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Attention! "Bad" Bluetooth & WiFi adapters with low quality clones of ELM327.

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  • Last Post 02 March 2022
Administrator posted this 08 December 2014

Attention "bad" adapters!

We faced the problem, that some adapters (often the cheapest ones), can’t connect to the car's ECU.

 

The reason is using of "bad made" clones of ELM327 instead of original chipset and firmware from Elmelectronics. You could notice potentially problematic adapters by: very low price, by MAC address (one can see it while connecting and searching for the device, so the adapter’s name will be detected and its MAC address) .

 

If the MAC address of your adapter

  1. starts with the numbers 66:35:56: ...  or 88:35:56:...(for example, 66: 35: 56: 78: 90: AB)

 

  • or 00:00:00:00:00:01
  • or AA:BB:CC:11:22:33
  • or 00:00:00:11:11:11 (fresh example from 2018 garbage collection, marked as version 1.5)
  • or some other "strange looking" addresses

- be prepared that this adapter could fail to connect, support not all protocols, fail to read some data and what's more, they can cause problems with your car.

 

There are also some adapters that might be almost good while working with single ECU and short commands, but cold fail to get reliable results for cars with 2 and more ECUs and "long" commands like VIN or DTC readings. One of this could have followingg MACs:

00:1D:A5:68:98:8A or ​00:1D:A5:68:98:8C 

As well, there might be problems with other "no-name" Chinese adapters marked ELM327 v2.1.

Please follow the discussion below to get idea about the issues, ask questions and share your observations.

 

We ask to share with us the names, photos, links to these adapters to make a "black list" of such devices.

 

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elm327-bluetooth elm327-wifi elm327 obd-ii connection-issues
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Guest posted this 17 December 2014

Hi,

that's exactly what happened to me. Thankfully, car still starts, so I hope ECU is fine.

But odb adapter/dongle ( 

iKKEGOL Mini Bluetooth ODB2 II Car Auto Diagnostic Scanner Tool with Power Switch Torque Android 

) refused to connect to the car.

As described, MAC starts with  66:35:56 and it says ELM327 v2.1.

Wasted time and money. Useless product.

I decided to give it a hammer treatment rather then have seller flog it to another unaware buyer.

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  • Torsten Wolfram
Administrator posted this 18 December 2014

Thank you for the information. Please note that with our program we track such issues and permanently publish updates to bypass or block known hardware malfunctions.  Also we observe no problems when working with branded quality adapters like OBDLink or PLX ...

xbow posted this 24 January 2015

I bought this adapter (ELM327 v.2.1) and just tested it on my Opel Astra H.

It works fine - I saw some dynamic parameters (RPM, Temp of Cooling Liquid)

The connection was good.

The seller of this product is http://ru.aliexpress.com/item/2014-Newest-Super-Mini-ELM327-Bluetooth-with-Power-Switch-CAN-BUS-OBDII-ELM-327-Work-on/1852873392.html?recommendVersion=1

Maybe this version of the item is good. Unfortunately I can't say it's MAC address for now.

The smartphone is Alcatel Idol 2 mini S 6036Y

 

inCarDoc posted this 24 January 2015

All observed clones that is adapters with prices 5 - 30 usd version 2.1 have some problems and might be dangerous at least some of them. With our program we try to bypass known problems but can't guarantee the safety... Any way version 2.1 the bad choice if compare with 1.5 or 1.4 by fact looks like it based on the very old ELM327 1.0 firmware modified not correctly...

Guest posted this 24 January 2015

So i bought the ELM 327 FROM BANGGOOD.com (chinese wholesaler) 1.5v small black adapter Bluetooth, several months ago for my BMW 528i, have not tried it yet, they say it uses Torque android app. There are a few by that name, wondering if its going to work at all from reading various users online.

I'm going to try OBD DOCTOR app first and go from there,

any body tried the old little black one like mine? Which app is best? Free ones esp.

