OBD-II Scanner, Dongle, & App Thoughts

[Gary Lewis]

I know very few of the Bullnose trucks have OBD-II ports.  In fact, as far as I know Bill and I are the only ones with them - so far.  But I know others will follow.  In fact, Dad's truck will have an OBD-II connector. Given that I'm going to try to write down what I've just learned about things in this area.

First, there are several apps that are available at a very reasonable price.  Today I bought DashCommand, although there are several others, like Torque.  But DashCommand for $10 seemed to be what I was looking for so I went with it.  And it connected nicely to my ELM wifi dongle that I use with other scanner apps.

But I was quickly reminded of why I don't like wifi dongles.  Every time you turn the key to Off the wifi dongle loses power and drops offline.  And if you are home the iPhone grabs the home wifi network and drops the dongle, so you have to go back to settings to reconnect.

However, if I had a bluetooth dongle there wouldn't be any competition as the connection would come back when the power comes back.  So I started shopping.  Turns out this isn't as easy as I'd thought.  Or maybe I should say as cheap as I thought.  I did some searching and found a bunch of cheap BT dongles, but most of them don't work with iOS.  And some reviews of DashCommand said that they couldn't get the cheap BT dongles to say connected.

So I went to the DashCommand troubleshooting guide and found this statement:

The connection process is the most common place to have troubles. First off, you need
to make sure that your interface is supported by the platform you are using. If you are using an
iPhone, you need to have WiFi interface or a GoPoint GL1/BT1/BT1A . The only supported
Bluetooth hardware for the iPhone is the GoPoint BT1/BT1A. If you have an Android phone,
just the opposite is true. Android supports Bluetooth interfaces, but does not support WiFi

Wonderful!  Maybe I should pick up an old Android device to use if I want to monitor things?  Or just stick with the wifi dongle.  

[85lebaront2]

Same issue I am having with some items, like the Chrysler tuning and diagnostic software. It either requires a Windows laptop or an Android phone. The Windows laptop isn't a problem, but the Android phone is. Mary had a Samsung Galaxy when we first met, compounded by being on Verizon.

[Gary Lewis]

It is amazing how convoluted/complicated they've made this!

I'm going to check around and see if anyone has an old Android they aren't using.  Apparently it'll work for monitoring via BT.

But, as I think about it, I have an old iPad and if I were to set it up then I could leave it in the truck and leave it on wifi.  

[Gary Lewis]

Well, that didn't work.  Turns out the old iPad is way too old for that software.  

So we took a drive using the iPhone and I recorded some info.  It works, and I'll probably just continue to use the phone.

[Gary Lewis]

Time for an update.  I discovered that there are BlueTooth dongles that work with iOS devices and DashCommand.  In fact, the people that sell DashCommand list the Vgate iCar Pro OBDII Diagnostic Interface for sale and confirmed to me that it is a BT device and works with DC.  However, they don't have it in stock and don't know when they'll get it.

So I Googled that device and found it on Amazon a little bit cheaper than they had it @ $32.  However, the Amazon page also had the table shown below and the Vgate vLinker MC+ Bluetooth 4.0 Code Reader has a few more bells and whistles, so I sprang for it at $60.

I got it in today (2-day delivery) and it works very well!  You don't need to pair the phone with the dongle, but if BT is on the phone will show it as connected.  Then go to DashCommand and tell it you are using BT and it'll connect almost immediately.

Compared to the wifi dongle this thing is FAR better.  First, there's no need to go to Settings on the phone and then connect to the wifi dongle.  And, when you turn the engine off your phone doesn't go back to your home network.  Plus, a few seconds after you turn the engine off this device goes into sleep mode and pulls almost no power @ 3 ma.  But the wifi dongle stays hot, literally, and I have been noticing the battery voltage on BB coming down a bit after a few days.

Bottom Line: I'm very pleased with the device.  

[85lebaront2]

Interesting sir. I downloaded FORscan trial and was impressed enough to go ahead and purchase a license. I use it on the two Flexes as the 09 isn't too bad on my Solus Pro, but the 11 is new enough I only have minimal capabilities. With FORscan I have everything available and used it the other day to clear an O2 sensor code after replacing them on the 11 Flex.

BTW, those O2 sensors are interesting, 6 wires, and looking at the wiring diagrams, they appear to be a dual band sensor, narrow and wide. I wonder if Core Tuning has played with any of them.

[Gary Lewis]

I've heard good things about Forscan, but from what I've seen it is for Windows only - right?  DashCommand is available for iOS, Android, and Windows.  I think each version costs $10 for the base app, and then there are in-app purchases.

For instance, today when I fired it up via the new BT dongle it said that there are extensions available that will get more data from Big Blue.  Apparently the BT dongle provides more access than the old wifi dongle since DashCommand hasn't said that before.

I didn't buy it as I can get everything possible via Binary Editor, but it is intriguing that I might get more via the iPhone.  Still thinking about it.

As for the O2 sensors, it is interesting that they have both wide and narrow bands.  I wonder why?  

[85lebaront2]

Probably how they get better fuel economy. Best economy is around 16:1 AFR, normal O2 sensors can't read that level accurately. I am not going to be sending the manuals this trip, Prashant didn't get his act together and is still screwing with his truck now. He was supposed to be here Wednesday, arrived mid Thursday. Today he was going to be here early with Elizabeth, but didn't show up till early afternoon, then was not happy when I told him no on the MAF/SEFI conversion as there wasn't time to do everything.

I did locate a 1996 F150 dash harness though, but it's in Newport News, and I will have to go pull it. That will give us the in-cab OBD-II wiring.

[Gary Lewis]

I wonder if EEC-V is worth it to Prashant.  Yes, with the EGR neutered it'll be running too much advance with EEC-IV, but he can get around that.  It is running, so....

And yes, best MPG is leaner, so that may be why the dual band O2 sensors.