bluetooth OBDII scanner

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bluBomber

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I am thinking about getting one of these to pair with an old Android Tablet and the Torque app. Looking at this one mainly because of the number of good reviews. Anybody have any experience with this on the LS?

http://www.amazon.com/BAFX-Products-PIC18F2480-diagnostics-compatible/dp/B005NLQAHS/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=KXUKFC1R0NXH&coliid=IHXCVNKY6S6YR

Or maybe this one because of its small size in case I want to drive with it in place.

http://www.amazon.com/Newest-Bluetooth-Diagnostic-Scanner-Adapter/dp/B009F4JHHO/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=KXUKFC1R0NXH&coliid=IGAPXB1TCIWTQ
 
The cheap dongles will have slow read speeds (<10 IDs/sec) and will not access anything beyond common OBDII (no ABS, no vendor specific, etc).
They're good for what they are, just bear that in mind. These are fine for reading/resetting codes, general purpose checkout, etc.
 
I have this one http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008U1MOM8/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 which appears to be the same as your second link. But I specifically bought from seller Brainydeal because of the reviews. According to reviewers there are a couple different versions and this seller has a rep of supplying the better (of the cheap) ones.

It has been plugged into my car without any trouble since I received and tested it . And yes it is small enough that it does not get in the way while driving or anything else.

That said, see oddball's post about what it is ;)
 
Blk04LS said:
I have this one http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008U1MOM8/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 which appears to be the same as your second link. But I specifically bought from seller Brainydeal because of the reviews. According to reviewers there are a couple different versions and this seller has a rep of supplying the better (of the cheap) ones.

It has been plugged into my car without any trouble since I received and tested it . And yes it is small enough that it does not get in the way while driving or anything else.

That said, see oddball's post about what it is ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, for $15 I can afford to give it a try. :)
 
I bought the BAFX reader. Works well with Torque. I'm only seeing engine info but I don't know what else was in there in 2001. Must comment that BFX support is very good - quick, knowledgeable and concerned.
 
I am so glad you brought this up, I was very interested in this app years ago when it was first released, but then forgot about it because I didn't have a car worth putting it on.

Just purchased the first one you listed strictly off of its average review. 4.5 out of 5 with over 1000 reviews is pretty dang good.

EDIT: On second thought, I just canceled the first one and ordered the second one. I went out and saw where the OBDII port was and it's pretty obvious that first adapter is not going to work while you're driving. Which is a shame, it seems to be the best one.
 
I got mine today (amazon prime, free two day shipping). Works great, slight moment of panic when it required a passcode to pair with my phone. For my device the code was "1234" other users on the interbuts report "6789" worked for them. In either case you have to pair the adapter immediately upon plugging it into the car. Like in under 30 seconds. I found it worked best for me if you have the phone ready to find new devices, and then plug the device into the car when its running.

As far as the torque app goes, its pretty cool. I got to get to the scales and get a good weight for the car, with me, and with fuel. I estimated the best I could and came up with 3960 lbs and it was decently close to what I expected. Since it's a calculation of vehicle weight and speed and a bunch of other information it provides an estimated HP number to the wheels.

The best I got was 211, which is in the ball park of what I expected. I guess drive train loss would be somewhere between 20-25%

So stock 06, according to wiki makes 280hp. So a 25% drivetrain loss would equal 210 at the wheels and a 20% loss would be 224. This factored with an my best attempt at an estimated weight seems a somewhat reasonable range. I have a K&N intake, but I don't really believe it adds any tangible horsepower. Maybe someone who has dyno'd an LS, can comment on an actual drivetrain loss. In the meantime, I'll have to hit the scales.

I only gave one attempt but was able to snag a 6.8 0-60, not bad.
Also I can confirm this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009F4JHHO/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 adapter works well, the speeds of information transfer are acceptable, and is small enough that you don't know it's there while your driving, despite the fact that the LS OBDII port is right above your right shin. The adapter comes with a mini disc containing some various software. I WOULD HIGHLY advise just tossing that cd in the trash. I scanned it and it contained two trojan horses. I searched on the internet and apparently some software on the cd is not legally obtained.


Anyway, for a total of 24 bucks ($19 for the adapter, $5 for the app) this is a pretty cool toy, and it reads codes to boot.


