Board logo

OBD2 alternative software ?
monkeyarms - 17/5/12 at 08:05 AM

A while ago I bought a cheap OBD2 laptop cable from eBay - which didnt fully work. But when forum member RichN pluged his hand held scanner in that worked perfectly. So I was wondering if the OBD2 software supplied with my cable was rubbish?

So does anybody have experience of other OBD software I could try? Free/demo or very cheap, obviously!

I have a 1998 Fiesta 1.4 zetec & ECU in my kit that i would like to read.

I dont have any problems but this is more fore future use and general interest now.

My cable -




many thanks

britishtrident - 17/5/12 at 08:38 AM

The problem isn't the software but hardware phoney ELM327 clone interfaces don't work well if at all on Fords

monkeyarms - 17/5/12 at 09:07 AM

So i need a better cable?

Recomendations? I dont have a smartphone so cant use those connectors.

roadrunner - 17/5/12 at 09:30 AM

I have the bluetooth version and it worked great with my VW Passat, and now with my Audi.
Brad

britishtrident - 17/5/12 at 12:07 PM

All the cheaper usb, wifi and bt interfaces use the fake Elm chips but cheap handheld scanners don't seem to have the same problem with the Ford protocol.

i usually recommend Autel MS509 or Memoscan as good budget buys but the Launch CRecorder V can now be found very cheaply on ebay.
With hand held scanners look for ones that read live data, graphing and download results to a PC are also handy.

[Edited on 17/5/12 by britishtrident]

[Edited on 17/5/12 by britishtrident]

MikeRJ - 17/5/12 at 01:36 PM

I have the Launch CRecorder and it's a pretty good bit of kit. The code scanner and live data reports have worked pretty well on everything I've tried it on, though it wouldn't clear the fault codes on a TDCi Transit van for some reason.

big_wasa - 17/5/12 at 02:07 PM

ive had a couple of the clones. One was crap the other works great and I mostly use it on Ford / MG rover / newer Pugeot.

Not all clones are equal.

monkeyarms - 24/5/12 at 05:31 PM

Thanks to everyone that contributed.
I did a bit of reading and found which protocol my fiesta engine/ecu used: Ford J1850-PWM.
Then searched eBay and found a blue tooth OBD dongle that explicitly supports it. Was still a bit of a gamble but only £18.
It works fine.

This also means I have an excuse to upgrade my phone to a fancy android one so I can use the Torque app