Bluetooth OBD II Transceiver Dongle
 

Hi Has anyone used one of these - seems way cool and cheap too ! Seems logical to have it transmitting to a phone or laptop

Thinking of importing it from the US

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16921

that would be sweet if it worked with a Cobb AP.

looks cool - never heard of anyone trying that on here .

Let us know how it goes if you get it .


BTW sweetfa welcome to the club - I'm in Hamilton . Let me know if you are down this way .

Word to big bird I hate that cord.........

i LOVE DX. such a great place, no where else do i waste so much moeny on so much useless stuff :)

Ordered - Should be here in a couple of weeks - Hate waiting !

Be aware if you're going to install this permanently to your car (for data logging purposes), because it seems that you cannot change the encryption pin, and with a bruteforce attack is relatively easy to find it out. BT has a limited range (5m to 10m) but that's enough for a car next to you to hack into it.
You can do crazy s*it via ODB-II (even compromise completely your ECU), so whenever the risk is limited, i wouldn't leave it connected rather than when parked into my private box.

Google "ELM327 Bluetooth" you'll find several of these types of units as low as $40, plus more (some free) sw suggestions to use with them.

My understanding is that whilst the vehicle is running and the device is paired it goes stealth regardless, yes some one can use bruteforce to find it but - Im in lil old New Zealand and if anyone just happens to be within range and can stay within range i.e. keep up all whilst hacking my car I would be pretty damned surprised - But yes it's a risk albiet a very small one.

I found this unrelated a few days ago as well. Very tempted. Trying to find a phone app to use, Voyager that is commented isn't found my my android phone.

Also note the comment that the installation CD had a trojan on it, soooo... that particular one and seller, I'd be very wary of. I'd prefer to see one on NewEgg, but no luck yet.

Can someone even get into ODB2 with the engine off, key not in the ignition? I guess a question for MM, something I am sure he knows. The dongle I have right now doesn't have any reaction from the LED unless the key is in the ignition. Key out and it stays dark all the time. If it doesn't have power with the key off, then the brute force risk is only if someone sits next to you while you are in the car, presumably driving, and that would be incredibly hard to maintain. Same risk rate there as hands free bluetooth evesdropping (though agreed, with more damage on your end, but with less gain or reason to on the attacker's end.)

Let us know how it goes.

Yuppo the OBD-II interface works even with no ignitiion key, i believe it's due to security specifics (ODB-II is used for safety purpose as well). I never tried what you can do while there's no ignition key (coz my PC won't turn on then), but the interface will stay on even when you close your car (in fact i had to modify the link to power it up from my PC source, otherwise it would drain current from my car battery). It seems there's no "pairing button" on it, otherwise the risk would be not-existant (unless you gonna use an exploit.. but here we're into imaginary, i can't believe a wardriver would target your car, unless your wife hired a killer. :D ).

finally arrived
 

Installed and is working Doesn't cover everything as it can see it's a clone but I'm pretty happy for NZ$80.00

The dongle does not work when the ignition is not turned on so it's not discoverable.

Yeah, that is what I thought. The dongle's I do have didn't seem to get any power from the ODB2 when the key wasn't in or even on. So basically they can only hack it while they try to follow you down the highway or through the twisties, unless you sit outside idling for several hours...

Looks handy though. It has promise.

Once I get my laptop back I'll take it for a spin and see how it records real time - connection speed is fast and I've already had a mate around to check his car out so it's paid for itself already

Would kick ass to be able to log stuff on my Droid :P Definetly gonna keep an eye on this thread :)

I thought this seemed familiar. There was a thread posted about that thing on my droid forums a few months back. I even commented on it :)
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dro...nce-meter.html

I have one of these... cost next to nothing... I'm currently evaling Touchscan (http://www.obdsoftware.net/TouchScanInfo.aspx) and will likely purchase it if I can find the equiv ratio (lambda) sensor. I've been using hymee scangauge up to this point but have never been impressed with hymee's (lack of) support.

There are a ton of apps out there now-a-days anyway. I'm also considering writing a dashboard myself but I can't bring myself to spring the $300+ license for a nice packaged gauge library like the chartfx stuff.

Anyways, good stuff.

My OBD+Key Road test

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...96#post3161996

I'm running this in my carputer (visit my thread : D) and it's pretty decent. Update speed isn't so quick in centrafuse or the software that came with it. But I'm hoping there's a workaround to increase the update frequency.

The thing doesn't have a changable pin. But it stops broadcasting when you pair it. So once it's paired (right away with my carputer), no one else can get in. If you're not pairing it, unplug it and put it in your glove box!

I got the exact same as the op did, and I'm pretty happy with it.

My only issue is that I'm having ecu issues, and I think the scanner is the issue. Twice so far, my dash has shut off a couple times (i.e. speedo goes blank, tach drops to 0rpm, temp and gas go to 0) and then once the dash resets itself I get trouble lights. The first time this happened, the dsc light started blinking, then the traction (slippy road light), so both are blinkin' away and then the engine light came on. I was idling my car in my driveway, and hadn't moved an inch at that point. The trouble code thrown was P01C1. The internet has no idea what the code is. Doesn't seem like a standard code. The second time the dash did it's reset thing, and then just gave me the slippy road sign and that was it. It happened last night, but didn't throw an engine code.

Yeah, that would be a concerning point for me. By itself, only an oddity or possible technical issue, but when paired with the trojan virus that is on the installation CD, it makes me suspicious that the ecu issues is malicious intent.


I like the ODB+Key that ASH linked. Has a warranty, and is popular in Europe, which means that it is tried and true. It also seems to be the device that works best with the Android App Torque, from reading up on it. Twice the cost, true, but the stability and malware free side of it makes it worth it IMO.

If the scanner is based on OBD, it sends a request, waits for the vehicle to respond, then immediately sends the next request. There is delay in the ECU or the network and your polling device. Some have better processing power than others ($$). The car's data travels at some baud link rate (vehicle specific) which also can be major limiting factor. Some vehicles have faster networks and ECUs that respond more quickly.

Also with OBD you read signal-by-signal, one at a time, so the overall rate is determined by the number of signals being polled and how fast they are processed. Generally, for the higher performance read fewer signals. If your vehicle can provide 20 updates/sec then you can read 20 signals once-per-second, or 1 signal twenty-times-per-second.

Your scanner may be using too much of the available bandwidth doing polling and the car doesn't have time to do it's work in between, which is not a good situation.

+1 /\

Finally got my phone flashed to Android 2.1 so I can use Torque - Works perfectly with the phones GPS integration / google maps and real time access to the ECU - Going out today to test the standing starts on the new tyres...Oh and as I'm using torque you don't need the dodgy installation disk from Dealextreme !!

The new version of centrafuse is out today, so I'm going to see if the new OBDII handling works any better! : D

http://www.dealextreme*com/p/obdii-b...e-dc-12v-42825
Picked up the Deal Extream SKU 42825 (I didn't want to post the link) for just over 20$.

It seems to work wonderfully!

I need to review the apps now - I have Torque on a Samsung Tab