[J Dub]

This is kind of on topic, but certainly related to the Op.
With the ELM have any of you had battery drain problems? as I have read so many conflicting stories about them, I think there is only one that turns off and it costs a bomb, the reason I ask is i fancy one of these apps, yet I often have times where my car will not be used for several days.
Any feedback would be good
The rest of the topic I read with interest which encourages me to add an app so to speak

[IanS100]

Originally Posted by J Dub

I think there is only one that turns off and it costs a bomb,

Correct on both counts - Mine is BT OBD is permanently connected to the OBD connector which is hidden away & not easily accessible and I've never had any issues with the battery, even though I often don't use the car for days. Having said that I never switch BT off on my SGS3 & that comparatively tiny battery last for a couple of days if I don't use anything else, so I'd be pretty miffed if BT flattened a car battery

[J Dub]

Yea i have wondered as cant see it draining the battery that much, yet have read bits as i have floated around about after several days batteries going flat, maybe worth a punt then

[Terryk]

I had exactly the same worries with you and I don't use my car often (the good thing is that I use it for a short trip driving on highways on Sundays. but same with you I never had issues with the battery till now. a friend of mine who owns a jazz has the obd adapter always plugged in the last 2+ years

it would be interesting to learn its energy consumption though

[IanS100]

should've said, mine is the "one that turns off and costs a bomb", although the indicator lights stay on, but I still can't see BT using that much, particularly if it's not actually connected to anything.

[badgerbrock72]

Ive not had any battery drain problems with mine, even when it was left for two weeks standing whilst away on our holiday.

You should be fine...

continues to be a good solution for Regeneration monitoring, had another one over the weekend. Only thing id say is the torque app itself absolutely murders the battery on my samsung galaxy s2!!

Garry

[J Dub]

I am looking at having the app on the new nexus 7 when it is available in the UK. So what is the cheapest deal on one that turns off anyone know? Have to say just for peace of mind I would feel better about that

[IanS100]

Originally Posted by J Dub

I am looking at having the app on the new nexus 7 when it is available in the UK. So what is the cheapest deal on one that turns off anyone know? Have to say just for peace of mind I would feel better about that

Mine cost about £110 direct from the States, I didn't fancy plugging an eBay special into my car

[335DEE]

Ebay special works just fine. It does however prevent the car going to sleep, which in turn affects the cas module (sometimes the remote fob won't unlock and you have to use a key)

[BlueBill]

I just tried the newest version of BMWhat Lite with my E90 and it works perfectly.
What I have done was just to install the free version and send it to the developer and within only 2 hours I got the fault report back - including all the found ECUs which also included the airbag and also showed me the airbag fault I have.

So I got the full version and just cleared the airbag fault which worked - amazing that this is possible with an App.

I also tried the coding function and got myself the digital speedometer. The developer told me that he is working on more codings.

Can't wait to see more of it

[J Dub]

The only one that I can find that auto off is the ODBlink MX and thats over £100 it cant be that hard to have made one that switches off can it? anyone know any different ones?
I was reading up about BMWhat and noticed they say send the log and they will make it work, glad to see thats done, could be the route I will follow in the end. Just not keen paying another 100 plus just for something that switches off on its own.

[Terryk]

@ bluebill: in the info you are saying you drive a 320. is it a n46 your car engine? what year? cause a year ago i was able to use bmwhat lite but by the time i decided to go for the paid version I did an available update and it stopped responding. i contacted with them without a response and after a while i did one more (update) but problem was still there. i decided to quit and stick with the paid torque pro.

[BlueBill]

I am driving a MY 2008 and all works really well. But it doesn't seem to matter which model you have anyway. We are a small group of BMW lovers here and have various E90 models.

BMWhat is our standard tool now to read out and clear the faults. And recently we have started to put a list together for more coding wishes since the developer is looking for input.

Our E46 members are basically finished and since we have some BMWhat tester we get the prerelease version of the app on Android.

So far there are more than 50 codings for this model only

We will have even more for our E90 models I expect

[BlueBill]

I have tried the engine parameters of BMWhat now. There are so many - does anyone have a good source of what they mean in detail - I am really curious about all that technical insight

[corasdad]

Originally Posted by 335DEE

Ebay special works just fine. It does however prevent the car going to sleep, which in turn affects the cas module (sometimes the remote fob won't unlock and you have to use a key)

same happens to mine I am gunna get it wired to ignition

[ssshake]

any luck there? I just picked up a bluetooth odb2 connector. I already know that it keeps power going to it constant, so I dont leave it connected. But I would like to, to take advantage of the cool real time gauges.

Did you end up hooking the obdi power to ignition? I would like a clean solution where I can keep it connected all the time but powered off when car is off.

I just had a thought after looking at the pinout http://pinoutsguide.com/CarElectroni...c_pinout.shtml

It looks like theres +12v for battery constant on pin 16 and +12v for ignition. Rather than modifying the obd2 port in the car itself (plan was to remove battery line and just split ignition line) I think I'll open up the OBD2 bluetooth device and remove pin 16 or reroute it on the circuit board. These adapters are dirt cheap and I'd rather break it than break my cars diagnostic port.

[bono]

Hi Guys!

I hope you can help me. I am using BAFX adapter and Torque Pro app on my BMW X5 35d (2011). I purchase this combo primarily to have access to transmission temp. Other owner of 50i reported that he can access the temp. There are two "Methods" available in the app for the trans temp, but both are not working for me... The app states "no data".

Please could you help to get the information on the transmission temp?

Thanks!

[Jules59]

i have an elm327 dongle thing and its on permanently - no problems - have phone setup to display coolant temp and turbo boost for fun - works well . I discovered a thermostat problem long before it caused any issues.

[bono]

Are you able to check transmission temp?