FES ELM Certification Scheme?

[Juggers2k]

Question for Yani really -

With all the problems people are reporting with crappy ELMs with the resistor issue, would it be worth setting up some kind of ELM327 certification scheme, or a list of suppliers known to supply ELM interfaces that work with FES and are not affected by the resistor issue?

[Juggers2k]

I take it that's a no then :p

[yani]

Sorry for not replying on time....
I don't think that it is possible to do that. I don't think that we can be sure about any of the Chinese manufacturers.
The same manufacturer may produce one batch of "good" interfaces, but then change the board or some components and produce another batch of interfaces which will not be "good".
I tried to recommend some ebay sellers in the past (after I got interfaces from them and tested that they work fine) but the consequences were bad. After they sell all interfaces on stock they order new ones from the manufacturer... and no one knows if the new interfaces will be the same as the old ones.
For example - our German distributor (Electronic Fuchs), after some bad experience with different suppliers, ordered a special batch of interfaces with modified circuit (the engineers at the manufacturing company redesigned the circuit) so that they will work correct with Fiat.
The interfaces from Gendan work fine. The interfaces from ScanTool also work good (I'm using the ElmScan5 interface very often on different cars and it works great). The OBDKey works fine.
It seems much easier to open the interface and remove the resistor than to try to identify/recommend specific manufacturer/supplier.

[Juggers2k]

Fair enough.
I was hoping it would be easy enough to just have a list of sellers known to supply working interfaces, but hadn't really considered sellers getting different units from suppliers.

[alfa156sarajevo]

Yani,

How does the Elm Scan 5 works with FES, and how does it work with proxi alignment procedure?!?
I read somewhere on some topic, I can not remember, and you said that OBDlink in not very good with proxi alignment procedure...

Thanks!

[yani]

The problem was with earlier versions of Multiecuscan.
In version 3.4 I added special support for the OBDLink interface and both adapters are working fine.
For ELMScan5 you simply have to select "ELM 327 1.3+" and set port speed to 115,200...
One additional feature of OBDLink interface is that it also can connect to some of the older airbags (MY97, MY99) which is not possible with the other ELM interfaces.

[alfa156sarajevo]

Many thanks Yani!

And just one more question, how does the Elm Scan 5 works with proxi alignment procedure?!?

[MKSA]

Fair enough.
I was hoping it would be easy enough to just have a list of sellers known to supply working interfaces, but hadn't really considered sellers getting different units from suppliers.

They all look the same from the outside, no marking, no correct firmware version number. I bet sellers don't even know where they are coming from !

The funny thing is that resistor across the CAN line is a non sense. Its value 120 ohm corresponds to the CAN bus impedance, but you don't put a bus termination in a device connected to it !
I guess there must be some other differences, may be in the firmware.

The genuine interface doesn't cost that much more than what the clone vendors charge you (they buy them for a couple of bucks and charge you ten times that !)
If I didn't buy one with the real ELM327 chip is just because of the delay and what they charge for shipping ! I bet, they would adjust a bit their cost, even if they are still a bit more expensive, they would sell a lot and make a profit. People are fed up to buy cheap crap again and again till they find something that is OK !