Interested in an unofficial Apple Watch app?

[electricsidecar]

I've got the first alpha build of the new OBD scanner functionality ready for test! You can get access to it by joining this beta group: https://testflight.apple.com/join/qqA3wnAp

If you're able to test out the new functionality, please share the following details with me so that I know what hardware you were able to test with:

- Which OBD scanner you're using (make/model/amazon link)
- What make/model/year/trim of vehicle you're testing with

Please keep in mind that most OBD scanners will continue to draw power from your car's batter while plugged in, so it's recommended to unplug the scanner at the end of each drive. Electric Sidecar should show when your car is connected to a scanner on your phone widgets, but I plan to add an explicit notification if you walk away from the car with the scanner still attached.

Some things that are known to not work yet:

- Data from your phone won't sync to your watch.
- Your watch can't connect to scanners (yet).
- There are tons of Taycan PIDs that I have not wired up yet. If there's any you know of that you'd like to see wired up, please let me know! You can see the existing community-provided monitors within the app when connected to a scanner, or via https://github.com/ElectricSidecar/Porsche-Taycan/blob/main/signalsets/default.json

If any part of the scanner onboarding flow is confusing or unintuitive, please let me know and I will address it

Thanks for testing!

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[electricsidecar]

Ah also, this scanner works for any vehicle, so if you have a non-Taycan car I'd also love to get any feedback on your experience with it. I've been testing this functionality with our 2012 Nissan Juke which has zero connectivity features, and it's been nice to have a widget on my phone that shows me the car's fuel levels alongside my Taycan

 

[electricsidecar]

If you're looking for some scanner recommendations (links are affiliate links for Electric Sidecar's business account):

- My personal favorite due to form factor / price: Veepeak OBDCheck BLE Bluetooth OBD II Scanner ($31.99): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...af031f68173bd93e18e7b&camp=1789&creative=9325

As best I can tell so far, if you're spending more than $40 on a scanner, you're probably spending too much

 

[rs38]

- There are tons of Taycan PIDs that I have not wired up yet. If there's any you know of that you'd like to see wired up, please let me know!

may be starting with the custom UIDs I provided with the export of my carscanner sensors 1 month ago?

 

[electricsidecar]

may be starting with the custom UIDs I provided with the export of my carscanner sensors 1 month ago?

Will add in next update!

I noticed that the Swift Bluetooth library I was using wasn’t thread safe and would end up getting stuck on itself, so I’m doing a clean rewrite… with a nice view

 

[electricsidecar]

Some quick updates on device performance statistics:

# OBDLink CX (v1.4b)
- 15.03 seconds to send 21 ATZ commands
- 2.07-2.31 seconds to send 21 0902 commands

# vLinker MC+ (v2.2)
- 20.3 seconds to send 21 ATZ commands
- 2.34-2.37 seconds to send 21 0902 commands

# VEEPEAK OBDCheck BLE (v1.5)
- 18.33 seconds to send 21 ATZ commands
- 3.11-3.15 seconds to send 21 0902 commands

# Alibaba OBDII Interface (v1.5)
- 1.32 seconds to send 21 ATZ commands
- 3.45-3.78 seconds to send 21 0902 commands

# New Bluetooth OBD2 Scanner - Blue (v1.5)
- 1.38 seconds to send 21 ATZ commands
- 3.99-6.75 seconds to send 21 0902 commands (with many failures)

 

[ciaranob]

Some quick updates on device performance statistics:

# OBDLink CX (v1.4b)
- 15.03 seconds to send 21 ATZ commands
- 2.07-2.31 seconds to send 21 0902 commands

# vLinker MC+ (v2.2)
- 20.3 seconds to send 21 ATZ commands
- 2.34-2.37 seconds to send 21 0902 commands

# VEEPEAK OBDCheck BLE (v1.5)
- 18.33 seconds to send 21 ATZ commands
- 3.11-3.15 seconds to send 21 0902 commands

# Alibaba OBDII Interface (v1.5)
- 1.32 seconds to send 21 ATZ commands
- 3.45-3.78 seconds to send 21 0902 commands

# New Bluetooth OBD2 Scanner - Blue (v1.5)
- 1.38 seconds to send 21 ATZ commands
- 3.99-6.75 seconds to send 21 0902 commands (with many failures)

Struggling to understand the timing disparities - that’s a massive diff., no?

Also what brand is this ‘Blue’ OBDII reader? Clearly not BlueDriver, correct?

 

[electricsidecar]

The blue one is this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...d0a266a95d9efe08a237a&camp=1789&creative=9325

It’s the cheapest one on Amazon and apparently for good reason ? I wouldn’t buy it.

 

[electricsidecar]

Release #2 of OBD support is now out in v1.4.0-84. Lots of improvements! To test the OBD scanner functionality please join the beta group at https://testflight.apple.com/join/qqA3wnAp

- Completely rewrote the Bluetooth (BTLE) stack. Now much more stable and won't get "stuck".
- BTLE devices now auto-reconnect when detected nearby.
- Live activities have been rewritten and simplified, and now work without a server component.
- A few more OBD community monitors have been added for the Taycan.
- Fixed a string in the new community discussion page.
- Community monitors will now load when offline.
- General stability improvements around connecting/disconnecting OBD devices. You should no longer need to reboot the app to reconnect the same OBD device.

 

[electricsidecar]

What the community scanners page looks like for the Taycan:

What trips look like with the scanner connected:

My "trip" yesterday doing the Dakar driving experience in LA

 

[electricsidecar]

Now that the core BTLE/WiFi connectivity infra is feeling a lot more stable I'm going to focus on expanding the scanner support for the Taycan's various signals.

rs38@ I'm working on add your signals in. Many of yours are using custom headers/commands so I need to make the scanner functionality handle those context switches better first.

 

[electricsidecar]

Just added the "launch count" signal, which will show the number of times you've used launch control

 

[ThaJamez]

Is it possible to include temperatures and speed graphs again in the trips?
These values have the most influence on range/battery level.

 

[electricsidecar]

Is it possible to include temperatures and speed graphs again in the trips?
These values have the most influence on range/battery level.

Definitely! I plan to do an overhaul of the trip logs visualizations once I have the core OBD scanner functionality solidly in place. Trips will be able to have a bunch of detailed charts associated now that you can get direct data from the car.

 

[ciaranob]

Now that the core BTLE/WiFi connectivity infra is feeling a lot more stable I'm going to focus on expanding the scanner support for the Taycan's various signals.

rs38@ I'm working on add your signals in. Many of yours are using custom headers/commands so I need to make the scanner functionality handle those context switches better first.

Need to put the @ before rs38 to ping him - I know just a typo

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