Easiest way to get started with Leaf CAN bus hacking under Windows?

[pmbdk]

Hi guys, I have no less than three OBD2 dongles for my Leaf: A WiFi dongle, a BT 1.5 dongle and a BT 2.1 dongle. The last one is what I use with LeafSpy and it works perfectly. The first one does as well, but having to connect through WiFi is annoying.

However, I would like to connect to the CAN bus from my Windows laptop; what is the easiest way to do that? I tried pairing with the BT 2.1 dongle, but was not successful; then I tried the BT 1.5 dongle, which paired fine and under device manager I got 2 com port (edit: in fact, I am not sure that these are the correct serial ports as they do not disappear when I disconnect the OBD2 dongle). I then tried connecting to both using SavvyCAN (which I have never tried before) and after setting up the connections, it just said Not Connected all the time, so I have no idea what else to try...

Any recommendations?

I also have a couple of arduinos, some RPis, some HC05 modules and some CAN modules, but I would really like to have some basic comm up and running on the laptop first as it is much easier for initial debugging/development.

 

[cornbinder89]

This is what I was/am going to use with my laptop if I can find a way to load LeafSpy or similar software into the computer.
http://www.obdtester.com/elm-usbThe operative problem is the software. I don't think you can run it with Windows, but am no expert on the matter.

 

[pmbdk]

I am pretty sure Leaf Spy only runs on Android/iOS. I would really like some OBD2/CAN SW which could connect directly to the bluetooth dongles I have. ELM-USB seems to be USB only.

 

[cornbinder89]

Yes, Leafspy runs on Android, and that is the problem. You should be able to link your wi-fi dongle to the laptop, but then the question is what software? Most all laptops I've ever seen can link to Wi-FI, many also have Bluetooth, but less than have wifi.
SO linking your laptop isn't the problem, the software is the much bigger problem.
May be I don't understand what you are trying to do. One thing about the USB/OBD2 is it eliminates the transmission side of things, you are directly plugged in, and if you still have communication errors you know some protocol in the program isn't right.

 

[pmbdk]

Assuming that all my three dongles have an elm327 onboard, it should be straight-forward to communicate using the bluetooth-serial port using the elm327 AT commands. However, I have tried this and it doesn't work; in fact none of the BT serial ports I have responds to anything...

 

[cornbinder89]

What program are you running to look at the CAN bus? does it see the port?
I may be in over my head on this stuff, I am not computer savy but can solve many of my problems by trying to isolate what works and what doesn't.
If your dongle links to the port but your program doesn't see the port, then (and I'm guessing a lot here, feel free to tell me I'm wrong) a baud rate issue?

 

[pmbdk]

Well, windows pairs with the dongle, but no port seems to be showing up...

 

[Kirito]

I did dat on last car (Toyota IQ) with arduino and laptop with other software (CANHacker v2.00.02) that works with arduino uno and canbus shield.
Altough it is connected on OBD-2 to DB9 cable. (Canbus shield has db9 port)

And software and code you can find is here:
https://github.com/omarKmekkawy/Arduino_CANHacker
or

https://github.com/gsrathore97/CANHackerProject

 

[pmbdk]

I now have a raspberry pi communicating with the BT dongle. It is definitely an ELM327 in there.

Does anyone know what kind of data I can poll? I have read Dala's github page, and tried the following:

>ATSH797
OK
>0322115600000000
NO DATA

But I keep getting the no data. Maybe I have setup the ELM327 incorrectly. Prior to sending the above, I use:

atz
atl1
ati

> ELM327 v2.3
>ath1
OK
>ats1
OK
>atal
OK
>atsp6
OK

LeafSpy works perfectly on this dongle.

 

[pmbdk]

I am documenting my further progress here:
https://mynissanleaf.com/threads/my-nissan-leaf-2021-obd2-elm327-bluetooth-adventure.35042/