Using clone ELM327 Bluetooth OBDII adapter with Leaf

[garygid]

Vicki,
That $28 device says "With a switch to turn on/ off these indicator lights."
So, it might not be a power switch, but perhaps only a "darken" switch?

They mention about 45 ma current draw.

That is about 1 amp-hour per day.
So, leaving it on for a day is not too bad, but
leaving it attached for a week with no driving
might not be so good for the 12v battery.

 

[vrwl]

Vicki,
That $28 device says "With a switch to turn on/ off these indicator lights."
So, it might not be a power switch, but perhaps only a "darken" switch?

They mention about 45 ma current draw.

That is about 1 amp-hour per day.
So, leaving it on for a day is not too bad, but
leaving it attached for a week with no driving
might not be so good for the 12v battery.

Ahhh, ok. I thought it was an actual power switch. Too bad, that would be a great idea.

 

[davewill]

This item is actually sold by TomTop, a Newegg affiliated seller. I bought my clone from them. They're in Southern California and ship very promptly. They have their own website at http://www.tomtop.com.

Interesting. It's cheaper on their site. They indicate that it's drop shipped from China (although the shipping is free). I might order one just to get the power switch. Vicki please let us know how well the power switch works. I do wish it was a real switch instead of a membrane, but if it works, it should be easy to tell whether it's off or on from the way the app reacts.

 

[LEAFfan]

Maybe it's ok to leave it plugged in. I realized today that I left the App running all night. I should have exited the App, then it may have used less than 45 mah. I'm going to leave it plugged in again without the App running and see if my battery stays at 12.5V.

 

[vrwl]

Ok, I'm making progress, sort of. Taking the info that edatoakrun posted, I just kept trying and trying and trying to pair the ELM327 to the Event phone. Took several plugs and unplugs into the car and multiple typings of PIN numbers before it finally stopped giving me an error and finally paired. So "yay!" for that part.

Now I have a problem with the app. When I start it up, it says it's connected, but it never gets off the "Waiting" status and gives any data. Here's more pictures:

And as my last tidbit of information: When the car is powered into any of the three modes (Ready, ACC, or just the first power press with no brakes), the power light is lit on the ELM327, and then no matter what power mode the car is in, as soon as I turn on the app, the OBD light on the ELM327 flashes at a slow speed (I'm assuming it's trying to communicate?) but yet I get no data on the app. Here's pictures:

Any thoughts on the "Waiting" status on the app? And how long should the wait take?

 

[garygid]

Maybe it's ok to leave it plugged in. I realized today that I left the App running all night. I should have exited the App, then it may have used less than 45 mah. I'm going to leave it plugged in again without the App running and see if my battery stays at 12.5V.

That means your Android device was running over night also?
Was it on battery, or plugged into the car's 12v power outlet?

 

[vrwl]

This item is actually sold by TomTop, a Newegg affiliated seller. I bought my clone from them. They're in Southern California and ship very promptly. They have their own website at http://www.tomtop.com.

Interesting. It's cheaper on their site. They indicate that it's drop shipped from China (although the shipping is free). I might order one just to get the power switch. Vicki please let us know how well the power switch works. I do wish it was a real switch instead of a membrane, but if it works, it should be easy to tell whether it's off or on from the way the app reacts.

Sorry, I didn't buy the one with the switch, I just found it today at newegg and then saw the posts about needing to power the device off, so I thought that might be helpful.

 

[LEAFfan]

Ok, I'm making progress, sort of. Taking the info that edatoakrun posted, I just kept trying and trying and trying to pair the ELM327 to the Event phone. Took several plugs and unplugs into the car and multiple typings of PIN numbers before it finally stopped giving me an error and finally paired. So "yay!" for that part.



Now I have a problem with the app. When I start it up, it says it's connected, but it never gets off the "Waiting" status and gives any data. Here's more pictures:











And as my last tidbit of information: When the car is powered into any of the three modes (Ready, ACC, or just the first power press with no brakes), the power light is lit on the ELM327, and then no matter what power mode the car is in, as soon as I turn on the app, the OBD light on the ELM327 flashes at a slow speed (I'm assuming it's trying to communicate?) but yet I get no data on the app. Here's pictures:





Any thoughts on the "Waiting" status on the app? And how long should the wait take?

It should Connect when you turn your car on to Ready or On. If not, exit the App, turn on car to Ready, then reopen the App.

 

[vrwl]

It should Connect when you turn your car on to Ready or On. If not, exit the App, turn on car to Ready, then reopen the App.

Didn't matter what mode I was in, On, Acc or Ready, I always show "Waiting" on the App. I tried all 3 modes on the car.

 

[davewill]

Any thoughts on the "Waiting" status on the app? And how long should the wait take?

It's pretty quick to turn green and start updating once the car is in ready mode. I'd say no more than 10 seconds or so, at the most. I have, once or twice, had to exit the app and reenter to get it going, but it's been quite reliable, especially in the later versions. Does your phone work properly with other Bluetooth devices? I'm beginning to think it's your phone that's at fault. It feels like a bad or missing Bluetooth antenna. You might try holding the phone close to the adapter just to see if it starts working.

 

[garygid]

Congrats on getting the pairing... finally.

You have the pairing code in the app set to 0000.
Should it be 1234 instead?

I tried pairing 4 more of the ELM327 devices, and had some
of the same frustration that you experienced.
All paired with code 1234.

The successes were all with the car Ready (to drive), then
plugging in the ELM327 dongle, and quickly trying to pair,
usually within the first 30 seconds or so.

