OBD II data logging with Bluetooth dongle. Log all your runs.

[M3R8]

Hi,

Recently I stumbled upon a nifty little program called Torque, it runs on Android devices and can do a bunch of cool stuff with the car's OBD port like reading, displaying and logging all sorts of vital parameters about your runs (revs, speed, throttle, coolant temp, acceleration, lap times, etc). It can read system error codes, clear them. It supports multiple vehicle "profiles" and more.

This is a fun toy for anyone with an R8 or any other car with an OBD II compatible port. It seems to be a great data logger for track use as well. Logged data can later be overlayed on a track map, or a video taken from the car...

The software: http://torque-bhp.com/wiki/Main_Page

The hardware: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/elm327-...r-dongle-16921

I went for this dongle, not the cheapest on this site, but due to its good reviews and tiny size. It's completely unobtrusive and can therefore be kept always plugged in for added convenience.

Side note, it can be potentially dangerous to always keep it plugged in as other people around with bluetooth devices may read the data at any time and even make changes to your car's computer...no security is implemented. If this is a concern whatsoever, just plug it in when you want to use it.

All you need to do is plug in the bluetooth dongle into the OBD port and start the program up. Setup was literally plug and play with zero hassles.

This dongle can be used with other software as well as it is simply a serial port over bluetooth, hooked up to the OBD port, so it may work with VCDS and others to some degree. I haven't looked into that yet.

I cannot yet attest to the reliability of the dongle. I've read that some are more reliable than others. I'll post a followup if I encounter any problems but so far so good!

Have fun!

[FiftyPence]

As a part time Apple iOS developer I have an iPhone 4 myself.

I have the app 'Harry's Laptimer' on my iPhone which can log data but it needs an ELM327 compatible interface such as Kiwi Wifi. I am currently looking into whether the app can work with the HEX-USB+CAN or VAS-5054A cables which come with VCDS and VAS-PC respecively.

Adapting vehicle settings is fun but for me, logs of HP, speed and revs is rather boring on its own.

It can be jazzed up when you use Harry's Laptimer with which you can take video of say a lap of a track then overlay the telemetry data using Dashware to create something like this:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTCNhmsFZBE"]YouTube - ‪Harry's LapTimer GPS/OBD II Video Overlay - Nordschleife with 911 GTS‬‏[/ame]

[M3R8]

Yeah, overlaying that data on a video is probably what most would want to do. The raw data is boring unless it's nicely visualized.

As for the ELM327, you can buy a bluetooth plug (chinese, cheap) for next to nothing on dealextreme, look at the above link. The nice thing about it is that it's truly tiny.

[FiftyPence]

It would be nice if the existing cables I have worked with the apps which are available. As of now, the interfaces need to be Apple approved to work with official apps or I would have to jailbreak the phone to install third party software to use the cables.

I don't fancy the hassle just to log some vehicle data. It would be neat to overlay map data onto my youtube videos though.

[FiftyPence]

I just had to give this a try for myself so I got a PAYG Orange San Francisco aka ZTE Blade phone running Android 2.2 from play.com for and installed the Torque app.

I then connected it via bluetooth to the VAS-5054A and it came up with 'connecting to OBD interface, querying'

M3R8 what does it say at the top in the Torque app when you are successfully connected to the vehicle?

I believe the signal from the VAS-5054A to the phone is encrypted which is usually decrypted by the VAS-PC software on the PC hence it will not work. I've ordered a mini OBD-II bluetooth adapter from eBay just the same as the one you got from dealextreme.

[M3R8]

Fifty, it doesn't say anything special, a small blue car icon appears (next to the other small blue icons such as the GPS satellite icon) when it's connected. You should see those near the upper left corner of the screen, unless your version of the app is very different.

You should also then go to "Adapter Status" and it will show you what is connected/working/ok.

[FiftyPence]

When using the VAS-5054A in bluetooth mode, the app managed to connect to it via bluetooth failed to connect to the car properly so I ordered one of those mini bluetooth adapters from ebay which came pretty quickly from the US.

It worked right away so now I can connect to the car with the Torque app on the Android phone just fine. After connecting, I could press the accelerator down even with the engine turned off and saw the gauge on the app rise and fall in unison which was the sign of success.

I only use the free app at the moment, I'll see what features the full version has.

Sadly the bluetooth OBD-II dongle does not work with VCDS because VCDS is only configured to work with USB and Serial cables.

[M3R8]

Nice. Would have indeed been cool if those plugs worked with VCDS.

I wouldn't worry about the VAS-5054A, it's a bit too bulky to be of use while driving and less ideal for simple data logging alone where much cheaper and convenient alternatives exist.

Looking forward to your findings with this tool