I'm in the first stages of playing with a very cheap ELM bluetooth sender from ebay and using an Android tablet as a display. I've also briefly tried an "ordinary" laptop - actually an old Lenovo that also converts to a tablet.

 

With the laptop, I couldn't immediately get the sender to connect to either VCDS-Lite or Scantool, but it did connect to the extremely limited demo version of abd-auto-doctor. I'll try VCDS again later now that I've found the code for the sender from the tablet connection.

 

I had to buy a new tablet (£36 on ebay) that had bluetooth, as neither of my 7" Androids had it. The new one is 9", but with low screen resolution, and not as easy to handle as the 7" ones.

 

I also use a Blackberry Playbook which should have been ideal for this as it has GPS and bluetooth, but there is some problem with its implementation of virtual serial ports that stops it working.

 

I'm running "Torque" on the tablet and I'd be interested if anyone else has tried this. Am I right to assume that all I will be able to do actively is clear engine fault codes? So far the only fault logged has been an intermittent exhaust recirculation error.

 

Has anyone put a log of a journey into any software that generates anything interesting, such as a graph? I've had it email me the csv data and think maybe I'll have to read up on spreadsheets.

 

 

Yep use it all the time . Crazy all the different sensors you can read on it. Virtually everyone on the car. Dont believe the bhp or lbs ft figures. But its good for speedo error. (Mines 4mph out) and also if you want to see what your cars ecu is thinking. I have graph that show my averages speeds mpg and locations. So I can alter journeys accordingly.

Grinch, I assume this is Torque on a tablet or phone that has GPS.

 

Do you send the logs of data to a different machine to prepare graphs, or just use what's in the Android device?

 

I've just tried this twice and only achieved a "Scatter" graph within Torque which I didn't understand.