New to OBD2 - are there any free or inexpensive cables and apps?

Hi all I have been reading up on what cables and apps are available to allow me to connect my PC to my vehicle.

I have previously used an FTDI FT232RL-based module to read the PCM in a 1994 GMC Jimmy using Tuner Pro RT.

I would like to know if there is any possible way to use these on my 1998 Chevrolet Blazer LS?

If NOT, what would be a good (cheap) alternative?

Also, could someone point me in the right direction on finding information on the PCM in the Blazer (16250279), as well as one from a 2001 Jimmy I have (12200411).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Mike.

Hi!

You can connect to any OBD2 ECM using ordinary cheap OBD2 interfaces, like ELM327 and datalog. However, with cheap cables you will only be able to get generic (SAE) PIDs, and usually not the GM enhanced ones.

As for PCM reprogramming, there's a cheap solution for '411 PCM from your 2001 Jimmy - AVT cable with LS1 flash and xdf files for TunerPro v5, but if you don't have experience with bin editing and tuning, you will probably better be off buying commercial software like Efilive or HPtuners, as it's easy to brick the PCM using LS1flash.

As for 1998 PCM, I don't know of any low-buck reprogramming solutions, only commercial products.

I don't have experience with EFILive but I got HP Tuners recently and I think it's worth the $500/$650 dollars.

My OCD really wants me to have open source tuning for all of these platforms but in the meantime with HPT you can tune your Blazer and Jimmy, sell a couple tunes to friends and you'll recoup some of your cash. Even if you never tune any other vehicles it's got a really good scanner/datalogger that supports basic SAE PIDs on all vehicles and enhanced ones on a lot of GM, Ford, Dodge etc, so the remaining cost will eventually pay for itself...