Using clone ELM327 Bluetooth OBDII adapter with Leaf

[garygid]

Is this phone in airplane mode?

Perhaps the car is trying to connect to it, or it to the car,
or some other Bluetooth device?

After I have paired the phone with the dongle, I rarely
have to wait more than a few seconds to start seeing
data from the car.

 

[Turbo3]

It is ok to have the phone in airplane mode as long as you go back and make sure to turn on BT or WiFi if you need it.

 

[edatoakrun]

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.

So, is it advisable to unplug the ELM327 to avoid draining the battery?

OK to leave it plugged in overnight, or for a few days?

What could it be doing to cause such a large power drain from the 12 V battery?

 

[vrwl]

Is this phone in airplane mode?

Perhaps the car is trying to connect to it, or it to the car,
or some other Bluetooth device?

After I have paired the phone with the dongle, I rarely
have to wait more than a few seconds to start seeing
data from the car.

Yes, the phone is in airplane mode with both WiFi and Bluetooth activated. You can see all the appropriate icons on the phone in this pic:

 

[vrwl]

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.

The car was turned on in Ready mode (ready to drive) and I actually saw something called carcan in the pull down line at the top of the phone. I'll get a picture of that tomorrow and post it here.

 

[vrwl]

... 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:

1. Try the app again, holding the phone within about 6 inches of the adapter.
2. Test your phone with some other (non-ELM327) Bluetooth device.
3. Test the phone with the car's bluetooth.
4. 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.

Aha, we might be on to something here!

1. Tried holding the phone close to the adapter. No change, still in Waiting mode on the app. So proximity is not the issue.
2. Tested the phone with a pair of bluetooth earbuds made by LG that I use with my iPhone all the time. They paired up easily with the Kyocera Event phone, and I tested them by viewing a YouTube video within the phone's browser while connected to wifi. But here's the interesting part... when the phone is connected to the earbuds, it says "Connected" in the Bluetooth menu under the name of the earbuds. Additionally, the Bluetooth icon at the top of the phone is BLUE, not gray. When I connect to the ELM327, the icon at the top stays gray, it never changed to blue. You can see that both of these conditions are present in the first picture (when paired to the earbuds) and neither of these conditions are present in the second picture (when paired to the ELM327):

3. Haven't tried this in my car ever, so not sure if this is a good time to mess with that since #2 worked ok with the earbuds.
4. Tried a version of this. Garygtx used his phone and HIS adapter to verify that the car is outputting the messages ok. That part worked, but when he was trying to pair up with my first ELM327 on his phone, it didn't succeed. That adapter has been returned to the company I purchased it from.

So based on this, do you think the adapter is hosed? Since I don't appear to get a true Bluetooth connection, see above pictures, I'm starting to believe I've gotten another dud.

 

[Stoaty]

Success!

It took another ~half-dozen attempts, with random variations in the order and #, but 1234 finally worked to pair.

Also took me 6-8 attempts to get the pairing, 1234 finally worked on my Fusion 2 phone. Used this ELM327 from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008U1MOM8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How cool!!! Percent Simulated Gids is within 1% (Gid Meter was unplugged so will have to test more later, but quite close as I recall from when I got home.

Just have one tiny cosmetic issue: need a little space between the number of Gids and the area that you touch to change between raw Gids and Percent Gids. The numbers were almost cut off, doesn't look right.

Amazing app!!! Thanks so much. Send me the bill.

 

[surfingslovak]

Percent Simulated Gids is within 1% (Gid Meter was unplugged so will have to test more later, but quite close as I recall from when I got home.

Great to hear! This is indeed promising early feedback. Let's hope 'Gids will work well enough to live up to your expectations. I'm quite amazed about the progress on the CAN bus hacking front BTW, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if even more interesting data were made accessible in the future.

 

[vrwl]

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.

The car was turned on in Ready mode (ready to drive) and I actually saw something called carcan in the pull down line at the top of the phone. I'll get a picture of that tomorrow and post it here.

Ok, here's what I was talking about earlier...

When actually using the app, if I go to the app's Settings screen, I see a little blue car icon up in the far upper left corner of the phone. If I swipe down on that little blue icon, it opens up another screen on top of the app's Settings screen and shows "canmonitor" (not carcan as I posted earlier). But notice the "No Service" status at the bottom of that overlaid screen. Not sure if that's what you were talking about Turbo3. These pictures were taking when the car was turned on, Ready mode, ready to drive, with all dash lights on. Here's pictures:

 

[Turbo3]

Just have one tiny cosmetic issue: need a little space between the number of Gids and the area that you touch to change between raw Gids and Percent Gids. The numbers were almost cut off, doesn't look right.

