Interface recommendations

[miguelito]

First of all i'd like to introduce myself: I am Michael, I live in Salzburg / Austria. Recently got a 500 for my G/F. That was the only way to make her start with driving

Started with D.I.Y diagnosis on VW about 10 years ago with home-brew K/L interfaces. Driving BMW for over 6 years now I fixed a couple of electronic problems on my BMWs an of course I got diagnosis equipment for them. Thought of buying an Alpha 159 about 2 years ago. I did a survey regarding diagnosis equipment for alpha/fiat. I learned, that there was no (easy) way to make the examiner SW run. At that time I also learned about Fiat ECU scan...
That's the reason I joined the forum. Now we have got our FIAT and of course I want to do DIY diagnosis on that car.

My first question here would be: Which type of interface would you recommend for the 500 - OBDkey or ELM? Which one will be focussed on in the future development of ECU scan?

Greetings,
Michael

[Juggers2k]

If you're only going to be using it on a Fiat 500 I'd say go for the ELM, purely because it will cost you less than half what the OBDKey costs.

At the moment the ELM/KKL combination will cover all vehicles, as will the OBDKey so the only real advantage of the OBDKey is no switching between interfaces, but as the 500 wouldn't need the KKL, that's not an issue for you anyway.

It's worth spending the money to get a decent ELM that you don't need to modify to get working though.

[alfa156sarajevo]

I agree with Juggers2k!
ELM interfece should be just fine...

[miguelito]

Thank you for your replies guys! Right, reading the "compability list" I noticed the KKL IF won't work on the 500. Ok, the 500 is rather new.. Well, I'll go for the ELM then.

Thank you!

[miguelito]

One more question regarding the ELM IF. It is recommended to use ELM v1.3 based interfaces with FES. On ebay however I found only ones equipped with the new v1.5. Can anybody recommend a source where I can get the v1.3? Or can I go for a v1.5 based IF and do the fix regarding the CAN bus I read about in some article here..?

Edit: I found two types on e*ay: The metal boxed on labeled ELM 327 V1.5 and the plastic one with the blue/orange label (USB V3.0). Which one should I buy? Appling patches on the board is no problem for me.

Regards,
Michael

[artoutitou]

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/350468883602?ssP ... 1423.l2649

[alfa156sarajevo]

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/350468883602?ssP ... 1423.l2649

This looks OK!
But it is expensive!

[alfa156sarajevo]

One more question regarding the ELM IF. It is recommended to use ELM v1.3 based interfaces with FES. On ebay however I found only ones equipped with the new v1.5. Can anybody recommend a source where I can get the v1.3? Or can I go for a v1.5 based IF and do the fix regarding the CAN bus I read about in some article here..?

Edit: I found two types on e*ay: The metal boxed on labeled ELM 327 V1.5 and the plastic one with the blue/orange label (USB V3.0). Which one should I buy? Appling patches on the board is no problem for me.

Regards,
Michael

DO NOT BUY the ELM 327 in silver METAL BOX! It is a BAD interface!
You should buy:
A) ELM 327 USB ver. 1.4 in black plastic box (blue/orange label),
or you can buy
B) ELM327 bluetooth ver. 1.4 in black plastic box (blue/orange label)!

[Juggers2k]

If you're after an ELM that will definitely work ok with FES, these are good:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0656970908
http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0656970908

[miguelito]

Hi,

thank you for your recommendations!

DO NOT BUY the ELM 327 in silver METAL BOX! It is a BAD interface!
You should buy:
A) ELM 327 USB ver. 1.4 in black plastic box (blue/orange label),
or you can buy
B) ELM327 bluetooth ver. 1.4 in black plastic box (blue/orange label)!

Ok, the one with the metal box I read about in the 1st sticky thread. Obiously only the CAN termination is wrong and has to be corrected. About the blue/orange one I read that people ask for a solution to make it work (ELM327-USB V3.0). So it seems to me, that this one does not work with FES at all so far..?