Overview of the current 'OBD2' adapters, their functionality and the future

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hjdlsnbc

Well-known member
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Feb 2, 2023
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In the last months i have spend much time researching all possible things. This overview could be helpful for some people and i have today short time slot i cant work at the car or research things online so i decided to write this here. I try to keep all of that as simplified as possible. It should be a overview about adapters and not a detailed howto for usage.
This post from @MickeyS70 https://myimiev.com/threads/another-wont-go-to-ready-miev.5718/post-51247 made me realize that this post here is needed.

First you have to know what you want to do. Like told by @MickeyS70 "Horses for courses" - it should fit your goals and maybe also your ideology. I split this into 5 sections.

Section number 1. I want to repair my car that does not work any more

Section number 2. I want to upgrade my car battery to higher capacity or do deeper programming to the software of the car

Section number 3. I want to have more details on a phone about the car while using it and not have to use a computer for that

Section number 4. I want to integrate my car into my smart control systems or control it from further away

Section number 5. I want to develop OpenSource software for the car and use as much Open Source software as possible to reach this goal


1.
Cheapest possible with most capabilities: Less then 20$ or even less then 10$ - cloned Tactrix OpenPort 2.0 adapter from for example aliexpress in combination with MUT3 SE software (registry hack solution to have it fully working with CAN). The tool EvUtil is also working with the adapter for quick overview of error codes and battery voltages.
Same in better build quality: About 200$ for a original Tactrix OpenPort 2.0

Less functionality, higher price, more restrictions(payed telecoding,...): About 80$ for a cloned ACTIA PSA XS EVOLUTION
Same in better build qulaity: About 200-700$ for a original used ACTIA PSA XS EVOLUTION

2.
Cheapest possible with most capabilities: Less then 20$ or even less then 10$ - cloned Tactrix OpenPort 2.0 adapter from for example aliexpress in combination with the software from @kolyandex where he also use this adapter for everything and would use remote programming to modify your BMU for different capacity cells, other voltages or other things like that.
Same in better build quality: About 200$ for a original Tactrix OpenPort 2.0

3.
OBDlink LX adapter with a android phone. About all apps supporting this car are for android. Some of the apps make use of some special functions of the build in STN chipset. Other ones do not support at the moment modern Bluetooth LE. Thats why OBDlink LX is the sweet spot right now.

4.
OVMS v3 - remote or wifi tracking and controlling of the car, adapter stay build into the vehicle, most people use it with LTE+GPS to record car data.

MeatPI WiCAN - Home Assistant integration for example for controlling the car charging in combination with solar system, battery storage and much more. Its OpenSource.

5.
MeatPI WiCAN Pro - Its OpenSource and could be at the end everything in one. It have a dedicated car communication chipset build in, it can emulate the STM special functionality, it could do PassThru with CAN like OpenPort 2.0 to run MUT-3 SE, it could support LTE+GPS addon to run OVMSv3 firmware on it, its fully OpenSource, it have Bluetooth LE build in to support modern phone apps, and much more. Its not released right now, but if you plan to develop things and make everything possible with just one adapter because you do not like swapping adapters, this is the future that needs you as developer.

Cheapest possible cable with most opensource things right now: Less then 20$ or even less then 10$ - cloned Tactrix OpenPort 2.0 adapter from for example aliexpress in combination with the Linux driver on github.
Same in better build quality: About 200$ for a original Tactrix OpenPort 2.0

CAN log with Linux, original product, twice the price of cloned OpenPort 2.0: OBDLink SX


Summary:

Of course you could mix up the use cases but this only make sense when you already have something. This topic here is for people that do not have already something. For example if you have a OBDLink SX, connect it with USB-OTG cable and use some Android apps that support such a cable setup and then use it also with EvUtil to read out errors.
 
Interesting overview based on your experiences.

For Section number 2, Cheapest possible with most capabilities: I have a few questions.

1. Did you get this to work 100% with the openport 2.0 clone? No more erroring out when reading all DTC codes when it tries to retrieve the Air Conditioner and SRS-AIRBAG areas?

2. Did you have to use the kolyandex driver? I read in your other post that you did not, correct? Only the Bosch VCI registry edits, correct? I had tried this earlier and it was not working for me.

3. If so, to make it easier for all of us to guarantee success with your tested method, could you export the registry .reg file you have used in your passthru default, 4.04 and 5.00 passthru sections? That would make it easy for me and others to double click on the .reg file and import the correct edits that you suggest.

Just open regedit, go to the section and right click and export it to a .reg file.

I've read that the regedit branch may be different between 32bit and 64bit OSs. So you should post the version of windows you are exporting it from.

I will test this once shared and share the results here.

Sounds like this really is the most bang for your buck option for most people if they have a spare laptop they can load MUT3SE on.
 
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