[android]

I just bought one of those $15 ELM327 bluetooth OBD dongles on eBay for my 2008 i30 CRDi Automatic, and downloaded a few Android apps to test it out: Torque (free), and Car Gauge Lite. All good so far, pretty graphs and dials, so I took the car out for a test drive but almost immediately the car began to judder - like a really bad gear change. I yanked the dongle out and the juddering stopped.

Experiment 2: Drive with the dongle inserted, but Android app not connected. Result: no problem - but no pretty graphs either
Experiment 3: Drive up a hill with the dongle inserted, whilst my helpful assistant connects the Android app. Result: almost immediate judder. Yank dongle out. Problem gone.
Experiment 4: Park on a hill, insert dongle, connect app, gently accelerate downhill. Result: judder again

Looks like I can't use this thing when driving - but I only wanted it to check for diagnostic codes, so no big deal.

I'm thinking I've got a dud dongle. Anyone else had similar problems?

[Hati]

Very interesting indeed. I have the same dongle permanently plugged into the driver side footwell but no issues ever. Mine is about a year old (dongle). Wonder if the batch is different or the guts of the dongle have been changed since I bought mine.


Can you try it on someone else's i30?

[Shambles]

I can try this shortly.

Which app were you using at the time of the judder? I ony have Torque (Pro) and then, have only used it in idling mode (on 4 cars).

My app does interact with the ECU node as I can clear fault codes, so I would imagine that other packages can interact.

[android]

@Hati The dongle was billed as having firmware v1.5 which I have since discovered is a marketing ploy (probably) because only v1.2, v1.3 exist and just recently v1.4 was announced ...sourced off the Internet so it must be true 
http://www.outilsobdfacile.com/diagnostic-interface-elm-327.html
The v1.5 is really v1.2 apparently. And no, all my friends have <sniff> other cars so I can't test it on another i30.

@Shambles I tried two apps, "Torque (free)" - which annoyed me because the first thing I wanted to do was connect to the bluetooth device but that function was buried 4 deep in the menus, and "Car Gauge Lite" which seemed much better designed. Both give the same symptom - juddering after connect. If not connected nothing happens.

I'm guessing that it's probably dud and that somehow the dongle is flooding the cars CAN (?) network with traffic that is causing the ECU to glitch. I'm getting the car serviced next week and the tech said he'd check it out with his uber-OBD equipment, so I'll see what comes of that.

[Hati]

You could always try an other dongle if you can find one...


I used Torque light while stationary and driving too and never been an issue. Live too far from me to land you mine 

[Shambles]

I forgot to try this yesterday (driving while connected and monitoring) 


I'll do it in a short while for you.

[neoto]

I have the same dongle (not really sure on the firmware version) and have absolutely no problems with my i30 '11 (CRDi manual).

[Shambles]

I drove to work today with the dongle plugged in and Torque Pro showing me how good a driver I really am

No problemo.

[Doggie 1]

I don't need my dongle to tell me how good I am. 

[Hati]

On a slightly different note, my BT dongle is up for sale as the ipad I just got doesn't work with BT (thanks Steve  ) so I had to spring for a WiFi version. If anyone is interested (dongle tested with my i30 and Android) send me a PM.

[Shambles]

On a slightly different note, my BT dongle is up for sale ...

Then put it in the For Sale section

[Hati]

Then put it in the For Sale section

Ain't you quick or what? I was in the process to do just that   

[neoto]

On a slightly different note, my BT dongle is up for sale as the ipad I just got doesn't work with BT (thanks Steve  ) so I had to spring for a WiFi version. If anyone is interested (dongle tested with my i30 and Android) send me a PM.

Wouldn't it be better to change the tablet  

[Lorian]

Is the shudder on an auto box? Early scangauge firmware used to cause a shudder on some autos.

[Hati]

Wouldn't it be better to change the tablet   

No, because the iPad (and I checked) can do all I need from my desktop machine less games but an Android tablet can't. Plus the big A got the user interface down pet so well, nothing can touch it still. As much as it pains me to admit 

[neoto]

Wouldn't it be better to change the tablet   

No, because the iPad (and I checked) can do all I need from my desktop machine less games but an Android tablet can't. Plus the big A got the user interface down pet so well, nothing can touch it still. As much as it pains me to admit 

Well... it can't talk to the standard Bluetooth dongle, can it? 

[Hati]

Well... it can't talk to the standard Bluetooth dongle, can it? 

Not without jailbreaking the i-thing. However the wifi OBDII scanner only cost me $30 posted, so no big drama. There is one BT device you can get that certified to work with Apple, but it's around $90 for the hardware with free software. The economics are clear

[android]

Sorry for the late reply...

I've just had the car serviced and the tech couldn't find anything wrong with the dongle (but I wasn't there when he tested it so I'm not sure whether he actually connected an Android phone to it and drove the car). His tool (which looked considerably more impressive than mine) at least showed a fault code which mine wouldn't report at all: P2112 (throttle actuator stuck, apparently). Could explain why the ESP Light is on all the time. I'm booking it in again to get that checked out, but in the meantime...I ordered another (different) dongle and it turned up today (see pic).

Unfortunately, the new dongle gives exactly the same symptoms as the old one - so I can't blame it on a dud dongle. Looks like something is amiss with the car - or maybe my android phone. One thing for sure, when it makes a gear-box-like clunk pulling away from the kerb - barely idling - I'm not going to be using this on the open road.

One odd thing is that Car Guage Lite gives me  a choice of ECU addresses to connect to: 7E8 or 7E9. Both give the same clunk behaviour though.

[Hati]

Will be interesting to see what the reason behind this weird behaviour is, if you can put the finger on it.