Tool Review: Opus | IVS DrivePRO ES powered by Drew Technologies
Finding a scan tool that fits a shop’s needs can be trying at best, so when that scan tool comes along, technicians are going to stick with it. Phillip O’Farrell, shop foreman for Autowerkes Inc. in Huntington Beach, California, was pleased with the Opus | IVS scan tool’s intuitive design and attentive support staff.
O’Farrell and his team were able to save time on various jobs using the scan tool. When using the data stream along with the trouble codes, O’Farrell notes they were able to do initial diagnostic scans on a vehicle to see which technician it would need to go to or whether the vehicles would need to leave the shop for the repair.
The scan tool arrived in a hard case with all the necessary cords and cables to go along with it. A manual was also included, but O’Farrell found it be to unnecessary, as he says the scan tool was “very intuitive.” Additionally, around 10 years prior to obtaining this scan tool, O’Farrell’s team had an Autologic (now part of Opus | IVS) scan tool.
“Knowing how to use that tool, it was just like picking up an old friend and just continuing on ... everything was effectively the same,” O’Farrell says of using the new Opus | IVS scan tool.
The only difference between the old scan tool and the new one, O’Farrell notes, is the new vehicle models loaded onto the computer and/or the tool itself.
Aside from the tool’s ease of use, O’Farrell found the ability to take the tool on test drives to be quite beneficial for watching the data stream.
Around the shop, the scan tool was used for some programming as well as for logging data either onto their computer or into a customer’s file.
“It basically is a handheld computer,” O’Farrell says, “you can download information [from] the car or [do] manual inputs, [check] if an A/C compressor’s working or a water pump … that type of situation.”
Though O’Farrell is overall pleased with the scan tool, he noticed he was not able to manually operate parts of the vehicle through the tool, such as the electric water pump or A/C compressor.
However, O’Farrell says the Opus | IVS software programmers have been very helpful in working to fill those holes. As O’Farrell and his team run into problems, they are able to discuss them with the programmers and have patches added to the tool to fix those issues.
O’Farrell and his team spoke highly of the Opus | IVS scan tool due to the ease of use and amount of access it allows them to vehicles.
