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I'm not sure if anyone has done a review and comparison between these two tools, but as I have both of them now, I thought I'd share my impressions as of January 2022. This is a long one, so buckle up...
I've owned the Foxwell NT 530 for about a year now, and I've had the ThinkDiag for about a month, so my time with the Foxwell is much longer than the ThinkDiag, but I think I have been able to draw some conclusions in that time that are worth sharing. It's worth noting that I have degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering, so I'm very tech savvy and know my way around electronics. It's also worth noting that I'm using these tools on a 2009 V8V with the ASM transmission.
Finally, the review here is just my opinion and my experience. Your mileage may vary. If I had a bad experience and you had a good one, then let the rest of us know. It’s possible/probable that I’m just an idiot or unlucky. ;-)
Foxwell NT 530 Review
Device Format & Interface
The Foxwell NT 530 is a standard handheld-type diagnostic tool. You plug the device directly into the ODBII ports on your car and interact directly with the device. The interface is a series of buttons that move highlights on icons and make selections on the built-in screen. The device itself seems pretty light and because of that feels rather cheap, so I’m sure it’s just a circuit board and a screen in a plastic case. It definitely isn’t made for harsh shop environments but should be perfectly good for the home mechanic and maybe even a shop if they’re careful with it. (Of course you could go through about 140 of these in your shop for the price of one AMDS.)
The prompts are clear and easy to understand. The menus are laid out in a mostly intuitive manner. I was easily able to parse through the various ECUs on my car on day one to read values, codes, and to understand the programming features available for the day when I would need those.
Device Updating & Programming
The Foxwell unit comes with a small USB stick that includes the FoxAssist program, though in my opinion, it’s actually easier to just download the latest version from the web than to install the version on the USB stick and then immediately update it. Either way, you will need to install the software on a Windows computer, create an account, and register the serial number from your device. Depending on which version you bought, you will then be able to immediately choose a vehicle make and to download the special software for that. I, of course, chose Aston Martin, though my brother has one of these as well for his Porsche.
One thing to note here: When you purchase the software for a vehicle make on the Foxwell, you OWN the software for that make and will NOT have to re-purchase it in the future. This is not a subscription, but a purchase. This is a MAJOR plus when compared to the ThinkDiag as I will discuss later. Since I have owned the device the software has been updated multiple times and each update has seemed functional and stable. The software team at Foxwell has full marks from me so far.
One interesting quirk that I found is that I’ve never been able to program/update the device with it directly connected to my PC through the included USB cable. I’ve only been able to do this by putting the micro SD card into a SD card adapter and directly inserting that into my computer’s SD reader. It seems that the software is looking for the SD card directly instead of looking for it through the device. My brother had the same experience with his, so if you don’t have a micro SD to SD card adapter and a SD card reader on your PC, then you’ll need to invest in those. (A minimal expense.)
Features and Options
I haven’t connected the Foxwell to every ECU in the car, so I haven’t yet explored all of the options. However, I can say that it connects well to the engine ECU and the transmission ECU. My Foxwell has also been used to clear the clutch statistics when I had the Velocity AP clutch installed, so I do know that this feature works as it should.
One great thing about the Foxwell is the ability to save error codes and vehicle data to the SD card. This allows you to take the SD card from the device, put it in your computer, run the FoxAssist software and see all of the data from your car. You can watch the real-time data playback as if by a recording so that you can view your vehicle’s performance in the comfort of an easy chair rather than in the cabin of the car. You can also save the data and print it, which is nice for long-term storage and comparison of data.
Tl;dr Grades (Stars out of 5 – Note that scores may change as software is updated)
Device quality: ***
Device interface: ****
Software stability: *****
Functions/Utility: ****
Upgradability: *****
Value: *****
Overall ****
ThinkCar ThinkDiag Review
Device Format & Interface
Unlike the Foxwell NT530, the ThinkDiag is a dongle that requires a Bluetooth connection to an Apple or Android device for the interface. The device itself seems hefty and well built. It’s quite possible that it just has a lump of metal inside it, but the weight gives you the impression that it will hold up a lot better getting banged around in a shop than the Foxwell would.
To use the ThinkDiag you plug the large dongle into the ODBII port and then connect to it via Bluetooth on your tablet or phone. This has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that you have a plethora of options for how to interface with the device. The disadvantage is that wireless connections, even good ones, are never as stable or as fast as wired connections and I’ve found that to be the case here as we’ll talk about below.
