My UltraGauge buttons are intermittently very slow to respond. Sometimes they will respond, sometimes I'll have to sit there for 30 seconds pressing buttons before something happens. The support guys at UltraGauge told me to run the "KWP/9141 optimizer" program since the 9141 protocol is really slow. But I would think that since the protocol is vehicle-specific, that many of you would have seen the same button troubles. I can't find any info on this forum about this problem. Anybody seen this before?

 

If I were you, I'd run the Optimizer and see what happens. If that does not fix it, you may need to return it for a replacement. My buttons do not hang at all, but I went ahead and ran the Optimizer because I didn't know it was there. It only took about 2 mins total. Mine said 95 was optimal for me. I don't really notice any difference, but MAYBE your device was not optimized correctly before installing? It's worth trying it. It may not fix your issue, but you'll never know unless you run it. I'm sure UG Tech knows a bit about this stuff...

 

My first one did that, and the new one does too... get what you pay for

 

Have you tried to run the Optimizer?

I also wonder if you are running into connection issues on the plug. I've had that on vehicles where the plug contacts are not very tight. My neighbor has an S-10 that we have to hold a certain way for the connection to work for a reading. Maybe your contacts are intermittent?

Personally, I feel I got a LOT for what I paid. This little gauge really does a nice job for way less than a lot of other self contained readers. Just my opinion.

 

How do you initiate/run the optimizer?

 

Here's a quick video I just made:

 

It turns out that holding the buttons down for ~3 seconds will make them consistently function. This is slower than the "slowest" rate that UG claims the buttons will work (2.2 seconds I think)

I talked to UG support and ran the optimizer a few times, but each time gave me a result of 100. So I can't speed it up without risking weird UG behavior.

I can live with holding the buttons down for a little longer; it was just annoying not to know WHY things weren't working like expected.

 

never even heard of the optimization thing, i always just thought it was a mechanical problem, sometimes a single click does it, sometimes i push down at an angle and i goes faster. ill have to try when i leave work today

 

I've noticed the need to hold them down for up to 2 seconds, but I've gotten used to just doing that every time, so maybe I never noticed the lag being mentioned here.

 

In my experience, for the past week or so, my Ultragauge buttons respond just fine when scrolling between options in the various menus, but appear to often be nonfunctional when trying to scroll between the pages displaying the gauges. That says to me it's definitely not a mechanical issue, but an electrical one--whether a slow processor, dumb software, or some combination thereof.