Now, time to go put it on the work vehicle. :steering
 
oddball said:
The cheap dongles will have slow read speeds (<10 IDs/sec) and will not access anything beyond common OBDII (no ABS, no vendor specific, etc).
They're good for what they are, just bear that in mind. These are fine for reading/resetting codes, general purpose checkout, etc.
Click to expand...

I also want to report that this adapter http://www.amazon.com/Newest-Bluetooth-Diagnostic-Scanner-Adapter/dp/B009F4JHHO/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=KXUKFC1R0NXH&coliid=IGAPXB1TCIWTQ is capable of PID speeds of about 30/s
 
Make sure you unplug it after use. Forgot about mine for a while, got pretty hot. Read some complaints of them melting and ruining the obd port.
 
I've been switching it in and out of the LS and the work car so I haven't left it in one yet, but thanks for the heads up.
 
Beware of duplicates/fakes/quality.
see vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni-9lTgx_z8


PART 1 of 2 - I ordered a bluetooth ELM327 adapter from Amazon ( http://www.amazon.com/ELM327-Bluetoot... ). At first I ordered only a single unit to try it out. That first one shipped From BrainyDeals out of Brooklyn, NY and it worked PERFECT for the entire month i've had it plugged in to the car the whole time. I was so impressed with it that I ordered 8 more, but the 8 others I ordered came from Patazon out of Sunnyvale, CA and NONE of the 8 worked. Upon further investigation, the units look the same, but in this video series I point out the differences if you look closely, and also show an actual demonstration in the car of the 8 units not working. So warning, PATAZON MINI ELM327 BLUETOOTH ADAPTERS DO NOT WORK!!!!!!



some of the comments in the vid reviews state that it was not the dongle but compatability with his car.
 
BigRigLS said:
Beware of duplicates/fakes/quality.
see vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni-9lTgx_z8
PART 1 of 2 - I ordered a bluetooth ELM327 adapter from Amazon ( http://www.amazon.com/ELM327-Bluetoot... ). At first I ordered only a single unit to try it out. That first one shipped From BrainyDeals out of Brooklyn, NY and it worked PERFECT for the entire month i've had it plugged in to the car the whole time. I was so impressed with it that I ordered 8 more, but the 8 others I ordered came from Patazon out of Sunnyvale, CA and NONE of the 8 worked. Upon further investigation, the units look the same, but in this video series I point out the differences if you look closely, and also show an actual demonstration in the car of the 8 units not working. So warning, PATAZON MINI ELM327 BLUETOOTH ADAPTERS DO NOT WORK!!!!!!

some of the comments in the vid reviews state that it was not the dongle but compatability with his car.
Click to expand...

Yep, that was one of the reviews I read that led me to buy specifically from BrainyDeals :Beer

Blk04LS said:
I have this one http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008U1MOM8/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 which appears to be the same as your second link. But I specifically bought from seller Brainydeal because of the reviews. According to reviewers there are a couple different versions and this seller has a rep of supplying the better (of the cheap) ones.

It has been plugged into my car without any trouble since I received and tested it . And yes it is small enough that it does not get in the way while driving or anything else.

That said, see oddball's post about what it is ;)
Click to expand...
 
Wicked Ace said:
Maybe you guys should look at this. About 3/4 of the way down you will see a notice.
http://elmelectronics.com/obdic.html
Click to expand...


Interesting ... something to be aware off.

Please note:
There is no ELM327 v1.4a, v1.5, v1.5a, or v2.1 !
Some clone makers have carefully worded ads that make it seem like they are using genuine version v1.4a, v1.5, v1.5a, or v2.1 chips. These can not use Elm Electronics ICs as we have never made those versions.







did find this nice theme for the Torque app though.

b_TorqueDarkTheme.jpg

b_TorqueDarkTheme.jpg
 
Yeah definitely something to take note of, the one I bought claims to be v1.5. Don't know, currently does what I need but I have to admit that I have not really tried much beyond basics, so I can't say what, if any, advanced features it is capable of. :confused:
 
Here is my insight for what it is worth.

There are a few different amazon listing's for the blue ELM 327 mini v 1.5 adapters from various sellers. They all cant be fakes. There would have had to have been at least one version to "fake". I did read a lot of comments in the amazon reviews, and on various youtube videos. Some people, more than just your random flukes have received adapters that don't work. I realized that.