Im really needing to define 3 of the "P1" codes to fix my car in order to get emmisions test,rough idle & burning somewhat rich. Replaced all 6 ignition coils already, and didn't change a thing. Plugs are next I suppose. But at this rate it could start getting pricey.

Administrator posted this 26 January 2015

You are on forum of "OBD InCarDoc" and planning to try it So, what is the question?. Just try... :) as we have a free application it will cost you nothing

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Mazi posted this 30 January 2015

Hi there,

Would you please give me more details about problems this device could cause to the car.

Thanks for your help,

Mazi

Administrator posted this 30 January 2015

Kind of lottery: it could be no serious problems or something like "almost all my electronic services shutted down..." , looks like in some cases adapter could generate incorrect or unsafe TTL signals, the results will depend on protection level implemented in your car, and exact supported protocols... looks most problems for CAN, but L-line and K-line could be affected too

Mazi posted this 30 January 2015

What do you mean by: "looks most problems for CAN, but L-line and K-line could be affected too".

Also, what does it mean TTL signals​.

Thanks,

Mazi

inCarDoc posted this 31 January 2015

That's all about signal (electrical) level of OBD-II specification. Unfortunately I can't here explain in brief all this. If interested please check signal level specification of OBD-II protocol. Thanks!

Guest posted this 31 January 2015

I have an elm 327 that I've had a couple years now. I've never had an issue with it. I've been using the app torque pro. It connects every time and is fast with communication. Is it an issue I only have to worry about when using in combination with this app?

inCarDoc posted this 01 February 2015

First of all v 2.1 is a fresh adapters and 2 years old usually 1.4 or 1.5 that never have listed issues. Other programs including Torque also have notifications about bad adapters on their pages or sites, some of them block using some adapters at all. There are cases when start engine with plugged adapter could cause the problem - no relation to any program at all.

Guest posted this 03 February 2015

I have problems with ELM 327 "Mini". It's blue and looks just like the one in the lower right of the photo on the Bluetooth OBD adapters thread.

It has address: 66:35:56:78:90:AB

It identifies as "OBD II" & "ELM327 v2.1"

It totally failed to do anything useful with several different OBD apps. It was sold by eBay vendor sgbyincons.

 

Guest posted this 07 February 2015

I just bought a Vgate scanner on amazon and it doesn't connect to the app. 

The address is exactly the one  you gave. Wished I had read that before ordering.

 

Guest posted this 17 February 2015

I have a mini bluetooth  elm327 v2.1 obd2 adapter. I plugged it in my mazda 3 spirit 2.0L model.

I am using torque pro, and did not encounter any problem.

Is there any chance that some problem or damage is possible ?

 

Administrator posted this 17 February 2015

Different programs might use different subset of ELM327 and OBD-II commands, even the same program could use different commands with various use-case scenarios. Some risk remains as one does not exactly knows the exact "dangerous" commands (generating failed signals with bad adapters) and cases when it could be send from the program. 

Guest posted this 17 February 2015

Is there any specific proof that the elm327 v2.1 caused any damage ?

Do you know for sure that there is some hardware bug in this adapter ?

Just blaming this adapter that it is bad is not an acceptable statement !!!

 

Administrator posted this 17 February 2015

First we are not talking about original elmelectronics.com products!!! No restrictions about original ELM327 with any version of firmware!!! All others is about some clones marked as v 2.1 and just a statistical observations from our users no blaming that's up to you use any of them. Even more we try to bypass known issues within our software. Have a good luck!​

Guest posted this 03 March 2015

 just got my Vgate (blue tooth) OBD Scan tool I have paired it to my sansung 4s phone.when i connect to app on phone iit get no reading. i only get power light on the scan tool never the OBD or pc light.is it the scan tool app or some other problem ?

Administrator posted this 04 March 2015

Switch off then on bluetooth support in phone, plug off then on adapter.turn on debug logging on page Menu-Configuration-Logging, try to connect then send log from the Menu-Configuration-Logging with issue description, comments, adapter and car details including year. Thanks!

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