ELM327 (serial to OBDII CANbus converter) discontinued

[Clear as mud]

I just watched EEVblog #1181 - Car ECO OBD2 Fuel Saver SCAM  (I got a youtube ad for the device earlier, which led me to Dave's video), and a comment in the forum mentioned the ELM327.  Interesting product, but I see it's discontinued.  I guess there must be other similar products available.

More generally, looking through the rest of their web site, I see they were in the business of providing ICs pre-programmed with useful little programs.  Kind of a niche market, as it seems a lot of electronics hobbyists would want to do the programming themselves.

[floobydust]

ELM327 got mass copied by the chinese and put into a module, selling for under $10. So I could see ELM suffering, the firmware effort would not pay for itself.

[DavidAlfa]

There are better alternatives like Stn1110, 1170 and so on.

[crispus]

Has anyone manage to source any of the STNs chip? All of them seem to out of stock as well...

[DavidAlfa]

Try contacting them?

https://www.obdsol.com/contact-us/
https://www.scantool.net/contact/

stn21xx controllers have a lead time of 52 weeks!
https://www.obdsol.com/solutions/chips/stn2100/
https://www.obdsol.com/solutions/chips/stn2120/

[crispus]

Yeah, I tried to, but their response was:

While we appreciate your business, we regret to inform you that our IC business is currently winding down and we are no longer accepting new customers.

Not sure if they also are winding down or just don't sell to the end consumer / small quantities...

[coromonadalix]

i have a few elm327,  not sure one of them is genuine,  for sure anything beyond v 1.5 is mostly fakes, i recall you have to send some commands to verify that

unless you find an genuine one v2 somewhere on this planet

sent email to elm team,  no answers  ...

now you have j2534  obd2  adapters  who works pretty good

[Smokey]

Nothing magic about OBD.  It's just CANBus.  Wikipedia has all the info you need to decode whatever you want on the bus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBD-II_PIDs

Any micro with a CANBus port would work.  It's not particularly high bandwidth either.

[mikerj]

Nothing magic about OBD.  It's just CANBus. 

Or KWP2000 fast.
Or KWP2000 slow.
Or ISO9141-2 (K-line, older stuff).
Or SAE J1850 VPW.
Or SAE J1850 PWM .

OBD2 is not "just CANBus".

[crispus]

The "beauty" of the ELM327 is the whole ecosystem... I regret not buying a dozen of them when they were available

[elektryk]

Nothing magic about OBD.  It's just CANBus. 

Or KWP2000 fast.
Or KWP2000 slow.
Or ISO9141-2 (K-line, older stuff).
Or SAE J1850 VPW.
Or SAE J1850 PWM .

OBD2 is not "just CANBus".

That's not really a problem to use MCU with CAN when you want to interface with a single CAR but it may be if you want to make an universal tool.
K-line BTW can be implemented with UART and proper transceiver.

[coromonadalix]

A car as 2x can bus lines, with 2x different speeds,  even if you have can bus adapters

It is the software who help a lot  for obd2  functions,  it will not work the same as can bus interface, i have the "usb2can"  module,  sure you see the data streams,  but you have to decode it in a sense, and to know from whom it came and where it goes etc .....  you work at another level

Like when people want to add some speedo projects, more modern dash interfaces etc ...


ELM327  was doing the "magic", and with obd2 software tools you could do ECU AC Air bags ..... functions, and many other things

yeah  me too i should have bought the last v2  chips before they gone out of business,   

I do have some adapters who have the real ELM design, minus the latest v2 chip version ...  the v1.5 leaked  and now many pretend v2  etc ... which are all fakes, unless as i wrote you find an genuine one.

You are stuck buying real obd2 tool  like Autel, Foxwell, Creader, X431, Launch, VCM2 devices   and many others "genuine" ones with frequent updates ....

I have an Suzuki VCM2  who do Ford and GM cars,  but not others ... and i paid a lot for it

Ultimate devices who support all the Can protocols ( Iso, Kw, SAE)   will cost $$$,      J2534 interface(s) where supposed to offer that at lower prices ??     obdexpress is a good place to find many things  but ... not cheap

Not a 10-20$  "ELM" device

[Smokey]

Nothing magic about OBD.  It's just CANBus. 

Or KWP2000 fast.
Or KWP2000 slow.
Or ISO9141-2 (K-line, older stuff).
Or SAE J1850 VPW.
Or SAE J1850 PWM .

OBD2 is not "just CANBus".

Sure.  Should have been more specific.  The ISO 15765 Canbus port on Pins 6 and 14 is just Canbus. 
"...as of 2008 all vehicles sold in the US are required to implement CAN as one of their signaling protocols."

[NiHaoMike]

Or KWP2000 fast.
Or KWP2000 slow.
Or ISO9141-2 (K-line, older stuff).
Or SAE J1850 VPW.
Or SAE J1850 PWM .

OBD2 is not "just CANBus".

Are any cars still using something other than CAN?

[chickenHeadKnob]

Are any cars still using something other than CAN?

Tesla's are heavily into using ethernet now.
https://ilovetesla.com/a-deep-dive-into-teslas-revolutionary-etherloop-technology/