01/26/2022 85 380 Electronics
Author: Ivan Baranov
Diagnosing the operation of a vehicle is an important process, because it is with its help that you can find out which parts of the car have problems. One of the devices for car diagnostics is an adapter. For what reasons does the ELM327 Bluetooth not connect to the ECU and what to do in such cases? We will talk about this below.
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What cars is the scanner compatible with?
To determine which car scanner is suitable for a personal car, it is enough to determine the data exchange protocols. To do this, you need to look at the OBD-2 block and clarify which contacts are present on it:
- The presence of pin 7 (K-Line) indicates that the ISO 9141-2 protocol is used for diagnostics. Such diagnostic connectors are used in cars made in Asia and Europe.
- Pins 4, 5, 7, 15 and 16 indicate the ISO14230-4KWP2000 protocol, which is commonly used on Daewoo, KIA, Hyundai, Subaru STi and some Mercedes models.
Let's sum it up
As you can see, the ELM327 diagnostic adapter is not just useful, but even a necessary thing that every responsible car enthusiast should have on hand. This scanner allows you to quickly, regularly and timely diagnose your vehicle.
At the same time, the ELM327 scanner provides the ability to read errors and decipher them, which often makes it possible to accurately determine the malfunction and take appropriate measures as part of troubleshooting.
To avoid such mistakes, you need to buy car scanners, on-board computers and other car electronics, car products and all kinds of car accessories only from trusted sellers who provide extended warranties for their products.
How to check the ELM327 scanner
After purchasing the ELM327 adapter, check that it is indeed version 1.5. When ordering from AliExpress, check whether the PIC18F25K80 chip is installed in it and emphasize that you will diagnose the scanner using special software and open a dispute in case of problems.
Visual inspection
Visually identifying a quality adapter is not so easy. The opaque or dark plastic housing makes it impossible to inspect the components. Their miniature size and hard-to-read markings further complicate matters.
- OBD Auto Doctor (OBD Car Doctor)
PIC18F25K80 chip on the scanner board / aliexpress.com
If you carefully open the case, you can look at the ELM327 boards. Carefully inspect all the parts and look for the processor code PIC18F25K80. Firmware 1.5 requires just such a chip, so its presence will be a certain guarantee of quality.
Application tester
YouTube channel Eugene Barsuk
A special application tests compatibility with diagnostic bus protocols and shows the real version of the scanner. To check, do the following.
- Insert the ELM327 adapter into the car's diagnostic connector and turn on the ignition.
- Open the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi settings on your smartphone and pair with the adapter (password: 0000 or 1234).
- Install the verification application and click the “Connection” button.
- Wait for the scan to finish and check the results.
- Successful work with most car brands is guaranteed if the adapter supports all revisions up to 1.4 or 1.4b inclusive.
Lada Kalina station wagon grape-colored tractor › logbook › self-diagnosis of the computer
A couple of weeks ago the CE caught fire. This does not affect the operation of the engine in any way, but it is still not pleasant. Going for diagnostics means paying 500 rubles for nothing. Buy an on-board computer, it doesn’t seem to be needed in Kalina, the standard one shows everything you need, except for ECU errors, but it costs about 2000 rubles.
It turned out that there are 2 types of adapters: simple K-Line adapters and those based on the ELM327 chip. It was not possible to find what is the fundamental difference between them, except that the former are cheaper and have greater capabilities. Therefore, it was decided to take a simple adapter.
I bought an OBD II USB adapter from the St. Petersburg company Orion (740 rubles) and last night I tried to determine why my CE light was on.
The adapter was installed on the netbook without any problems. I downloaded a couple of programs (Motor Tester and ICD), but none of them were able to establish communication with the ECU! I suffered for 2 hours until I froze, after which I went to study the Internet.
Having found a topic on diagnostics on the Lada Kalina Club, I downloaded the OpenDiagFree program recommended there and went on experimenting.
Error code: Full WHOIS ELM-CHAN.ORG - Full WHOIS information domain / website ELM-CHAN.ORG | Portal WHOIS.UANIC.NAME
OpenDiagFree immediately identified additional equipment other than ABS and airbags, but could not determine the ECU. This has already calmed me down somewhat, which means the adapter is working. I don’t know what kind of ECU I have, so I started going through everything on the list from Euro 3. But to no avail.
Then I decided to experiment with the settings, chose method 2 in connection with the ECU. I clicked “automatic selection of parameters” and everything seemed to hang there. I turned off the computer and went home to study the problem further.
To begin with, I decided to study the manual from OpenDiag, a bad habit is to try first and then read the instructions! And in the manual I found the answer to all the questions.
Question No. 1: How does the ELM327 differ from the K-Line adapter? It seems like a simple K-Line adapter and costs less and has more capabilities. Why bother with peak controllers? And the problem is precisely in establishing communication with the ECU, Windows is not a real-time system at all and it is very difficult to maintain timings when working with a COM port!
Question No. 2. How do you still connect to the ECU? For this, there is “method 2” in OpenDiagFree. Its essence is that timings are selected on specific hardware. To do this, you need to click the “automatic selection of parameters” button, and after that do not touch the computer and it is advisable that nothing else works on it at this moment.
The CE was on fire due to a dead phase sensor. I looked at the parameters, the program shows everything that is needed and not needed, the connection is stable.
I hope the description of my misadventures will help someone in this difficult matter of connecting to the ECU
