drive into the nearest tree just to make that horrific noise stop! So, set the volume to medium until you get used to it!
I don't have pictures yet, but I'll work on that this weekend for ya. Cool?
Here are the displayable functions that you'll have:
EGT and Boost pressure are always displayed. So is the Current Power Level (1-6) and the System Status (hopefully it is always OK so you don't have to hear that damn alarm!). There are three options as to how you want things displayed - Vertical, Horizontal, or line graph (looks like a dyno chart). There are supposedly other display interfaces that are downloadable but I haven't tried that yet.
Here are the optional functions you can display (you choose two from this list and can change either or both at any time):
- Power Added (%)
- Engine Coolant Temp
- Trans Fluid Temp
- Engine Oil Temp
- Engine RPM
- Vehicle Speed
- Transmission Slip (RPM) - Automatic only
- Torque Converter Status (TCC - locked or unlocked)
- Gear
- Throttle Position (you can use this to verify when your foot is on the floor are you at 100% or not - do this with the key ON and the engine OFF please!)
- Engine Load
- Barometric Pressure
- Intake Air Temperature
The Intake Air Temp (IAT) I've found interesting. I ran one day with the grille cover on. IAT was 113. I took it off and it was 53 (I think it was 45 out that day). This verifies to me that (a) the grille cover does indeed keep heat under the hood, and (b) that if I'm wanting to keep incoming air temps down to create power then I should take that grille cover off!
You can also read your codes, clear your codes, do 0-60, 1/8-mile and1/4 mile times, and save these runs for later reference.
You can also adjust some things like:
- fuel delivery based on coolant temp,
- when the EGT limiting comes in (1350? 1400? 1600? How hot to you want to let things get?)
- You can tell it how long to wait to correct the EGT - like if I set it for 1400, do I want it to react when 1400 is read or wait 1 second then react?
- acceleration fueling characteristics
- fuel tuning based on transmission shifting (if you're over-fueling, maybe you'd like to back off some while the tranny changes gears?)
- and you can configure those damn alarms as to when they will scare the hell out of you
Oh, and one other luxury that's pretty cool: Now that I sync with the calendar on my computer, I can drag myself out to the truck, start it up, look at the PDA and it'll tell me what appointments I'm going to miss if I don't get my ass going. Then I touch the Banks icon that was installed when I loaded the software, and it takes over from there. I say "touch" and not "tap" 'cause the touch-screen programming works with all the Banks stuff - you don't have to use that little pencil/pen thing that fell down between my seat and the center console.
Yeah, I saw some of the GPS stuff. It was pretty cheap and would probably be cool to have that handy but I can get good and lost with my paper maps and don't need an electronic device to help me get lost - I might be tempted to throw it out the window for helping me get so damn lost!
I guess that wouldn't be so bad 'cause then that damn alarm would be going off so it'd be real easy to find it in the weeds!