Best £6 I've spent in a long time...

[Conquistador]

I bought this little gadget on a recommendation from a friend that works for Halfrauds...

It's an OBDII Bluetooth diagnostic reader. Should work with any OBDII compatible car (most cars from the late 90s onwards). The number of settings and menus to play with is endless

Gives live running fugures:

Your current position with Google maps:

Not played with it enough to look at any fault codes or service lights it might display but it lets you do most things.

 

[markjay]

Had mine for a few months now, works very well indeed - highly recommended.

It does draw some current even when the key is removed from the ignition, but probably very little because I just leave it permanently plugged into the ODB port and never had an issue with the battery.

 

[ItalianTuneUp]

What uses does this have, and do you have a link for this product?

I'm guessing that it reads data from the car's onboard computer and sends the data via Bluetooth to your smartphone?

Useful for diagnosing faults, or just for interest, or both?

 

[Fun4Four]

They're good for checking fault codes when buying a secondhand car. Plenty of software for PC's and a few for MAC & IOS.

You can also get software for track days so you can overlay the data onto a map to see throttle position etc, proper data logging...

 

[V12]

I have one Simon if you want to try it out.
Can't remember the last time I used it.
It's OK for basic code reading but pretty useless on a MB.

 

[StevenN]

Would it on a W210 2002?

 

[Conquistador]

...and do you have a link for this product?

V1.5 Super Mini ELM327 OBD2 OBD-II Bluetooth CAN-BUS Auto Diagnostic Tool New UK | eBay

This is the one I bought

 

[bob6600]

Would it on a W210 2002?

Nope as you do not have a OBD II port. I have one and used a OBD II to 38 pin adaptor, it communicates with the car to get live data (revs, accelerator % etc) but won't read any codes

 

[markjay]

What uses does this have, and do you have a link for this product?

I'm guessing that it reads data from the car's onboard computer and sends the data via Bluetooth to your smartphone?

Useful for diagnosing faults, or just for interest, or both?

Both. And then there's the 'because it's there' factor...

The only 'soft gauge' that is slightly useful for daily driving is the Voltmeter.

And the coolant temperature but that's only because of the voice that says 'The engine has reached working temperature'...

Engine oil pressure, engine oil temperature, and autonomic transmission temperature would have all been very welcome, but unfortunately they are not available through this device and software combination.

I am guessing that the two temperatures are not transmitted over ODBII on the Merc, and the oil pressure simply does not have a sender (can't think why the ECU would need that input anyway).

 

[sl55plymouth]

Hi guys
I ordered one of these and it turned up today, one problem, no instructions.

I am totally stuffed and clueless about getting it onto my mobile phone, can anyone explain (in layman's terms) how to do this, sorry but give me an engine and I could rebuild it blind folded, computers :fail

 

[markjay]

Plug the ODBII device into the OBDII socket in the car and turn the key to switch on the ignition.

From your phone's Bluetooth menu run 'Scan for new devices' (or the equivalent off).

You should see an unrecognised device which may or may not be called 'ODBII', either way select the device you see on the scan list and pair it to the phone.

You will be prompted for a password which will be either 0000 or 1234 (try both, one of them will work).

The ODBII device should now be paired, though there is not much you can do with it until you download some OBDII software such as Torque.

 

[sl55plymouth]

I got a small disc with the blue thing, how do I get the info from the disc to my mobile (android), the Bluetooth part I have done before phone, satnav so that should be okay.

 

[DSM10000]

I got a small disc with the blue thing, how do I get the info from the disc to my mobile (android), the Bluetooth part I have done before phone, satnav so that should be okay.

The disc is only to add / enable software on your PC, you need to download software such as Torque to your mobile to use that to connect to the Bluetooth OBD unit.

 

[sl55plymouth]

If I put the disc into my laptop and read the disc, it says 3 files, OBD11 on PC software, OBD11 phone system software and OBD11 USB driver.
If I click on phone system software it comes up with blueteeth OBD system and WIFI OBD system, then if I click on blueteeth OBD system, it comes up with For Android, For Apple IOS, for Symbian and For windows mobile.

If I click on Android it has another three options, Torque-prBD11_car_v1.1.10-mumayi, torque_v1.5.58apk and torque_pro_v1.6.10apk

I have a Galaxy s3.

 

[markjay]

Don't bother with the Torque apk that came with the disc, just get the latest version direct from Google Play app store.
Torque Lite is free, and the Pro version only costs a couple of quid anyway.

 

[sl55plymouth]

cheers Markjay
I will have a look, many thanks for your assistance

 

[Conquistador]

The miniature CD-rom which comes with the plug in is a bugger to install to your computer, let alone your phone. You can download the 'lite' version of Torque from the Google App Store which doesn't offer you much, or the full version for £6. If anybody wants me to email them the installation file for the full version just send me a message. It's 3mb and you just drag it into your phone's folder when connected to the computer and works perfectly

 

[DSM10000]

Both. And then there's the 'because it's there' factor...

The only 'soft gauge' that is slightly useful for daily driving is the Voltmeter.

And the coolant temperature but that's only because of the voice that says 'The engine has reached working temperature'...

Engine oil pressure, engine oil temperature, and autonomic transmission temperature would have all been very welcome, but unfortunately they are not available through this device and software combination.

I am guessing that the two temperatures are not transmitted over ODBII on the Merc, and the oil pressure simply does not have a sender (can't think why the ECU would need that input anyway).

I have the app on my 'phone and transmission temperature is available, it is listed in the "Torque scan" plugin.

After 20 minutes of driving this afternoon it was showing 84 Degrees C, I also found "Oil temperature" under data logging, there will be an oil pressure sensor as this is needed to warn the driver in case of low oil pressure but the app does not seem to access it

 

[SLK32AMG]

I bought one of these readers and recieved it Friday, The best software i found for my phone was Dashcommand. Its wicked and even has 0-60 and 1/4 mile timer which are automactic and even log you best times. It also has realtime data logging which it stores on your phone and also code reader and code delete. Very good app at £6.99 and very easy to install. Got mine working in less than 5 mins.

 

[markjay]

I have the app on my 'phone and transmission temperature is available, it is listed in the "Torque scan" plugin.

After 20 minutes of driving this afternoon it was showing 84 Degrees C, I also found "Oil temperature" under data logging, there will be an oil pressure sensor as this is needed to warn the driver in case of low oil pressure but the app does not seem to access it

There are several sensors listed on the app that do not work on my car.

This could be either because that particular sensor is not available through the standard ODBII protocol on my car, or because my specific ELM scanner does not support it - I do not know.

If you had the same car as mine (C180K / M271) then the fact that you could access this sensor through Torque would have been an indication that the issue is with the ELM scanner, but as things stand I just don't know where the issue is.

With regards oil pressure, engines are equipped with an oil pressure switch, which is not the same as an oil pressure gauge. The switch is 'binary' and simply alerts the driver to low oil pressure, but does not measure the pressure as such. The gauge will show the oil pressure in Bars.

In the olden days we used to fit a T piece to the oil pressure switch socket so that we could fit both the oil pressure switch itself and an additional oil pressure sender for the oil pressure gauge we installed in the cabin.

I can't see why the ECU would need to know the exact oil pressure - hence I am assuming that cars without an oil pressure gauge on the instrument cluster will not have the sender fitted to the engine, just the standard oil pressure switch.