Does anyone use a smartphone OBDII link for performance monitoring?

[daedgerton]

The PO of my 2003 had an OBDII connected smartphone app for live performance monitoring. I believe he used the one from this company: www.obdlink.com

Any of you guys our there using them? Is their one better suited for D2's? Just curious...

 

[p m]

Any ELM-327 dongle will work. Starts at $3.96 a pop at Amazon.

 

[fishEH]

I run TorquePro with a dongle.

 

[WaltNYC]

There are two types of dongles....wifi and bluetooth. For some reason the Apple phones don't like bluetooth and so the wifi version is required. Android is fine with bluetooth.

When I bought a dongle, the Torque app did not have an apple version. (not sure if that has changed) So I use an app called "OBD Fusion" which has worked well for me.

 

[p m]

That brings up an interesting option - it would be nice to keep using the phone for playing the music via bluetooth, yet to talk to OBD-2 via wifi.

 

[robertf]

so the only reason to really use one of these scan tools daily is for the temperature gauge

why not just fix the damn instrument cluster gauge so it's somewhat linear? It sure beats ricer pods, phones glued to the windshield, ugly scan tools on the dash, or my attempt at getting the radio to dislay the temperature

I think Im going to snag one from a junkyard this weekend and figure it out. it shouldnt be too hard and there is enough printing company market saturation that a new gauge overlay should be cheap

 

[K-rover]

That brings up an interesting option - it would be nice to keep using the phone for playing the music via bluetooth, yet to talk to OBD-2 via wifi.

You should be able to do both at the same time. I have my radio paired with my phone then add the OBD2. Works just fine.

 

[K-rover]

so the only reason to really use one of these scan tools daily is for the temperature gauge

why not just fix the damn instrument cluster gauge so it's somewhat linear? It sure beats ricer pods, phones glued to the windshield, ugly scan tools on the dash, or my attempt at getting the radio to dislay the temperature

I think Im going to snag one from a junkyard this weekend and figure it out. it shouldnt be too hard and there is enough printing company market saturation that a new gauge overlay should be cheap

It does a lot more than just real time temp. Like reading and clearing engine codes. Plus its easily transferred from one vehicle to the next.

I do coolant temp, voltage, and GPS speed on one screen,

 

[robertf]

It does a lot more than just real time temp. Like reading and clearing engine codes. Plus its easily transferred from one vehicle to the next.

I do coolant temp, voltage, and GPS speed on one screen,

I know it does a lot more, but what else do you really need accessible at all times other than temp?

 

[Buddy]

I know it does a lot more, but what else do you really need accessible at all times other than temp?

When I'm towing with my F-150 I have it set up for coolant temp, intake temp, boost pressure, and right and left catalist temps.

 

[p m]

You should be able to do both at the same time. I have my radio paired with my phone then add the OBD2. Works just fine.

Thanks - I'll try.

 

[fishEH]

You can always run an old phone as a permanent "gauge".
Step 1 should be fixing your damned cooling system. A stock cooling system in good working order will do a great job.
I turn my Torque app on every now and then to check it.
As mentioned the dongle can easily be swapped between vehicles. Stick it in the port and if you want/need to check something just turn the app on.

 

[kcabpilot]

I ran Torque with an instantaneous MPG gauge and an average MPG gauge side by side and by watching the instantaneous gauge and modifying my driving style I was able to increase my average MPG from 16 to 21. Contrary to what you might think I did not slow down to achieve this gain. I found the optimal speed to be between 70 and 75 mph. It's all about maintaining momentum and using the vehicles weight to your advantage. I found that if I let the truck slow below 60 it would require a lot of fuel to get it back up to speed so even going up hills it was usually much better to apply throttle and maintain speed rather than to let it bleed off unless you are approaching a longer descent after the incline.

With the Pro version of Torque you can even work with PID's if you want to go that deep into it.

 

[Howski]

Looking to pick up an OBD2 adapter to use with my iPhone. Do the wireless adapters need to be iOS compatible?

 

[K-rover]

Looking to pick up an OBD2 adapter to use with my iPhone. Do the wireless adapters need to be iOS compatible?

I believe the IOS uses WIFI where as Android uses Bluetooth. I heard there is a BT version for IOS, but I personally have not seen one.

 

[bearskinrug]

I use an OBD2 wifi dongle and dashcommand on my iPhone. Works ok, but the signal gets dropped a little too frequently. My main complaint is that programs like google maps, which want to preferentially use your wifi connection, won't map for you while your phone is connected to the wifi dongle. You either have to disconect from wifi and use your cell signal, or get google maps started before your connect to your dongle.

 

[robertf]

I believe the IOS uses WIFI where as Android uses Bluetooth. I heard there is a BT version for IOS, but I personally have not seen one.

Its the newish bluetooth standard. BLE. Been out since around 2008 but seems to have taken off only in the past year or so. I use one, works fine. Its pretty much the only way to get something to communicate with an iOS device without wifi or going through the apple licen$ing bs.

 

[Howski]

Was able to find a WiFi one. Never had a scan gauge or similar, excited and nervous to take a look at some of the numbers

 

[Howski]

Just want to follow up - this was the best $12 I've ever spent on a Rover. I'm not going to log data but it's nice knowing how my cooling system operates and what my benchmark temps are. Almost worth the $12 just to clear CELs

 

[StusRover]

Howski can you link to the one you bought? and which app you are using? thanks!