OBD2 Data on Infotainment??

[Sloucher]

I'm looking to buy an OBD2 dongle to use with Carscanner (Android) but I have some questions (sooo many questions....) I hope can be answered here please?

I want to display the OBD2 data on the infotainment screen, so:

Firstly, is Carscanner compatible with Android Auto?
If not, would I be right in assuming I'd need a third party device or app that allows the phone screen phone to be mirrored to the infotainment screen. The only problem I see with this would be that the phone screen would still display data in portrait mode, as on the phone.

or

Perhaps use Torque Pro together with what was Performance Monitor. (May have to d/load AAAD to do that I think.

Secondly, I'll be looking to purchase a Carlinkit 5 (Android Auto) at some time but, assuming I can get one of the above systems to play together nicely, is that likely to screw things up do you think? I suppose I'd need to make sure the OBD2 scanner and the Carlinkit were not both Bluetooth, as I think I read somewhere that they can glitch each other.

Any help would be gratefully accepted before I spend any hard earned cash!!

 

[webhiker]

I am not aware of any "car scanners" that has been approved for android auto. And I doubt it will happen, as the paradigme is not to distract the driver.

That said, I will follow this thread to see what pops up
For the record, I already have an OBD dongle to feed SoC to ABRP

 

[wjohnson12321]

Yep you can do this, someone has written a plugin for torque app ?

 

[Sloucher]

Yep you can do this, someone has written a plugin for torque app ?

Good news. Is this the one? -
Torque OBD2 Repeater (beta) - Apps on Google Play

EDIT: Or, more likely, this one:
GitHub - agronick/aa-torque: Performance Monitor for cars with Android Auto

Unfortunately, it seems that if you have Android 14 (I do), then the plugin won't install, even using AAAD

 

[Sloucher]

Oh no.....

Android Auto no longer works

Never even got as far as seeing any sensible OBD2 data

 

[DixieTGS]

Never even got as far as seeing any sensible OBD2 data

I had some success with carscanner with an OBDLink MX+, but the combination of a flaky MG OBD2 implementation and awkward customisation capabilities in carscanner leads to a very frustrating experience.

A few random notes from memory that may help for Android carscanner:

Carscanner setup for MG4 has a few values that work, a few that sometimes work and a few that never work or give wrong values.

If you have any 'bad' value on a page it will slow the whole page down drastically.

If you have 2 good values that each work fast on a page of there own, they may be very slow when used on the same page. Usually because they come from different modules in the car.

The only setting that regularly improved the above problems was in settings, connection, advanced. Set timeout receiving data from ECU command to 255 (default 64). But this may make some pages worse!

You can also fix the protocol to 6) 11 bit 500 kbaud. To improve the connection startup delay.

Use the graph with a single value to see how fast and reliable it can update. Use with 2 values to see how nicely the 2 values work together.

Saving and restoring custom IDs can work. Sometimes I've had to uninstall/reinstall to get out of trouble (or clear all data via Android), especially if transferring custom ids and dashboards to another device.

I lost interest after a few weeks but will look again if I hear carscanner has improved or I get really really bored.

 

[Sloucher]

Begin rant.

Well, if anyone is considering getting an OBD2 dongle for their MG4, save your money. None of the OBD2 scanner apps (Car Scanner, Torque etc) offer any sensible information that can be of any interest to anyone but a geek. Neither of those two apps are really interested in electric cars it seems. They are a PITA to understand, let alone set up.

Using it with ABRP (ie live data) doesn't seem to really offer any real advantage either.
Trying to set up your vehicle in ABRP on Android Auto just results in a "ABRP has encountered an unexpected error" message and it gives up. I think that's just ABRP being a bit of a git though, as it doesn't matter whether the OBD2 dongle is connected or not. It doesn't fail like that on the web version, only the app.

If anyone has found an OBD2 dongle useful, please tell me how - in words a non-geek can understand!!

Rant over!

 

[siteguru]

Do you have a premium sub for ABRP? (I think that's needed for the ODB2 dongle integration).

 

[Sloucher]

Do you have a premium sub for ABRP? (I think that's needed for the ODB2 dongle integration).

Yes I do?

 

[tsedge]

It does depend which OBD2 dongle you have, some of them don't work well with ABRP or other apps.

 

[Sloucher]

It does depend which OBD2 dongle you have, some of them don't work well with ABRP or other apps.

I think it works well enough with ABRP, it's just that I don't see any advantage in using it. I have got to know my car well enough now to be able to predict its range, so I can't see any advantage of using an OBD2 device.
I'm using a Maclean MCE200 dongle, one of the dongles recommended by ABRP (Iternio).

