monkeyarms
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| posted on 17/5/12 at 08:05 AM |
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OBD2 alternative software ?
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
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britishtrident
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| posted on 17/5/12 at 08:38 AM |
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The problem isn't the software but hardware phoney ELM327 clone interfaces don't work well if at all on Fords
[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]
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monkeyarms
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| posted on 17/5/12 at 09:07 AM |
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So i need a better cable?
Recomendations? I dont have a smartphone so cant use those connectors.
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roadrunner
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| posted on 17/5/12 at 09:30 AM |
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I have the bluetooth version and it worked great with my VW Passat, and now with my Audi.
Brad
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britishtrident
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| posted on 17/5/12 at 12:07 PM |
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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]
[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 17/5/12 at 01:36 PM |
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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.
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big_wasa
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| posted on 17/5/12 at 02:07 PM |
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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.
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monkeyarms
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| posted on 24/5/12 at 05:31 PM |
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Sorted
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 
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