How does this look? I added a single space.

 

[Stoaty]

Just have one tiny cosmetic issue: need a little space between the number of Gids and the area that you touch to change between raw Gids and Percent Gids. The numbers were almost cut off, doesn't look right.

How does this look? I added a single space.

Actually, my thought was to leave the numbers where they are (they don't line up vertically the way you changed it) and add a small amount of space between the number and the tappable area by either making it slightly smaller or moving it a bit to the right. For example:

 

[Turbo3]

When actually using the app, if I go to the app's Settings screen, I see a little blue car icon up in the far upper left corner of the phone. If I swipe down on that little blue icon, it opens up another screen on top of the app's Settings screen and shows "canmonitor" (not carcan as I posted earlier). But notice the "No Service" status at the bottom of that overlaid screen. Not sure if that's what you were talking about Turbo3. These pictures were taking when the car was turned on, Ready mode, ready to drive, with all dash lights on.

That little car icon means my "scanner" service routine is running. It handles the data coming from the ELM327 so is always active once the Bluetooth link is up and running.

The "No service" message is because you have the phone in airplane mode. So there is no cellphone service. Nothing to do with my app.

 

[Turbo3]

Actually, my thought was to leave the numbers where they are (they don't line up vertically the way you changed it) and add a small amount of space between the number and the tappable area by either making it slightly smaller or moving it a bit to the right.

Can't do that because the label is as small as it can be for the text. So the number has to move left.
=========================
Well actually I can.

DropBox now has this updated version.

 

[vrwl]

When actually using the app, if I go to the app's Settings screen, I see a little blue car icon up in the far upper left corner of the phone. If I swipe down on that little blue icon, it opens up another screen on top of the app's Settings screen and shows "canmonitor" (not carcan as I posted earlier). But notice the "No Service" status at the bottom of that overlaid screen. Not sure if that's what you were talking about Turbo3. These pictures were taking when the car was turned on, Ready mode, ready to drive, with all dash lights on.

That little car icon means my "scanner" service routine is running. It handles the data coming from the ELM327 so is always active once the Bluetooth link is up and running.

The "No service" message is because you have the phone in airplane mode. So there is no cellphone service. Nothing to do with my app.

Ok, I thought the No Service message was in relation to the adapter. I'm buying another adapter from another source and hopefully three times will be the lucky number.

 

[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.

Here's one on Amazon and this one looks more like it might be a power switch: "ON/OFF Power Switch that allows you to keep it plugged in at all times"

http://www.amazon.com/Simvalley%2599-ELM327-Bluetooth-Diagnostics-Switch/dp/B00CF88GEW/ref=sr_1_5?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1367902220&sr=1-5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Stoaty]

Can't do that because the label is as small as it can be for the text. So the number has to move left.
=========================
Well actually I can.

DropBox now has this updated version.

Looks good to me now. I know these are tiny cosmetic issues, but the app feels more polished when they are addressed. Thanks!!!

 

[LEAFfan]

Jim, why the ' (apostrophe) before Gids?

 

[LEAFfan]

Success!

It took another ~half-dozen attempts, with random variations in the order and #, but 1234 finally worked to pair.

Also took me 6-8 attempts to get the pairing, 1234 finally worked on my Fusion 2 phone. Used this ELM327 from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008U1MOM8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How cool!!! Percent Simulated Gids is within 1% (Gid Meter was unplugged so will have to test more later, but quite close as I recall from when I got home.

Just have one tiny cosmetic issue: need a little space between the number of Gids and the area that you touch to change between raw Gids and Percent Gids. The numbers were almost cut off, doesn't look right.

Amazing app!!! Thanks so much. Send me the bill.

My Gid reading for a 98% charge is the same as a Gid meter. My App SoC is 1/10% different from the Gid %. Fantastic!

 

[Turbo3]

Jim, why the ' (apostrophe) before Gids?

Because it is not a real "Gid" just something the app calculates to look close to a Gid unit.

When the app has access to a real Gid the ' will disappear.

 

[LEAFfan]

Ah, ok. Mine is reading exactly the same as the Gid meter I had borrowed. I'm going to leave the OBDC plugged in again with just the Power light on and check my battery later this morning. I remembered to exit this time.