 

[tsedge]

I think it works well enough with ABRP, it's just that I don't see any advantage in using it. I have got to know my car well enough now to be able to predict its range, so I can't see any advantage of using an OBD2 device.
I'm using a Maclean MCE200 dongle, one of the dongles recommended by ABRP (Iternio).

I think the theoretical advantage is that it can automatically route plan your charger stops for you with live availability and accurate range predictions, so that you can leave all the route planning to ABRP, plus have all the data if you are into analysing your trips.

But, I do agree, I don't have any need for this myself, I do maybe 20-25 long trips a year and it is easy enough to plan my stops with free apps.

 

[AndyL61]

I have an ELM 327 obd11 dongle and car scanner app. It connects fine but SOH (which is what I wanted to see) is showing just over 400% , other readings seem reasonable like 12V battery voltage and SOC. Is there anything I can do to make it work or is it that nothing actually works with the MG4 ?

 

[Sloucher]

I have an ELM 327 obd11 dongle and car scanner app. It connects fine but SOH (which is what I wanted to see) is showing just over 400% , other readings seem reasonable like 12v battery voltage and SOC. Is there anything I can do to make it work or is it that nothing actually works with the MG4 ?

Well, considering that the same car scanner and the dongle I have reckon my main battery voltage alternates between 400V and 0V and motor rpm is constant at 68000 RPM I'd say pretty much nothing works with the MG4!

 

[AndyL61]

Well, considering that the same car scanner and the dongle I have reckon my main battery voltage alternates between 400v and 0v and motor rpm is constant at 68000 rpm I'd say pretty much nothing works with the MG4!

That's what I thought, just looking for someone to say the same. ?

 

[Coulomb]

Is there anything I can do to make it work or is it that nothing actually works with the MG4 ?

I would hope that MG4 support is now out of beta testing. If not, consider joining the beta program. Have you selected the right model in the app?

Car Scanner App - now has MG4 support

Version 1.98.6 has added support for the MG4. I've had a brief try of the free version, and the All Sensor list does display values for quite a lot of the EV variables, some of them jump to silly values occasionally. Things like SoC, SoH, battery cell min/max/difference values, battery...

www.mgevs.com

 

[Sloucher]

I would hope that MG4 support is now out of beta testing. If not, consider joining the beta program. Have you selected the right model in the app?

Car Scanner App - now has MG4 support

Version 1.98.6 has added support for the MG4. I've had a brief try of the free version, and the All Sensor list does display values for quite a lot of the EV variables, some of them jump to silly values occasionally. Things like SoC, SoH, battery cell min/max/difference values, battery...

www.mgevs.com

Yes, correct model selected but, just like that reviewer, I found the readings totally inaccurate and inconsistent. I'm just going to shelve the whole idea until someone produces an app that can display non fictitious data. Could be a long wait!

 

[AndyL61]

I would hope that MG4 support is now out of beta testing. If not, consider joining the beta program. Have you selected the right model in the app?

Car Scanner App - now has MG4 support

Version 1.98.6 has added support for the MG4. I've had a brief try of the free version, and the All Sensor list does display values for quite a lot of the EV variables, some of them jump to silly values occasionally. Things like SoC, SoH, battery cell min/max/difference values, battery...

www.mgevs.com

The MG4 is described as an "experimental profile" . I wouldn't have a clue how to join the beta program.

 

[DixieTGS]

Yes, correct model selected but, just like that reviewer, I found the readings totally inaccurate and inconsistent. I'm just going to shelve the whole idea until someone produces an app that can display non fictitious data. Could be a long wait!

You have chosen wisely.

If however you wish for more torment and are only interested in a single value at a time (such as SOH), then for Android carscanner I would suggest the following:

Set the timeout as detailed in my previous post to 255.

Create a dashboard with just the one value on it.
Or
View the value on a chart.

If you are interested in the above, let me know and I'll do step by step instructions before you dive in again.

 

[AndyL61]

You have chosen wisely.

If however you wish for more torment and are only interested in a single value at a time (such as SOH), then for Android carscanner I would suggest the following:

Set the timeout as detailed in my previous post to 255.

Create a dashboard with just the one value on it.
Or
View the value on a chart.

If you are interested in the above, let me know and I'll do step by step instructions before you dive in again.

I couldn't find where to change the timeout value. Your post says , settings, connection, advanced , but I can't find any connection tab in settings ? I am fine with turning off values on the dashboard. Any help is appreciated.