OBDii Diagnostics ELM327!

[icesurfer10]

I've bought a generic ELM 327 OBDii to usb cable.

I was wondering if anyone might have had any luck connecting through the fiat's OBDii port with a terminal on wither Windows or Linux.

If so any advice would be appreciated, I just get random gibberish.

I've tried multiecuscan and the connection seems ok

Thanks,
Tom

 

[jon1612]

what do you mean you get gibberish ? multiecuscan will either connect or it wont
I use the VAG KL lead and its works everytime.
what are you trying to read (engine / abs / airbag rtc )

 

[homersimpson]

Do I understand correctly. You are displaying the data to/from the elm chip in hyperterm.

If yes then gibberish is what you should expect as this protocol is not intended to be human readable.

 

[fingers99]

You need software to interface -- turn it into human readeable -- output. MES is pretty much the accepted standard for Windows. There may be Linux stuff out there, too.

 

[s and b]

linux wont work not even with wine

 

[cc1]

Multi Ecu Scan may not work with all/any of the Elm 327 type interfaces. I tried on mine and it failed. You need the correct software like Digimoto for the ELM.

 

[homersimpson]

Multi Ecu Scan may not work with all/any of the Elm 327 type interfaces. I tried on mine and it failed. You need the correct software like Digimoto for the ELM.

Multi ecu scan is made for the elm 327 interface. There is a warning the the multi ecu scan web page about cheap ELM interfaces - It even shows how to fit the correct termination resistors. Maybe this was your problem?

 

[cc1]

Multi ecu scan is made for the elm 327 interface. There is a warning the the multi ecu scan web page about cheap ELM interfaces - It even shows how to fit the correct termination resistors. Maybe this was your problem?

MES works with the Gendan module but not the Elm327 which was not cheap at the time. Digimoto works fine with the Elm on serial interface, or when using a usb to serial interface module.
The Elm is about 4+ years old so an old-ish chipset? I scanned every port for the older Elm device with MES but it did not register, after that I did not try to solve the issue as I have the full kit version of MES now.

I know about the resistor issues with some of the cheaper interfaces so this may be the OP's problem, or the interface is a non-working reject being off loaded into the unsuspecting market? How many people have the equipment to test if the device is a dud, so then think the issue is themselves?