Which adapters work

• On iPhone you need a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or Wi-Fi adapter. On iPhone, “classic” Bluetooth is reserved for the apps the adapter maker has enabled, so DrivePulse does not even see those adapters when it scans.
• On Android classic Bluetooth is fine too, but pair the adapter in the phone’s Bluetooth settings first (the code is usually 1234 or 0000), then connect it from the app.
• In every case the adapter must speak standard ELM327. That is what DrivePulse asks for: we change nothing in the car, we only read.

We did not buy and test these ourselves: we saw them working in the debug logs of people who use the app. We say it exactly that way, instead of calling them “tested”.

• Vgate iCar Pro BLE 4.0 — from one user’s log, on a VW group diesel.
• Vgate iCar Pro BT3.0/BLE4.0/Wi-Fi — from one user’s log, on a petrol Mercedes.
• vLinker FD+ — from one user’s log, on a Mazda: it reads the same parameters as the iCar Pro, because the extra network it can reach is one DrivePulse does not use.

These are classic Bluetooth adapters. They are good products: the limit is not their quality, it is how iPhone treats classic Bluetooth.

• OBDLink MX+ — works on Android, once paired in the phone’s settings first. Not on iPhone: it does not even show up in the app’s scan, because the MX+ uses classic Bluetooth and there only the apps enabled by the maker can use it. We saw this in the log of a user who tried.
• OBDLink LX — Bluetooth 3.0, same story. Reported working on Android from one user’s log.
• Any adapter described as “Bluetooth 3.0” or “classic Bluetooth” — same rule.

• Proprietary dongles, the ones sold together with a single app. The Bluetooth connection succeeds, but then they answer none of the ELM327 commands: they speak a protocol of their own. No setting makes them work, with DrivePulse or with any other OBD2 app.
• How to spot one: the debug log shows the line “Adapter not compatible”, saying there was no answer to the ELM327 commands.

We deliberately publish no list of names here: many of these dongles advertise themselves under the same generic Bluetooth name, and under that same name we have seen units that answer and units that do not. A name on a blacklist would mislead more people than it would help.

This is the question we get from people whose car is still under warranty, and an honest answer has two halves: what the app does we know, what a workshop sees we do not.

• DrivePulse reads and never writes. It sends standard OBD2 requests only: it clears no fault codes — and could not even if it wanted to, because there is no function to clear them — it changes no parameter and alters no setting in the car.
• What a workshop can see is not something we can promise. Some cars record that a diagnostic session was opened, and it depends on the make: we do not know it for every car, so we claim it for none.
• If you want peace of mind, unplug the adapter when you get out. It is better for the battery too: many adapters keep drawing power with the engine off.
• We give no legal advice and we do not speak for carmakers. If the warranty is your main worry, that question belongs to whoever sold you the car.

The other half of the same question is where your data goes: the answer is on the privacy page.

Standard OBD2 diagnostics were born out of emissions testing. A car with no emissions may not answer the classic engine questions at all, and when that happens it is neither a fault of the app nor of the adapter: the vehicle simply does not implement them.

• We know it from two real cars, not by hearsay. In the log of a Citroën ë-C3 not one standard question got an answer, over six full cycles. On a Peugeot e-208 not even the request for the vehicle identification number came back, while the adapter was working perfectly and answering everything.
• The trip is recorded anyway. Route, distance, duration and parking do not depend on the engine: on the ë-C3 the trip started and closed with zero data from the ECU. If the car stays silent, the app is still useful for that.
• What you will not see is everything that comes from a combustion engine: fuel consumption, engine temperatures, particulate filter. State of charge is exposed by some cars only, and we do not promise it before seeing it on yours.
• One thing to do straight away: set Electric as the fuel in the vehicle profile. Once your car has shown that it does not answer the standard questions, the electric profile makes the app remember it and stop redoing the protocol sweep on every connection.
• How to find out in an afternoon, without spending anything. The trial is free: seven days or fifteen trips, whichever comes first, no card and no account. Plug the adapter in, drive a trip and send us the debug log (Settings, Debug log, Share): we will tell you which parameters your car answers. And if it answers nothing, you hear it from us rather than finding out afterwards.

We promise nothing about a make before we have seen a log, and on electric cars that goes double: two cars from the same manufacturer can answer differently.

Write to support@drivepulse.it and attach the debug log (Settings → Debug log → Share). The log shows within minutes whether the problem is the adapter, the car or the app, and you get an answer either way, including when the answer is “this cannot be done”.

This page exists because a user asked for it, after losing time on an adapter that could never have worked. It grows with the logs you send us.