[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Also see if the Bluetooth pairing is getting interfered by some when you are on Torque App. The next time you encounter this error, come out of the App completely and then reopen after pairing the adapter again.

No, it is not a Bluetooth connection issue. Whenever I get hit by that error, I have tried what you said - completely shut down the app and even switched off my Bluetooth and switched it on again, and even restarted the phone once to try it out! But nothing works. Looks like the ELM327 adapter goes into some kind of hung state randomly, and nothing on the phone would connect to it. Only restarting the adapter (i.e. pulling it out and putting it back) works.

However, thankfully, this has not happened in last 10 days or so, and happens very rarely anyways. So it is not a big problem and I can live with it for now.

Originally Posted by TheQuarterMile

In the near future I was thinking of replacing the oem head unit with a integrated Nexus 7 flashed with a custom ROM for this purpose. Have you looked into it? It's quite amazing. You plan on undertaking sometimes like this?

I thought about something like this, but honestly, did not venture in that direction primarily because I did not find any concrete solutions. If you find some concrete design ideas/available products/solution etc. to do that, please share it on the forum. That would be very valuable to all of us.

Besides, I am not sure what value that will add. In fact, I am finding the headunit to be more and more redundant day by day. I stream music from my phone/tablet, take calls through Bluetooth phone kit (OK, I need car speakers and some basic hardware for this, but not much apart from that), use Google maps for navigation etc. all from my phone/tablet. The HU is really not used at all most of the times.

On a general note though, I have started to like the detachable devices (for Torque Pro as well as for Google Maps/Navigation purpose) over those integrated into headunits. I think it is very convenient to take these out of the car, and at your leisure (say sitting comfy on your sofa and sipping a cup of tea), you can analyze the data, add/remove gauges to Torque, look at your navigation logs, plan your next routes etc. Usually in my travels, I find myself playing with Google maps in the evenings in my hotel rooms, analyzing both the day's logs and planning next day's route plans. This would be impossible with a HU-integrated device.

Thus, I am actually thinking that the fact that I don't have these gadgets integrated in my HU is actually a blessing in disguise, and I am really loving this detachable mode :-)

Originally Posted by TheQuarterMile

And thanks for the info on the tyre pressure sensors.

Sure, you are welcome! I have glad that readers are finding this useful. :-)

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

No, it is not a Bluetooth connection issue.

So it is not a big problem and I can live with it for now.

Cool. Be careful when you pull the adapter out from the port.

One to, every time you pull it out, just look at those 16 pins and how is the condition. In case they are bent, straighten then if possible and reconnect. Else you'll damage the port.

[rosh_aveo1.4]

So I finally got the elm 327 Bluetooth adapter and tried it with the sunny. The stats looks good and like I said earlier...there is a massive amount of info that I'm still to learn and understand and track.
The seller also sent me the full or cracked version of the torque app but twice it crashed while recording data, so I lost most of what I was tracking. Reached home and took off the one given by the seller and purchased the original one from play store for Rs.250 as suggested by Doc. Got to try in the Civic and hope it doesn't crash this time.
I was about to ask about the battery drain as well but guess that was addressed in the discussion. Since I take the car once a week as I use my company transport most of the time, I think it's best I disconnect it and use it once a while. And also keep that discussion in mind what Anurag said about damaging the pins.
How does the log get created from torque app again? Not sure if it was discussed here or some other thread.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Cool. Be careful when you pull the adapter out from the port.

One to, every time you pull it out, just look at those 16 pins and how is the condition. In case they are bent, straighten then if possible and reconnect. Else you'll damage the port.

Yes, agree. I will have to be careful. Thanks for the caution.

Originally Posted by rosh_aveo1.4

So I finally got the elm 327 Bluetooth adapter and tried it with the sunny. The stats looks good and like I said earlier...there is a massive amount of info that I'm still to learn and understand and track.

Great! Congratulations. Yes, all the data looks very overwhelming in the beginning. With your own usage and experience, you will start understanding what is of interest/importance to you and what is not.

Originally Posted by rosh_aveo1.4

Reached home and took off the one given by the seller and purchased the original one from play store for Rs.250 as suggested by Doc. Got to try in the Civic and hope it doesn't crash this time..

I think you did the right thing. It is always best and the right thing to buy the original software! Just make sure you create separate vehicle profiles for Civic and Sunny, and use the appropriate profile each time. Unfortunately, the dashboard layout does not change with vehicle profile. I wish they had this feature in the app, but they don't. Since some gauges are specific to petrol or diesel vehicles, you will have to live with some useless gauges when you change the profile.

