OBD and Smartphones..

[Playtoy_18]

I switched to Iphone back in the 3 era,i'm now on the 4s and have loved it.
Don't use many apps,but love the interface and a podcast nut.
I have calc and dyno apps etc..

Have been wanting to get an OBDII solution since i've had it,but only one option really exists it seems.
Apple won't allow app designers to use bluetooth for an elm device so we have to use a wifi version.
For the $150 pricetag compared to $20 hardware and $5app for android i'm 2nd guessing my smartphone.

What phone do you have and what EFI related apps do you use?
I'm especially interested in a good datalogger that can record and be exported (Torquepro?)

Wife just got an SIII,and I looked thru apps and am impressed.
I'm just too comfortable in my iphone,but trying to get over it.
I even saw an app for reading ford mode $06 data and it was cheap!

[EagleMark]

Innovate OT-2, can also wire in wideband.

[Playtoy_18]

Haven't seen that one,be nice since I have an LM1 as well.
It also works with anything wifi also.

But still stuck on the $180 to interface with my iphone.
I almost bought an interface last night when I saw it mentioned on another forum the price was down to $30 for an elm327.
Argh! Not for me.
Then I saw how many more app options,I didn't realize I was being throttled by apple so badly.

[JeepsAndGuns]

No offence, but reasons like that, and my own personal prefrence is why I do not like the iphones. Every one I have tried to use, or played around with at the phone store I hated. I personally have a samsung fascinate. Its a older phone and I'm pretty sure they dont even make it any more. But I really like it. I definately like the droid OS 1000 times better. I dont use it for any type of fuel injection use like your talking about, I use my laptop for all my tuning needs.
I like my current phone so much, that if/when I need to replace it, I will be going back to another samsung. I have played around with other droid phones and I keep coming back to the samsungs. Might be worth a look for you.

[Six_Shooter]

I have an iPhone 4s, first iPhone, and likely to be my last.

One reason is the lack of cheap and good apps, or inability to interface custom hardware, at least without jailbreaking.

Getting into the field I am (electronics technology), an Android actually makes more sense, due to the open development of it, and the interfaces.

The biggest reasons is because I can link my iPhone music library to only ONE PC, ONE. This means if I have a computer fail, or reformat, I then need to erase and add all previously installed music, just to add a new song. :facepalm: When you have around 40 GBs of music installed on the phone this is a rather large annoyance. Usually takes a couple hours to make the switch over, at minimum. It's 2013 Apple, get over yourselves and open up this ability.

[EagleMark]

Haven't seen that one,be nice since I have an LM1 as well.
It also works with anything wifi also.

.Yes it wifi to my laptop. Was supposed to work with Scan XL Pro but there is a glitch that as far a s I know never fixed and can only get one channel. Now when it works like all the pictures and examples on I phone to computer it will be worthwhile.

[Playtoy_18]

15+ years ago I was big into the next greatest thing with phones and always had to have the newest and coolest.
After I gave up on that crap and started to hate phones the iphone was the first cool one I got in years and was hoping the last one.

Let's be honest,Who likes learning a new phone over and again every year.
So that is main reason for not changing besides grandfather'd unlimited and no contracts.
Only thing I do with a phone now is use as headphones and a pda,if I could turn off the phone function I would :)

Wife said she was able to keep unlimited when she swapped over so i'm gonna take a look at the samsungs.

I do like that I will be able to actually play with the phone and it is basically open source platform.

So what apps are cool to check out on android that are car or OBD/datalogger related?

Offhand I have an HUD,Idrag,Dynolicious and autozone app I use for part number comparison.
Not really much of an app person either :)

[Playtoy_18]

K,so we talked and decided to outright get rid of all the Apple stuff and replace with "normal".
So ordering new phone as well as bluetooth OBD adapter today.
Gonna research the best tablet to replace the Ipad as well,cause for just browsing and reading that thing can't be beat.
So far a suggested "Transformer Infinity" looks to be the best bet.
As far as phone it looks like the galaxy SIII or note is the winner.

