FAULTY ELM 327 INTERFACES DE-MYSTIFIED (READ HERE)
Posted: 12 Sep 2010, 20:50
Hi,
A lot of people are having problems with some chinese ELM interfaces that cannot connect to CAN network even if they support all ELM 1.3 commands properly. There was one user here who bought 5 of these cheap interfaces with no luck and finally bought an expensive one....
I also have one of these "faulty" units and decided to play with it and see what is wrong.
Well, it seems that the problem is electrical and is not very hard to fix.
The problem is actually in the CAN termination method used in these interfaces - they use one 120 Ohm resistor connected between CAN-L and CAN-H.
According to the ELM327 datasheet the proper termination is to use 100 Ohm resistor on each of the 2 lines connected to ground through a 560 pF capacitor (see the picture below).
So i just got two 100 Ohm resistors and two capacitors of 560 pF and fixed my interface as shows below. And it WORKS flawlessly now.
The procedure is very simple:
1. Get two resistors of 100 Ohm and 2 capacitors of 560 pF. It should work without this. See the NOTE below.
2. Remove the single terminating 120 Ohm (or whatever) resistor from the interface
3. Solder the new termination circuit. I did it directly on the OBD connector as it was easier for me. I did it in a hurry just for the so don't blame for the soldering quality on the pictures. It should work without this. See the NOTE below.
4. Go to your car and enjoy....
NOTE: It is reported that most of the new interfaces now have this problem!
It was also reported by many users that the problem can be solved by simply removing the 120 Ohm termination resistor (which is connected between the two CAN lines, it is R14 on my photos but might be marked with different number on other interfaces) from the interface.
Please, someone with knowledge in the circuits to explain these better as I don't have time for more details.
PLEASE NOTE: This post is for interfaces that respond properly to all ELM commands in my "Test" which is in the Settings dialog (all commands should have response OK). If you have OK to all commands and can connect to engine, but cannot connect to anything on the CAN bus (like Body Computer, Dashboard, Service Reset) then this post may help you.
Yani
A lot of people are having problems with some chinese ELM interfaces that cannot connect to CAN network even if they support all ELM 1.3 commands properly. There was one user here who bought 5 of these cheap interfaces with no luck and finally bought an expensive one....
I also have one of these "faulty" units and decided to play with it and see what is wrong.
Well, it seems that the problem is electrical and is not very hard to fix.
The problem is actually in the CAN termination method used in these interfaces - they use one 120 Ohm resistor connected between CAN-L and CAN-H.
According to the ELM327 datasheet the proper termination is to use 100 Ohm resistor on each of the 2 lines connected to ground through a 560 pF capacitor (see the picture below).
So i just got two 100 Ohm resistors and two capacitors of 560 pF and fixed my interface as shows below. And it WORKS flawlessly now.
The procedure is very simple:
1. Get two resistors of 100 Ohm and 2 capacitors of 560 pF. It should work without this. See the NOTE below.
2. Remove the single terminating 120 Ohm (or whatever) resistor from the interface
3. Solder the new termination circuit. I did it directly on the OBD connector as it was easier for me. I did it in a hurry just for the so don't blame for the soldering quality on the pictures. It should work without this. See the NOTE below.
4. Go to your car and enjoy....
NOTE: It is reported that most of the new interfaces now have this problem!
It was also reported by many users that the problem can be solved by simply removing the 120 Ohm termination resistor (which is connected between the two CAN lines, it is R14 on my photos but might be marked with different number on other interfaces) from the interface.
Please, someone with knowledge in the circuits to explain these better as I don't have time for more details.
PLEASE NOTE: This post is for interfaces that respond properly to all ELM commands in my "Test" which is in the Settings dialog (all commands should have response OK). If you have OK to all commands and can connect to engine, but cannot connect to anything on the CAN bus (like Body Computer, Dashboard, Service Reset) then this post may help you.
Yani