Originally Posted by rosh_aveo1.4

How does the log get created from torque app again? Not sure if it was discussed here or some other thread.

This was discussed earlier in this thread. Check out post #28 and #30 in this thread for this discussion.

[vibbs]

Doc, thats some cool instrumentation. I ve been wanting to do something like this on my Punto too. What is holding me back from getting an OBD scanner, is the quality of these things. There are lot of these devices on sale in e bay but no idea which ones are good.

Primary concern is, if the scanners get heated up while in use for a long time. Can you shed some light on whether your device heats up over time? It is a potential hot spot if it does.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by vibbs

Doc, thats some cool instrumentation.

Thanks vibbs.

Originally Posted by vibbs

I ve been wanting to do something like this on my Punto too. What is holding me back from getting an OBD scanner, is the quality of these things. There are lot of these devices on sale in e bay but no idea which ones are good.

I had the same feeling for a while, and I was also worried about the quality of these cheap OBDII adapters. Actually there are some expensive ones out there too, but even they seem to be some unknown brands and I would not be too sure they would always work well too. That is why I ordered a cheap one, thinking that it is a gamble anyways and if that thing does not work, it would not be a big deal. Luckily for me, it worked quite well.

Looking at the couple of posts by "rosh_aveo1.4" in this thread, looks like he ordered one of these and that is also working fine. I know a few more cases where these cheap adapters are actually working quite fine too.

So although they look cheap, they seem to work quite well. I would say it is worth taking the small risk and ordering one of these.

Originally Posted by vibbs

Primary concern is, if the scanners get heated up while in use for a long time. Can you shed some light on whether your device heats up over time? It is a potential hot spot if it does.

I haven't noticed any significant heating issue yet. I think this is not a very heavy duty part - the power consumption by these devices should be small, and hence I don't think they will heat up that much. Nonetheless, thanks for bringing this point up. This is an important point and I will do some more checks on any heating issues and post an update here.

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

I haven't noticed any significant heating issue yet. I think this is not a very heavy duty part - the power consumption by these devices should be small, and hence I don't think they will heat up that much. Nonetheless, thanks for bringing this point up. This is an important point and I will do some more checks on any heating issues and post an update here.

Thanks. Will await your update. In the meanwhile what I plan to do is buy an extension cable along with the scanner and test it for heating issues a couple of days. Once it is secured that it doesn't heat up, I ll move it in.

[Dr.AD]

After having used these accessories for some more time, here are quick updates on a couple of observations/remarks from my earlier posts:

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

The rechargeable battery in the display is a great feature! No dangling wires required. They claim that once charged fully, the battery can last one month under "normal usage". I doubt that, but even if it lasts me one week, and I charge the battery once a week, I will be happy.

After having used this TPMS for more than 2 weeks now, I am very happy to observe that the battery life of the display unit is indeed very good. It now seems possible that even the 1 month battery life claim by the manufacturer (which I never believed in the first place) may actually be correct. Here is a picture taken today morning, with "fresh" tyre temperature and pressure readings:



As you can see, the battery level as shown in the battery meter icon is still "full", and given that this is after more than 2 weeks of "normal use", I am feeling hopeful it will last one month. Even if this does not, I am more than happy to have 2-3 weeks of battery life. I have charged this device only once when I got it, and still haven't connected it to the charger since then!

You can also see that the temperatures shown match the ambient air temperature shown in the car. This makes sense since this is the fresh temperature reading as soon as I started my first drive of the morning, and the tyres were not heated up yet. I have been observing these fresh readings every day over last 2 weeks now, and I have seen the temperatures matching with the ambient temperature within the accuracy of +/- 1 deg C. This is in line with the claimed accuracy of the device, so the device seems to be working fine on this front as well.

The tyre pressures were set to 32psi (cold pressures) about 2 weeks ago, when I installed this TPMS. In just a bit more than 2 weeks, the cold pressures have come down to 31psi. This is also expected and normal.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

This gives 2.4A (max total for both USB sockets), which is good enough to charge one tablet and one phone simultaneously. Plus it is very compact. You can see in the picture below that it fits flush with my power socket (cigarette lighter socket), and does not take any additional space.