Let’s talk about software… The ThinkDiag software on iOS is complete and utter horse sh... Well, let's just say it leaves a lot to be desired. I’ll talk about my trials getting the device updated in a bit, but let’s talk about just moving around in the software. The menus and prompts for the ThinkDiag have definitely been translated to English from some other language (Chinese?). For example, the error codes I’ve gotten are eventually decipherable, but not without really thinking about it.
The menus themselves seem to have been better translated and are for the most part understandable, though the menu structure is different than it is on the Foxwell. For example, the special vehicle functions are all in one big list under a special menu, whereas on the Foxwell each ECU has a special functions area that has the functions for that ECU only. Neither is better in my opinion. It’s just a difference in the organization each software team decided to use for the functions.
The interface being through a touch screen device is more intuitive than the button interface on the Foxwell, so that’s one plus here, but note that this device will require a 2nd device, a phone or a tablet which may add to the cost, as it did eventually in my case. Regardless, selecting options with touch will always be easier and more intuitive than scrolling around with arrow keys and hitting an "OK" button.
The ThinkDiag iOS app has been pretty unstable connecting to my iPad through Bluetooth. I’ve had several times where the software just quit and blew me out of the app and I had to start all over again, so overall, I give the iOS software team at ThinkCar poor marks. There is a lot that could be improved here, (prompts, error messages, crashes) and you'll hear more about it in the next section. Though since these seem to be software issues rather than hardware issues, they could definitely be addressed in the future with an update. These issues eventually caused me to switch to Android, which works much, much better as I’ll talk about below.
The other real drawback for the ThinkDiag device in my mind is that once you purchase a vehicle make software, you are only purchasing a ONE YEAR LICENSE. You'll have to go purchase the software all over again in a year for another $40. I hate this. I get that companies feel like this funds their further development, but frankly, as you'll see below, ThinkCar needs to spend a lot more time on the quality of their iOS software before they’ll earn another $40 in my mind.
Device Updating and Programming
Here’s where the ThinkDiag iOS app needs real help, in my opinion. The software is just SUPER buggy when it comes to selecting your vehicle make and programming the device for initial use.
The unit I purchased came with a one year subscription to a single car make. However, after going through a similar procedure as the Foxwell (create an account, register your device’s serial number) there was absolutely no prompt for downloading the vehicle-specific software in the iOS app. I eventually found a menu where I could purchase it for $40, but I never got a prompt to download it as I should have. So, I thought “In for a penny, in for a pound” and tried to purchase the software. However, the three or four times I tried this, I kept getting an almost indecipherable error that I finally understood to mean that I already had the ability to download that software waiting for me. But I still couldn’t figure out how to get to it.
Finally, after messing around with the thing for about half an hour, I was about to throw it in the trash. At this point, I had closed-out the application and re-booted my iPad twice and finally upon starting the software for the 100th time, I was randomly presented with a prompt to download a vehicle make software package. However, when I selected the Aston Martin package and hit the “download” button, nothing seemed to happen. The software just sat there. I finally decided it wasn’t going to do anything, so I quit the application AGAIN, rebooted my iPad AGAIN, went into the software AGAIN, and was presented with a prompt to update/download AGAIN. I hit that button and it finally downloaded what it needed. This whole ordeal took WAY TOO LONG, and if I hadn’t had a lot of persistence fueled by outright anger, I probably never would have gotten the damn thing to work at all. If my mom or dad were trying to use this thing, they’d be completely lost and have given up long ago by this point. The software team at ThinkCar gets zero marks for the initial download/update experience on iOS. There is a LOT of work to do here. As in, they need to scrap what they’ve done and start over.
As you’ll see below, I eventually decided to push on by switching to Android. Unfortunately, all of my Android devices were too old, so I trudged to my local Wal-Mart and bought their cheapest tablet for $70 or so and dragged it home. I got on the Google Play store and was told that the ThinkDiag+ app wouldn’t work on my device. Well $*%&@.
So, I decided to ignore them. I did a search for “ThinkDiag apk” and found the latest APK file. I downloaded that, switch the setting so that I could side-load files AND IT WORKED JUST FINE. What a crock. I was not thrilled at having to spend an extra $70 at this point, but I was glad it was at least working.