I'll post updates as I get a chance to play with the different apps.
Really gonna hate buying Dynolicious again,it was pretty expensive but a good program.

[EagleMark]

I remember when I had to duplicate my albums with 8 tracks for the car... then had to get cassettes..... didn't do CDs as I thought they would change again... so was happy when DVDs came out... now you need a Pod thing for music? My truck has a cassette and CD from factory? So I'm back to radio like it was before 8 tracks...

Then there's my phone that still works...

http://www.gearhead-efi.com/Fuel-Injection/attachment.php?attachmentid=3318&d=1355113319

[Playtoy_18]

I actually have an old RCA victor player hooked up to my home stereo I still use and my fiero still has the tape deck :)
Anymore I only listen to talk radio though and since I can't hear worth a crap I have a varying collection of headphones for every occasion.
I rarely listen to anything but my Iphone,it's more my personal electronic device.
Oddly enough though,I hate telephones and rarely use it or answer it as a phone.

[Playtoy_18]

Well,got a Galaxy SIII.
Got it in and replaced my apps,swapped conTacts and got email setup.
Only thing I haven't done is actually activate over from iphone,still hoping to find a way to export texts since that is my main communication tool and I reference them often.

Bought two mini elm bluetooth devices,should be here in next few days.
Looking thru online the other day I remember seeing a datalogger app that mentioned it had a terminal server on it.

Will take getting used to,but at least it came with some pretty nifty headphones and my bluetooth headphones paired right up.

I'll update with OBD app stuff as I try them.

[Playtoy_18]

Well,if you use an iphone I can say personally it is worth it to switch just for the Torque app.I've only used it a couple times,and haven't even figured it out yet completely but it's awesome.
And there is a plugin with a terminal for sending your own data it looks like as well as support for custom pids.
I also found a website that specifically caters to android app developers for car stuff it seems,just can't find it again.


If you have any kind of android phone,buy a mini bluetooth elm327 on ebay for $15 and then torque pro for $4.99.
For $20 it looks like i've replaced the $300 I have in my autotap cable.
It even supports custom guages as well as graphing etc..
And it has the dynolicious dyno/rack stuff built into it as well,so I save like $30 from buying it.


Check out www.Torque-bhp.com

[EagleMark]

But how does this website look on your phone now since I upgraded?

[Playtoy_18]

Can't see a difference, looks same on ipad, android or laptop that I can tell.

[JeepsAndGuns]

So I was thinking the other day, if I ever get the need to scan my 99 grand cherokee, I would have to take it somewhere. I don't have any way to scan anything obd2. I figure this little thing might be pretty handy for the price. Looking around on google it appears there are crap loads of these things out there, and lots of them are cheap china junk with bugs. So I was wondering if any of you guys have a link to where you bought yours from? I figure if I am going to buy one (and the app) I might as well get a good one.

[Playtoy_18]

Except for a few usa built devices,most all are china built and simply rebranded that I can tell.
On that assumption I bought the cheapest ones I could find ($10ea) to try.
They worked great so far,no issues connecting etc.
Now the USA built ones from Scantool.net have a circuit that turns it off with key iirc in case you leave it i. Place.
Torque Pro ($4.99)is the app you want,it also has a plug in called torque scan that you prob want.

i haven't played enough to see everything they can do,but it will easily replace any $100 handheld scantool from any manufacturer.
Just having PIDs available puts it into the $150+ scantool category,it will also log and build custom dashboards as well as mode $06 test data.

Just search ebay for mini elm327 bluetooth and find the lowest price.
There is a china company with a california warehouse that I ordered from,tom tong or tom tum or similar.
I'm sure it might have some issues being the cheapest version,but so far no issues.

I habe no problem upgrading to a more expemsive one now that I know that the app is worth it.
i even bought an extra to give to a friend whos' car I repair,this way he can send me a log of the issue or check code for me easily since he lives 30m away.

[EagleMark]

Here's a new one for androids. Google Nose? It smells? Now if we could get AFR in data base we'd be set...

https://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/nose/