Another member mentioned to get the adapter specifically from Brainydeals. That was not an option when I ordered. Mine came from a place called AceDeal. For the record, my adapter works great. The torque app defaults to speeds of 10 ID/s but has an option for "Faster communication" that says will only work on adapters capable of a fast speed. I checked that option and mine reads up to about 33 ID/s. So no question, my adapter works great.

Also, just for clarification in refrence to the physical differences between the adapters in the video posted by BigRig...
IMAG0811.jpg
My adapter looks exactly like the one in that video that works. However, mine does not have a serial number at the bottom. Also, mine came in packaging exactly like the ones that didn't work for the guy in that video. A clear baggie, and a disc, nothing else.

IMAG0811.jpg
 
CHINA, CHINA, CHINA ... for sure!

If it work it work, seems that lad in the vid was pissed to discover the 8 he got from China didn't work.

What I do find fishy is how come the chipset manufacturer decided to skip revisions from v1.4b to v2.0, where, how and who did the other revisions with such a close package comparison.

"Elm Electronics is a Canadian company that has been selling integrated circuits on the web since 1998.
We ship directly from our location near the city of Toronto, and do not have any distributors."

Elm Electronics Canada seem to be only the chipset design/manufacturer, potentially they only sell thier IC's to anyone who wants to put it to use.
as in a company from CHINA who then runs a production line of a finished OBDII port packaged product. Perhaps this is where the v1.5 comes from.


Who's not to say they attempted outsourcing of their chipset and ran into some troubles with a third party package manufacturer and just simply regained control and in order to avoid headaches simply typed that on their website. Who knows!

anyhow, wasn't trying to knock your purchase, was just looking into it as it was rather interesting and came across that little issue.

bottom line is: if it works, it works, end of issue.

I'd be more interested in whom is actually selling an ELM327 packaged OBDII BT reader with the new latest ELM v2.0 IC
 
//// START quick joke and you don't have to like it ////


Q: What happens when USA repeatedly says "F*ck CANADA" ?
A: "CHINA MADE" products only.


//// END quick joke ////



LOL hahahaha, now that's funny and you can put that on your large Canadian Version 3M vid discs!
Don't be getting all upset now, it's funny when joking about Canada, so it's gotta be a two way street.
 
The 1.0 version of the ELM327 did not implement copy protection, and the PIC code was copied and widely sold in devices claiming to contain an ELM327 device. Numerous problems have been reported with Chinese clones, partially due to bugs inherent in the early code. Although these pirate clones may contain the ELM327 v1.0 code, they may falsely report the version number as the current version provided by the genuine ELM327, and in some cases report an as-yet non-existent version. The actual function of these pirate clones is nonetheless limited to the function of the original ELM327 v1.0, with inherent deficiencies.


What is the ELM327 command set? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELM327


www.mp3car.com/engine-management-obd-ii-engine-diagnostics-etc/127578-what-is-elm-327-a.html
 
BigRigLS said:
//// START quick joke and you don't have to like it ////


Q: What happens when USA repeatedly says "F*ck CANADA" ?
A: "CHINA MADE" products only.


//// END quick joke ////



LOL hahahaha, now that's funny and you can put that on your large Canadian Version 3M vid discs!
Don't be getting all upset now, it's funny when joking about Canada, so it's gotta be a two way street.
Click to expand...

Since we're on China jokes......

Know why it's a bad idea to borrow money from China?








3 months later and you're broke again!
 
A few more tidbits about OBD scanners.
Mine (BAFX) is working fine at the higher data rate. I have not done any of the performance tests - I'm interested in diagnostics. I am a little disappointed in how few parameters show up in the "standard" set, but that's an issue with Ford and their use of proprietary PID's, not the ELM chip nor the Torque app. Some of the things I'd like to see (like the knock sensors) are not available. But I'm sure not going to pay the price for a genuine Ford reader. So just a warning to those who are haven't bought one yet - you're not going to be a Ford garage for $30.
If you're interested in more tech talk about OBD's, look here.
http://mustangforums.com/forum/4-6l...stang/657593-elm327-obdii-recomendations.html
 
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