[Android General] RfBob:
Did you end up buying a OBD2 Wifi (not bluetooth) interface for your car, noticing android got some problems with ad-hoc connections and can't connect that easy, that you may have thought?

Well, if so, I'm at least not the only one :D

In my case I wanted to have a look at my engine stats etc. You might also be happy about checking the vin stored in the cars ecu with the one you got on paper, when buying a used car or else. Anyway I did not want those crappy bluetooth thing for some bucks. I wanted it to use wifi and also to be able to connect via usb to a laptop, if neccessary.

I got mine from eBay for about 80$. There is a bunch of these things avaible everywhere. I can't really tell you which one is better in which way. Most of them come out of china and are built pretty cheap, just like mine :D

BUT at least they work the way the should, once configured right.

IN GENERAL --> without any kind of workaround you shold keep in mind:

BT OBD2 is used for android devices. No Problem

WIFI OBD2 is usually used for iDevices, as they're not allowed to share BT with non-iDevices.

I didn't really make up my head about the second part, as I'm using android on every device I personally own.

Here's a tutorial on how I solved it anyway:

1. Buy yourself some OBD2 interface with wifi and the software you desire. Didn't test anything else but torque pro; no guarantee that other apps support these android-wifi-adhoc-obd-interface-workarounds

2. you need a rooted phone, in every possible case afaik.

3. Plug in your OBD interface and look, if you can see it in your wlan list.

In my case...I couldn't^^

If you see it jump to Number 4.4, if not, just keep on reading.

4. Getting my device, which is a HTC Sensation, with ARHD 6.6.7 - 4.0.3 ICS, connected to it required some effort:

4.1. I used a different wpa_Supplicant, to be able to see adhoc networks

I got this one: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1549065&highlight=adhoc also attached in the Thread. Full Credits go to the dev, although I don't know who it was exactly.

4.2. REMEMBER TO BACKUP YOUR ORIGINAL WPA_SUPPLICANT AND SWITCH WIFI OFF BEFORE!

It's stored in system/bin; so you'll need a explorer (mount R/W) for your phone's file system. I always used the root explorer. Worked flawlessly everytime. (mount R/O afterwards).

4.3. Flash the attached file in recovery -> I did at least find the adhoc network after it. Remember that some wifi off, wifi on sometimes solves problemes with this. This was at least the case for me. Reboot.

4.4. Now that you can see the OBD interface in your wlan list, you propably tried to connect, didn't you? :D

For most of us, this won't work, that easy, as your OBD interface doesn't work as a DHCP router, so you're in the need of taking a static IP.

Therefore it always depends on which IP range your interface is networking. In the most cases this will be 192.168.0.X

Picture #1 is a screen of the config tool, that came with mine so I can modify these values. (What is not really neccessary, cause you're doing this with your phone.)

Picture #2 are my stats. You can edit yours by long pressing on your desired OBD device in your phones wifi list and pressing "edit network". After that, change to advanced configuration and choose static IP.

4.5. Save your preferences and try to connect. Again I think my wifi needed a reboot to work with the values set now. So just swith it off/on again.

5. You're done. More or less. Because this is just what made me able to connect but drop my connection to the OBD after trying to access it via torque. It did connect (as seen on adapter status in torque), but lose connection after some seconds. It just didn't really work for a longer period of time. There also used to be connecting errors with my home wifi.

5. After hours of testing and experimenting with this whole topic I came to the conclusion my home network didn't work anymore or rather my phone couldn't keep up the connection. What you have to do is switch back to your old wpa_supplicant. Don't worry, your OBD interface should be saved and is still accessable afterwards.

5.1. SWITCH WIFI OFF. Navigate to system/bin via root explorer or similiar. (mount R/W) locate the wpa_supplicate and delete/rename/remove it and put the original file back in it. (mount R/O afterwards). Reboot.

(Picture #3 shows how it looked on my device after switching back to the original file.)

5.2. You're finally done.

Remember not to forget that wrong permissions could lead to errors. Refer to my attached screenshot or your original file, if neccessary.