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[electricsidecar]

Full initial reports of the five BTLE scanners I have on my desk. Still some work to do to make the reports have easier to grok insights, but getting close to being a shippable app.

- vLinker MC+: 118/132 tests passed
- VEEPEAK OBDCheck BLE: 96/132 tests passed
- Generic blue OBD scanner: 109/132 tests passed
- Alibaba OBD scanner: 111/132 tests passed
- OBDLink CX: 102/132 tests passed

Note: the number of tests passed alone doesn't paint a complete story in terms of the quality of the chipset, it mainly indicates the number of commands supported and many commands simply aren't needed for daily use.

The winner in terms of supporting the widest set of ELM commands is the vLinker MC+, but what makes the OBDLink CX stand out to me so far is that it has improved ATMA (buffer monitoring) support, I think due to using the STN1100 chipset which I've not yet integrated into these tests.

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[electricsidecar]

I'll be adding a suite of performance tests to ELMCheck next, and one more power user feature, and then I"ll be shipping this app to the App Store

 

[electricsidecar]

v1.4.0-93 is now out to the general testing pool and it's a big one!

This is the first beta release of Electric Sidecar's new OBD scanner feature.

The new OBD scanner is designed for two main use cases:

1. Understanding the state of any vehicle you wish to connect to Electric Sidecar. I've been using this to get fuel data for my 2012 Nissan Juke over the past month and have that available as a widget on my phone right next to my Taycan.
2. Improving the accuracy of trip logs. When an OBD scanner is plugged in while on a trip, Electric Sidecar will gather parameters on a regular interval and add them to your trip logs. This is currently most notable for battery / fuel usage. For the Taycan, this means trip logs that are more granular than just start/finish, in addition to being able to provide more insights.

The OBD scanner is backed by an open source, community repository of parameters that anyone can submit improvements to. By default, OBD scanners have a common set of standard diagnostics parameters that can be queried, but modern cars, particularly EVs, often make use of custom parameters that need to be discovered and documented by vehicle owners. So far I've added various parameters for the Taycan and Ford Mustang, and you can see and contribute to those parameters at https://github.com/orgs/ElectricSidecar/repositories (you'll need a GitHub account to suggest changes).

This is the first release of this feature to the beta pool, so if you do test it please send feedback no matter how small. This is the last major feature I add before I start focusing on preparing the app for broader release into the App Store in Q2 this year.

One important note: OBD scanners should not be left powered on and connected to your car at all times for a variety of reasons. When your car is not in use, disconnect your scanner.

Thank you for all of your support, and I hope you find you're able to gain a deeper understanding of your automative journey through this new feature.

Other changes in this release include:

- For those who were in the OBD alpha pool, I've fixed the bug that was causing the app to get stuck in an initialization state at the start of a trip. Electric Sidecar should now automatically connect to your vehicle every time you start a trip (and your scanner is on).
- Updated the Live Activities onboarding UI to reflect the fact that it no longer requires a server but does require location access for background updates.
- Updated the account management flow with account categorization and better explanations of the distinction between OEM, self-managed, and demo accounts.
- Vehicle years should now show only the year instead of "Optional(2023)".
- Added a new "Vehicle parameters" page to the vehicle page. This allows you to look at parameters for a car even without a scanner device connected. This page also shows details about parameters including the commands used to execute them and the parameter's scaling formula. You can also search for parameters on this page.
- A new angle preference has been added to the app unit settings page.
- Live activities have been rewritten and simplified, and now work without a server component.
- Fixed a string in the new community discussion page.
- Navigation items have been added back to the vehicle page to make it easier to find features like Charge schedules, Location, and Trips data.

 

[electricsidecar]

btw I reached out to OBDLink and they've added Electric Sidecar to the list of apps that are allowed to connect to the OBDLink MX+, which is pretty rad! I need to do some extra work to support MFi-certified hardware, so that will come in a follow-up release!

 

[B61]

Congrats…. While i just sent mx+ back

 

[d00d]

Any benefit to the OBDLink MX+ compared to the OBDLink CX?

 

[electricsidecar]

Congrats…. While i just sent mx+ back

It might be a little while before I add MX+ support anyway because it's not using the standard Bluetooth framework, and the CX is good too!

 

[electricsidecar]

Any benefit to the OBDLink MX+ compared to the OBDLink CX?

TBD, once I've got the MFi code hooked up for the MX+ I'll run some tests on it to see what the differences are.

 

[electricsidecar]

ELMCheck is officially in the App Store now! If you'd like to use it to check the general compatibility of your OBD scanning hardware by performing a battery of tests against it, you can get the app at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/elmcheck/id6479630442. I'm giving promo codes out to anyone who's been beta testing Electric Sidecar — DM if you're interested in one!

 

[IanG]

Just picked up my car from its 2-year service, but Sidecar is still showing 4 open maintenance items from that service - I don't see them in the Porsche app ... not a big deal but wondering if I can clear them in the Sidecar app?

 

[electricsidecar]

Just picked up my car from its 2-year service, but Sidecar is still showing 4 open maintenance items from that service - I don't see them in the Porsche app ... not a big deal but wondering if I can clear them in the Sidecar app?

Do they go away if you manually refresh the vehicle?

 

[IanG]

Do they go away if you manually refresh the vehicle?

thanks for the suggestion - no, they don't - but now it's 3 open maintenance items

 

[electricsidecar]

Can you dm me an export of your vehicle's predictive-maintenance data? I'll take a look as to why you're seeing different info in the Porsche app vs Electric Sidecar.

 

[IanG]

I know this isn't DM, but is this what you mean?

 

[electricsidecar]

Oh sorry no, on your vehicle page scroll down to and tap the "Export this vehicle's data" button, then tap export cached data, and airdrop the predictive-maintenance file to your computer, or email it directly to [email protected]

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