Ranger Mods

Since setting up the MX+ dongle I've been having problems with it maintaining a connection to the Android phone (Nokia 2.3 running current Android OS).

The app is Torque-Pro.

After installing and pairing it with the phone the app seems to have difficulty in establishing a connection.

One method is to go into settings, select the Ranger profile and then tell it to connect (I forget the detailed exact process).

Anyway, got it running, when for a drive. Stopped the car, went and did what I had to do, came back started the car and drove off. The app was running all the time with the phone in the car still. Message across the screen telling me that it isn't connected and is trying to connect.

When I got home I did the same reset or force close the app and start again. No go.

Then I turned off the car, opened the door to kill it competedly, then removed the dongle, gave it a few seconds, plugged it back in. The app connected instantly.

I don't know if it's an app in the settings, the phone or something with the dongle.

Anyone else had this?

As an aside, the Jaycar "Response" branded dongle ($69.95) had no issues with pairing and connecting.

Going by the recommendations of the MX one, I hope that it's something that I'm doing wrong, not a compatibility issue (even though the blurb says that it works with Torque).

Thanks.

Try the OBDlink app with the MX dongle, they are compatible.

Yeah, the MX doesn't seem to like the car going through a start cycle while plugged in and has variable consequences (nothing works, some PIDs reading wrong, some PIDs not working). One time I even had to power cycle the car to get things working properly again.
I have an OBD extension cable and keep the dongle located in the bin in front of the gearstick. It's easy to reach and unplug/replug to get it happy again and I can see if the leds are happily blinking.

CatHerder wrote: ↑Wed Feb 10, 2021 6:48 pm Yeah, the MX doesn't seem to like the car going through a start cycle while plugged in and has variable consequences (nothing works, some PIDs reading wrong, some PIDs not working). One time I even had to power cycle the car to get things working properly again.
I have an OBD extension cable and keep the dongle located in the bin in front of the gearstick. It's easy to reach and unplug/replug to get it happy again and I can see if the leds are happily blinking.

Strange, mine has been plugged in for 2 years now and no issues.
I have done 2 firmware upgrades over that time.

An update: I put the Jaycar dongle back in and it's doing the same thing.

Everything was fine until yesterday morning when I started up to come home from work. Then it got worse later in the day to the point where I had to remove the MX dongle and plug it back in.

Then I reverted to the Jaycar one. Went for a drive. Parked. Phone running the app left running and connected. Back to the car a few minutes later, started up, it had stopped responding.

When I restart the app a message which scrolls across the top of the screen says something along the lines of "checking blah blah blah protocol..." and just sits there doing that. This is with both dongles.

I'll install the OBDLink app and see if that's any better.

I can only guess that you may have a setting wrong somewhere.
I did note when I first got mine there are some settings it just doesn't like.

Could be a car module software version or PX3 thing?

Update Number 202212: I reset everything, unpaired the dongle, then following MX instructions to the letter reinstalled and re-paired it with the phone. All good. Told the Torque app in the new profile (after deleting the old one), to use the MX as the adapter, etc...

It did the "checking the protocol" thing, then finally connected. All Dashboard displays now working. Drove down the street, went into Bunnings, got stuff. Back to the car. Started it up, no response from the app (all gauges static).

Whilst the car was running (I didn't give a shit by this time), I unplugged the MX+ and plugged it back in. Instant readings on the app.

Down the street to the shops, same story. Car off, app still open on the phone, to the shops and back. Same story, no displays working.

I then looked at the OBD status in the app.

Says that it's connected, shows adapter manufacturer, adapter version (firmware) zero error counts or other faults but "connection to ECU" says that it's not connected.

And the Jaycar one does the same thing.

Only one that I haven't tried is the ELM327 clone that I bought off of ebay some time back.

My next step is to set up OBDLink and see what it does. I'm not a fan of the app as it's rather difficult to find and set up parameters that I want to monitor compared to Torque. But I'll run with the basics just to check if it too does the same thing.

You know, if Ford allowed us to see the critical info that I'd like to see when towing (I'm still getting over missing that info from the Jeep), then I would not have to go through this.

As much as I like to play with gadgets, fiddle with stuff and so on, at some stage it gets tiresome when it doesn't want to play ball.


Anyway, thanks for the help and suggestions, folks. It's appreciated.

With OBD Link there is a setting to "Connect Automatically" I did have it set and it did work and one stage but I dont know if I set it up on this phone or the last one.

I have an old nokia that is just for data. At the moment I need to reconnect it each time I have turned the car off. Sometimes On occasion I need to press the button on the MX to reconnect and on occasions if it has not been connected for a while I need to unpair and repair. Generally is is happy, sometimes not.

I only use it when towing so its not a bother for me but I will recheck auto reconnect. It is possible a problem is that every phone in the car or even the area has bluetooth enabled so there may be issues from that. I have multiple things that my phone connects to and if Im playing music via the phone to the shed stereo and start either cars it will drop the shed stereo and link to the car.

Re OBD link being not as easy as torque. I just find if I have been using one program then a new one seems hard to use. I found OBD link easier than torque. Just a matter of getting your head around what ever program you are using.

I just had a quick look at OBD Link settings. there are quite a few options for connection so have a good look through settings.

Bala1 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 12:48 pm
Re OBD link being not as easy as torque. I just find if I have been using one program then a new one seems hard to use. I found OBD link easier than torque. Just a matter of getting your head around what ever program you are using.

I installed both at the same time. But was using Torque til I got the MX+. then started using OBD to see if it's better. Had issues trying to enter custom PIDs (and finding them, other than what Stewart has in that database).

Whatever, If OBD works better and doesn't have this issue then I'll use it. But I'm wondering though, given the adapter status report saying that it can't connect to the ECU, then I wonder if that is the root cause. It is happening with both the Jaycar one and the MX and has only started this since yesterday.