Features and Options
As I said before, the ThinkDiag menu options are laid out differently than the Foxwell, but I don’t really care, as long as the features are there.
For some reason, I can’t get my ThinkDiag device to connect to my ASM transmission to read the real-time statistics on iOS. This is something that my Foxwell handles with no issue. Hopefully, this is just a device/user error or something that will be corrected in a future software update. I admittedly haven’t tried this yet with the Android OS version, though I will and will post an update once I get around to it.
On the bright side, the special functions are all present. Clutch bleed, clear clutch statistics, etc. just like on the Foxwell. I, of course, haven’t tried the functionality of these, but they are there.
Furthermore, there are some special options here that are NOT on the Foxwell. There is a very nice “Read Vehicle Configuration” option that will tell you a ton of things about what equipment your car has and what software options are programmed. The one thing that is missing from this, is the ability to save or print that output. From what I can tell, there is no way to extract that data from the software outside of taking screen shot after screen shot. A print option (with print to PDF) would be a very welcome addition here, and the Foxwell FoxAssist software does allow for saving and printing of the data you extract.
The other special option the ThinkDiag has that the Foxwell does not (at least as far as I know at the present time) is the ability to program keys. This is actually why I got the ThinkDiag device in the first place. Unfortunately, my experience with this function on iOS mirrors my experience trying to register/update the device. I tried programming my key at least ten times, but I got an error every time. I tried deleting some keys that were in the system that I do not own. Three times that blew me entirely out of the software. Once I was able to delete one key successfully. When I tried deleting another, it blew me out of the application again. I'm honestly reticent to keep trying this stuff with iOS because I'm afraid it's going to brick my ECU or leave it in some half-programmed state.
You can view what keys are programmed to your vehicle, that is handy and seems to work well. The function to test to see which keys you have programmed to which slots also works well. For example, I bought my car used, so I had no idea how many of the six available “Fob” slots were occupied. With the ThinkDiag tool I was able to see that 5 of the 6 were programmed, and with the test function I was able to see that the two keys I actually have are programmed in slots one and two. The other three occupied slots are not keys I own, so I can (theoretically) erase those from memory. I have to say that I'm pretty disappointed at this point with the ability to erase and program keys on iOS since neither seems to be working regularly for me. If the software is ever straightened out, I'll consider updating this review, but as it stands now, I cannot in good faith recommend the ThinkDiag tool, at least for use with an iPhone or iPad as the software is just terribly, unacceptably, buggy.
However, comparing the Android version to the iOS version is like night and day. They look exactly the same, but the Android version works amazingly well compared to the iOS app.
It literally took me 10 minutes to download the updates and Aston Martin software, and about 5 minutes to program my new key. I can now start my car, lock and unlock the doors, pop the boot and everything else. No problems at all. After pulling my hair out with the iOS ThinkDiag app, I literally shouted in joy and made myself a celebratory cocktail after my easy success with the Android app.
Tl;dr Grades (Stars out of 5 – Note that scores may change as software is updated)
Device quality: *****
Device interface: ****
Software stability: Zero stars, iOS - ***** Android
Functions/Utility: *****
Upgradability: ** (The pay us $40 once a year hurts here)
Value: ****
Overall ****
Wrap-up
So, as I said at the outset, your mileage may vary. This review is only my opinion based upon my experiences as of January 2022.
However, in my opinion, the Foxwell NT530 is an excellent device for vehicle diagnostics and maintenance. It is easy to use, it has stable software, it functions as it should, and I’ve found it to be extremely useful and a great value for the price considering you only have to pay once. It’s not built like a “brick ****-house”, and if you drop it a few times, it’s likely to go to the big electronics dump in the sky. But it functions, and functions well, and that’s what you really want from a diagnostic tool.
The ThinkCar ThinkDiag has more “special functions” like the ability to program keys, which was the entire reason I bought it. However, my experience setting up the device and using the software on iOS left me with a feeling of extreme unease and disappointment about its software quality. The features and functions are there, but I’m honestly reluctant to continue using the device with iOS because the software is absolute trash. The last thing you want from a diagnostic tool is for it to brick your car, and I honestly worry about that with this tool when used on an Apple device. The story is very different with Android where even a low-end device like my “Wal-Mart special” tablet drives the device like a dream.