This charger actually turned out the be a bad idea. The fact that it is very compact and almost entirely fits into the 12V socket (which was what I had liked about it in the beginning), turned out to be the root cause of the main problem too - the overheating problem! There is no path for heat dissipation whatsoever. After having used this for a couple of hours continuously with two phones being charged, I pulled it out the touched it to test the temperatures. And it was burning hot! My fingers almost got burnt, and it was near impossible to even hold it with bare fingers. Actually I had a hunch that heating may be a problem given that there is no room for heat dissipation, but I did not expect it to be so hot. I have stopped using this charger now primarily due to this overheating problem.

Maybe this compact and "entirely fitting inside the socket" design is OK for chargers with small current values. But for this 2.4A charger, this design is just bad and maybe even dangerous.

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

The first product I liked and purchased from amazon.in was this PWR+ dual micro-USB charger (see picture below) for about Rs. 2400. I liked that it had very long cable (2m length), and each charging point could give a 2A current (4A total). Thus, in theory, I could charge two tablets simultaneously if required. This also had good overheat and spike protection.

And now I see the value in this PWR+ charger again. Here, only an extension goes inside the accessory socket, and the main voltage convertor is actually outside with vents for heat dissipation. I have never noticed overheating problems with this even after several hours of continuous charging of phones. So I am back to this charger again!

[RAC]

I took the dive and ordered the OBD scanner from eBay India. I plugged it in and downloaded torque lite app. I was able to connect to the OBD device via bluetooth but the app seems to be constantly scanning and reading the protocols. It does not show any readings. Intried multiple times, unplugged and plugged again, restart engine but it was status quo. Any advice for me?

I will try and share some pics tomorrow.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by RAC

I was able to connect to the OBD device via bluetooth but the app seems to be constantly scanning and reading the protocols. It does not show any readings. Intried multiple times, unplugged and plugged again, restart engine but it was status quo.

Could be two reasons:

1) The protocol is not suitable for the regular ELM 327 reader in your Fabia or

2) ELM 327 Bluetooth reader could be faulty.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by RAC

I was able to connect to the OBD device via bluetooth but the app seems to be constantly scanning and reading the protocols. It does not show any readings.

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Could be two reasons:

1) The protocol is not suitable for the regular ELM 327 reader in your Fabia or

2) ELM 327 Bluetooth reader could be faulty.

+1 to what a4anurag said. I would suggest the following to try to identify the problem:

1. Try free/trial versions of some other app, such as DashCommand. See if DashCommand can connect to your ECU. It is very unlikely that this will work if Torque Lite did not, but still, it is good to rule out that the problem is not with Torque Lite.

2. Try this adapter and app in some other car that is known to support ELM327 (e.g. Maruti cars such as Swift, SX4, Ertiga etc. manufactured after 2010, where we know for sure that ELM327 works well), so that you can rule out if this is a Fabia issue.

3. Check the MAC address of your adapter (the Torque app shows the MAC address when it says connected to this adapter). The "Torque-bhp" forum (which is the Torque app forum essentially) mentions that several clone adapters with MAC address of 11:22:33:DD:EE:FF are full of problems. Here is the link to that discussion: http://torque-bhp.com/forums/?wpforu...topic&t=3343.0

[RAC]

I finally managed to check the adapter in another car this weekend and the results were a heartbreak. It works. It works in other cars. I tested it in a Jazz (petrol) 2011 model. It does not work in a Fabia (petrol).

I have the 1.5v of the adapter. Wondering if I need to buy the 2.1v of the adapter.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by RAC

I finally managed to check the adapter in another car this weekend and the results were a heartbreak.

I have the 1.5v of the adapter. Wondering if I need to buy the 2.1v of the adapter.

Oh, AFAIK it is Software Rev v2.1*and Hardware Rev v1.5 (there is no hardware v2.1 in market, its only software rev v2.1)

Please correct me if I am wrong.

I'll suggest you to chuck this and go buy VAG COM from AliExpress.

[::CMS::]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

AD

,

If you feel the disconnecting and connecting or reset fixes your OBD connection issue, try an OBD extension cable and hack it to supply the power from ACC or put a trigger inline to activate on ACC.

OBD adapter wont consume any decent power to worry about, but keeping it ON always can reduce the life of the adapter.

For powering the Tab / mobile, better use a good DC-DC converter

[PM - B]

Dear All

Thank you for all the information above.

I have 2 queries.

1. What is the difference between the Super Mini ELM327 vs ELM327
2. Will this fit and work with a LineaTJet