I did see the Android saying that the phone was not discoverable
by other devices, so I tapped on that message and the phone
changed to "discoverable", with about a 2 minute countdown
(before going back to being not discoverable).

Once, the pairing succeeded during that interval, shortly after
plugging in the dongle. So, I will experiment more at another time.

 

[vrwl]

Any thoughts on the "Waiting" status on the app? And how long should the wait take?

It's pretty quick to turn green and start updating once the car is in ready mode. I'd say no more than 10 seconds or so, at the most. I have, once or twice, had to exit the app and reenter to get it going, but it's been quite reliable, especially in the later versions. Does your phone work properly with other Bluetooth devices? I'm beginning to think it's your phone that's at fault. It feels like a bad or missing Bluetooth antenna. You might try holding the phone close to the adapter just to see if it starts working.

Funny you mention that, I was sitting on the floor of the garage with car door open and the Event phone sitting on the driver's side floormat when I finally got it to pair up with the ELM327. I just came back in from the garage, sat out there about 5 minutes with the car turned on (Ready) with the app turned on, waiting to see if the Waiting status would ever change. What DID change was the connection of the app with the device. The app lost connection and reconnected 3 times while I was sitting out there so I don't know if that's indicative of a problem with the phone or the ELM327. So frustrating.

 

[vrwl]

Congrats on getting the pairing... finally.

You have the pairing code in the app set to 0000.
Should it be 1234 instead?

I tried pairing 4 more of the ELM327 devices, and had some
of the same frustration that you experienced.
All paired with code 1234.

I tried both... when I used 1234 in the app, it only showed question marks for the device name with the MAC address in parentheses. When I changed it to 0000, then it showed "OBDCII" with the MAC address in parentheses. Since I got the actual device name using the 0000, I assumed (correctly or incorrectly) that that was the correct PIN. When I finally got it to pair with the phone itself I had been trying 1234 then 0000 then 1234 then 0000 really fast, over and over, and I honestly don't know which of them was the final one to correctly pair so that's why I tried both in the app. Kind of kicking myself over that dumb move.

Edit: I'll go change the app to 1234 and sit out in the car for 5 more minutes to see if that does the trick.

 

[LEAFfan]

Maybe it's ok to leave it plugged in. I realized today that I left the App running all night. I should have exited the App, then it may have used less than 45 mah. I'm going to leave it plugged in again without the App running and see if my battery stays at 12.5V.

That means your Android device was running over night also?
Was it on battery, or plugged into the car's 12v power outlet?

It was on the phone's battery because I have it always plugged in to the USB which has no power when the car is off.

 

[davewill]

... sat out there about 5 minutes with the car turned on (Ready) with the app turned on, waiting to see if the Waiting status would ever change. What DID change was the connection of the app with the device. The app lost connection and reconnected 3 times while I was sitting out there so I don't know if that's indicative of a problem with the phone or the ELM327. So frustrating.

In your shoes, I would do the following:

Try the app again, holding the phone within about 6 inches of the adapter.
Test your phone with some other (non-ELM327) Bluetooth device.
Test the phone with the car's bluetooth.
Get someone to try their known working phone with your car and adapter.

You've had way to much trouble, and gone through too much hassle. My thoughts are either your phone's bluetooth is defective or there's a major source of interference in your car.

 

[jstack6]

the direct file that is not .ZIP worked best for my Kyocera smart phone . If you download the zip file be sure you have a way to unzip them.
This is great data and make me see the new SOC is not very helpful, I use the scan gauge spec dev tool to see the true battery capacity and this software also shows that valuable date ! Thanks jim2

 

[vrwl]

Apparently, it doesn't matter WHAT number I put in the Default Passkey field, it will show Connected Successfully. I tried 1234, 0000, 6789, 9999. All gave me messages "Connected Successfully". The actual steps I took were:
1. Turn on the car to Ready
2. Turn on app
3. Go to app Settings
4. Change the default passkey value
5. Back out of the numeric keypad
6. Back out of app Settings
7. Exit App
8. Turn on App
9. See Connected Successfully
10. See Waiting status
11. Go to app Settings, verify Default Passkey number change, and verified that the name of the device along with the MAC address is displayed.

So I tried these steps 4 times with the above 4 default Passkey numbers. All result in the same thing and all result in successful connections according to the app.
So if the ELM327 is already paired with the phone outside of the app, does it really matter what passkey code is used IN the app? I'm confused over the need for the extra pairing procedure within the app if the device is already paired with the phone.

 

[davewill]

So I tried these steps 4 times with the above 4 default Passkey numbers. All result in the same thing and all result in successful connections according to the app.
So if the ELM327 is already paired with the phone outside of the app, does it really matter what passkey code is used IN the app? I'm confused over the need for the extra pairing procedure within the app if the device is already paired with the phone.

It's for auto-pairing. If you're already paired, I'd expect it to do nothing.

 

[Turbo3]

The only time the default passkey is used is when the system signals that one is needed when the app tries to open the saved mac address device. If the system is already paired then this passkey is never used.

The device name will be ???? if the last mac address used connected successfully. If you use the Select OBDII menu then the ???? is replaced with the name you selected from the list which would normally be OBDII.

It is not clear to me that the app ever uses the default pass key. I will need to go back and do some testing to see if there are any valid combinations that cause the system to request and the code to respond with the default passkey.

 

[Turbo3]

If you get to the Waiting state that means the app is connected to the ELM327 and you will see the ELM327 ID string below the app version number and the current 12 volt battery voltage below that. But the CAR-CAN is not responding to requests for information. This normally happens if the car is off and not charging. The car must be charging or ON (dash lights up). If only the Nav/Radio system is on then the CAR-CAN is still off.