Frankly, I’d buy the Foxwell for diagnostics and everyday use, and I’d buy the ThinkDiag if it has a special function that you need and you have a relatively new Android device to use it with. I would NOT recommend the ThinkDiag tool for use with an iOS device under any circumstances with the current software. However, let’s be honest, you can buy either one or both of these tools and several Kobe beef steak dinners for what it would cost you to get these diagnostics and programming steps done at the dealer, so with the proper caveats they both are great values in my mind.
As I said before, everything I’ve had an issue with can theoretically be fixed with a future software update. In fact, I hope that the software for both of these tools continues to evolve. From what I see, there’s no reason why the Foxwell couldn’t add key programming, and there’s no reason why the ThinkCar team couldn’t get a handle on their quality issues with their iOS app.
However, until the ThinkCar team fixes their software, I just cannot recommend that device for use as it stands today with iOS. On the other hand, I fully recommend the Foxwell NT530 for use with Gaydon era Aston Martin vehicles, and if you happen to have an Android 10 or later device, I can recommend the ThinkDiag tool as well.
The good news is that we are now in an era where we have inexpensive options for DIY interfacing and working with the electronics in our cars, and this was definitely not the case a few short years ago. I, for one, am definitely thankful for that.
Update: Tried enabling the "Fold wing mirrors on lock" using the ThinkDiag tool and it repeatedly gave me an error. So, note that just because a function is in the ThinkDiag menu, doesn't necessarily mean it's currently functioning for a particular model.
I recently purchased the NT530 to diagnose issues with our Hyundai Sante Fe, not our Aston. I thought it worked well and helped me figure out which wheel speed sensor had gone bad and also recalibrate the Blind Spot sensor.
I'll likely purchase the software for our Aston and 911 Turbo.
I was able to update the micro USB card with it plugged into the device and the device connected via USB cable to the computer but my son in law had to update his with the supplied USB adapter. It has a slot for the micro USB card and another to plug into the computer port.
This comes with the Foxwell NT530
Top slot plugs in the computer . Bottom slot holds the micro USB card
I didn't push the card all the way in so you can see it. It does go in flush.
Thanks for the great review.
I also bought ThinkDiag to code new keys and clean up the old lost ones. I too been frustrated with its stability on iOS, concerned I’m going to brick something and so on.
I’m not familiar at all with Android tablets, what brand and model of cheap tablet would you recommend I look for?
BTW, one cheap way to get a new fob with code is to get it from a Volvo dealer. Bought some cheap Crystal key on eBay and I’ll swap its circuit board with the one from the Volvo fob.
I only have the ThinkDiag and overall am satisfied. I was able to figure out the emissions warning with the codes, program a new remote (06 Vantage) and monitor the P1000 readiness that comes up every time a code is erased (pretty annoying). One thing I was not able to do was test the remote (I wanted to know which one I had to delete the other ones). I did download the APK and installed it on an Android tablet but sill was unable to do it. Another issue was that I was not able to find a manufacturer’s website. Most websites are resellers and do not have much support. Most support can be found on forums and blogs, but that is not “official” and could be flawed.
Since I wrote the original review, I've looked around the ThinkDiag special functions a bit more, and found that you can program side mirror behavior with it.
You can program the "pivot mirrors closed on lock" function as well as "dip down upon reverse" for either or both of the side mirrors.
I haven't tried these functions yet, but I'm thinking I may enable the "close mirrors on lock" function for my vehicle. If I decide to give it a go, I'll report back on my success or failure.
Just thought I'd add here.
The foxwell 530 stores all the important stuff on the SD card. When you connect your scanner to the computer with the included cable all you are really doing is mounting the sd card as a drive that the Foxwell app can see. I didnt completely understand the rather brief instructions for updating the device and I actually ended up placing the scanners SD card in a regular SD micro to standard SD reader and the app still recognized the sd card and updated the software.
On this note I would be very careful with the included SD card and you might want to make a backup of the information thats on it otherwise if you loose it or it becomes corrupted you will most likely be calling support to get the advanced functionality of your reader back.
Regarding the NT530, has anyone been able to update their Aston Martin software to version 1.40.002? I can see that it's available, but whenever I try to download it, it becomes corrupted.
Is there a trick to getting the Foxwell to work with the body ECU (inboard plug connection)? I can see the engine stuff fine, but it never connects when I plug into the inboard port. Is that just the way it is or am I missing something?
01-07-2022, 08:51 PM
Foxwell NT530 vs ThinkDiag - A Review
