S40 - OBD II/ELM327/Bluetooth Question

Hi all,

Working with my 2001 S40 1.9T and a Palm Centro.

This may be a bit of a left-field question but does anyone know if a
OBD reader based on the ELM327 chipset is compatible with a Volvo? I
recently picked up a Bluetooth-enabled OBD reader to connect with my
Palm Centro and have not been able to get it to work. The problem may
also be one of software compatibility with the Centro being a bit
different in its implementation of OS5 than other Palm devices.

The Palm identifies the presence of a Bluetooth device (and identifies
it as CAN OBDII) but when the software (I have tried Vitalscan,
OBDGuage, and Autoenginuity's Scantool) is supposed to connect it
doesn't receive any OBD signal. The latter cycles through J1850PWM and
VPW, ISO9141-2, KWP2000, and CAN all without luck.

I haven't tried changing the "Initialization Type" field from OBD-II
to either Ford Powerstroke or BMW 01-05 M3/M5 but I figure it's going
to be OBD or nothing. Perhaps it is Ford, I'll make a note to check
that one out too.

I don't have access to another car or another Palm device at this time
so I'm trying to figure out if this thing is defective or if I am! I
found that the Volvo should be ISO but that's all.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance,
blurp

 

this one just gets "weird" really fast. the palm would not be my first
choice as the cpu. it sounds like you are getting sink, so it's a sw
problem. most people use laptops, something i know better. many os
require you to "mount" a new device. if there is no recognition of the
bt device, & the hardware is speaking,the error is in the operating
system.

but that's not the problem. you are coming @ this problem all
sideways. do you need the obd just for s***s & giggles? are you just
totally ar? you have approached the problem w/ totally portable
devices. is that because you feel you need to take your s40's pulse
every 5min? why? Myst (my R) would be very worried.

i will assume that you have a "problem", ~ check engine light,
noticeable performance issues. Myst's ce light is disconnected. the ce
light is really for emission control, not a problem ~ don't worry Myst
smogs in the top 3%. the world has changed. the new technology is just
plain better. if you have had a mechanic work on your 2001 don't
worry. the ecu is just seeing different info & it's better. the ecu
will catch other problems, however, don't disregard it w/o reason. why
can i disregard Myst's ce light? because we have played w/ her ecu
(it's re programmable, just like yours ~ pull it out, caress it, sleep
w/ it, it's a case hardened 8086 & beautiful).

this leads to my next point. i don't own an obd reader. kragen had
cheap stand alone units for <$50, but why? i talk & barrow. not only
do the units work very well, but i get to learn & teach. so my
recommendation is find a good mechanic, use his unit, learn from what
he has to say & buy him some tucker or a pint of stout.

 

Let me assure you that this solution was selected based on available
technology rather than the ideal solution. I was hesitant to spend big
$ on an OBD2 scanner and this solution seemed to present a good use of
the technology I had, namely a Palm-based device with bluetooth. For
many years the Palm (in various incarnations) has been a
single-device-serves-all solution (phone, datebook, contact manager,
list maker, mp3 player, portable video viewer, camera, etc.) and it
seemed that they were advertising that I could add another useful
facet to this tool.

Since my original post I have come into posession of a Palm Lifedrive
(like a Tungsten T5 with a 4Gb HDD) and a pretty nice Thinkpad, both
with Bluetooth. The results, however, have been the same: the device
syncs as a bluetooth device, but does not indicate that it is
connected to an OBD port on a car. Again, several software products
have been tried on the laptop with the same result. SO I SENT THE OBD
DEVICE BACK AS DEFECTIVE.

Hopefully when they send me a new one I'll get better results.

To answer your questions about WHY I'm doing OBD readings at all, I
really want to be able to do as much diagnostic work as I can and deal
with as many things as I can myself. If I have to take it to a
mechanic I prefer to go armed with a little more knowledge. Making
friends with a mechanic is a nice idea but unlikely. It wasn't
indicating any stored codes or engine light but I like to be on top of
these things if I can. I miss my 1995 850 wagon for that reason most
of all (it had a user-acessible code reading interface under the
hood).

I'll report again when the replacement arrives!

Thanks,
Blurp

 

all bets are off! Hp just (04-28-10) bought Palm. i've liked Hp since
i first put my hands on a VAX. they have good tech support & will
probably ~support a device from a third party.

your device probably wasn't defective, but the company you bought it
from may have been. if they don't have tech support or tech support
wasn't useful -- Houston we may have a problem. sw is just much more
like ww than hw. a hammer (hw) is just broken or it's not. a person
(ww) may be terminally broken but still worth the (hopeless) effort to
fix. sw is somewhere in between. an example: new lingerie just arrived
for Myst but it didn't fit right (translation i got new sw for my car
& there were problems). i called the vendor. realized that i should be
talking to the amm. got a wonderful Dutch girl (they're in NL) who
explained the necessary rewrite to my kernel in 3 short sentences.
Myst is enjoying her new(ish) 400+ bhp just fine.

diagnostics are cool as is "do it yourself". in normal use, Volvos
simply do not break that often, & i just don't think that every
homeowner needs a lawnmower. i live in a little village inside a 6mil+
greater metropolitan area. we take care of each other. i'm sorry that
you can't befriend the merchants in your area.

ps(allot of this is just bs. i know how lucky i am. i'm a gc & where i
live just has a # of informal barter exchanges. my aunt needed some
windows replaced. my glazer just did it. he had already gotten some
cabinets i pulled from a job. my mechanic loans me his lift, tools &
assistance on 1 man+ jobs. i provide knowledge, instruction & all
access passes to the track when i'm racing. John Cunnigham Lily, who
thought dolphins & whales were smarter than we, was once asked what he
thought we could do that they would appreciate. he responded "have an
orchestra play Beethoven's 9th." his point was that our strength is
that we can work together. never be afraid to ask ?s.)