Android Torque OBD VAGCOM VCDS bluetooth

[ainarssems]

Looking around android market I have come across this OBD app Torque http://www.androlib.com/android.appl...rque-npqD.aspx .It has Free and paid versions. There are probably other similar apps as well. I suppose there might be some for iPhone as well.

I was wondering if anybody here have had any experience with them and how much can they do on Audi.

OBD bluetooth adapters can be had cheaply on e-bay starting from http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OBD2-Diagnosti...ht_5545wt_1008

I am considering wiring one of them permanently in the car and access it from the phone when required. For example if anything comes up while driving and I do not have either the cable or laptop in the car( which I never do, but I have phone with me 99% of the time) I can instantly check the fault on the phone.

If it works I could even provide service to wire those into all of my friend cars who have compatible phones and earn some money.

Any possibility Rosstech will provide similar solution for iPone/ Android

Any thoughts and input on this?
Can 2 interfaces be connected at the same time like this bluetooth permanently and regular cable as required if this does not provide full functionality? I guess not but I could put a switch so that it can be switched off when connecting hard wired interface.

One of my mates bought this app and uses it on a pergeot 206 and according to him it works really well but he's not familiar with a laptop/full version so......?
Don't know about the vag equivalent though.......

[ainarssems]

Just thought I will give a bit of update. I did buy a full version of Torque @ £2.95 and ELM 327 Chinese copy bluetooth adapter for around £17.

I also have cheap chinese VAG interface cable which works fine with VAGCOM and VWTOOL.

I did not wire it permanently in the car and will not so that I can use it in other cars but it is in my glove compartment and phone is always with me so if it throws up a fault when driving I will be able to check it immediately. I do not carry laptop in car normally for obvious reasons so this is really handy but it will probably make way into the A6 glove box that I recently bought for my wife as that is doing most of the driving and S8 will be retired to Sunday car and wife's old Freelander sold.

Anyway it does connect to most of the cars where You can plug it in unlike my VAG cable which only work on VAG cars. But only to ECU, not to TCU or airbags or ABS etc. and probably reads only generic fault codes not the manufacturer specific ones, well I do not have any faults so not quite sure what it reads and what not.

It does have quite nice user interface with options to add many dials and graphs for realtime data. Having a look at these I did find out that O2 sensor on bank 2 is a bit lazy taking a long time to warm up an even after that slow to respond and not using full the range but not throwing any fault codes. So that is going to be changed before it kills cat. I do have 2 second hand ones not sure if they are any good but worth a try.

Another thing is that it will do 0-60mph , 0-100km/h, 1/4m and 1/8m times and it uses phones GPS to determine speed and gps and g-sensor to set starting time so it should be fairly precise and does not require You to push anything when starting or reaching the speed eliminating human delay.

I did a test run on S8 and it gets 0-60 in 6.4s which is a bit optimistic as I think official figure is 6.8 but I did have new cylinder heads put on it last year which had done only 2000 m after supplied by Audi dealer as new but most likely refurbished as casting says 1997, they did look nice and clean and I did take valves out to check and valve stems were nice matt like new and not glossy like old so I am sure I was not sold some old knackered heads. So I should have slightly higher compression then standard heads following the skimming refurbishment and then another one before me putting them on. So I might have a bit more power then standard. I also messed a bit with gearbox coding last year so it could give me some edge.

I also tested it on friends 53 reg BMW520, it should do 0-60 in 9.2 but best run was 11.2 .He could not get the gear changes right and ESP or whatever it is called in BMW was killing the power not letting the wheels to spin even after switching it off(should have taken ABS fuse out).

I will give a try on wifes 2001 A6 TDI Avant 2.5 quattro 180. It says 9.1 s 0-60 we will see what happens. It does feel quite a bit faster then friends 520

Overall good bit of kit £20 for adapter and soft. Certainly not regretting of getting it and well worth the money, will not do any adaptation or other advanced options but will show generic faults codes for ECU( not other control units) on the range of cars and does have a nice user interface and a range of fun options.

[Conan_the_Librarian]

Thanks for the update. Any photos of the kit or how it blooks on the phone?

[ainarssems]

Wife has got a camera, she is out of the house at the moment and it is a bit hard to take picture of the phone with the phone itself. I suppose it is possible with 2 mirrors.

Anyway You can watch lot of videos on Youtube just search for android torque.
Like this one :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay-ZvTn3fLo

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MjkCiFe-EU

and many more.

[jayzee]

That is a cracking bit of kit

[Conan_the_Librarian]

Nooooooooo. I've bought another gadget! Damn you for leading me into temptation!

Can't wait for it to arrive....................................

[ainarssems]

Make sure You get car holder and charger as well otherwise it will be a bit awkward to hold phone in hand and try doing best 0-60 or 1/4m times.

It also drains battery very fast. You have GPS on, Bluetooth on with constant communication going on, CPU crunching numbers to display all realtime info, screen in full brightness to see in the sun. Battery goes down very fast,I would be surprised if it lasted 2 hours that is on HTC Desire, gets very hot as well with all the things going on.

[Architex_mA8tey]

theres an app for iphones called REV which is much dearer than the android prog at about £23 which does similar stuff (not so well in my opinion) or if you have neither then you might want to check out RaceChrono program for Windows Mobile and S60 smart phones, which is more suitable for just lap timings etc

[PsYcHe]

If you just want 0-60 and some other fun stuff, then check out Zilla for the iPhone.. If you have an iPhone 4 with the funky accelerometers, it'll show you the individual wheels loading up as the car pitches about..