BMWhat App and bluetooth/wifi ob2 Review

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by Time Lord

What are you talking about? I have been reading engine parameters since I made this thread.

Time Lord, strange, tried again today and it says "engine parameters not available for your engine". Alternatively the app crash. I'll send a mail to the apps guys and see what they say...

cheers

[Stephen142]

Originally Posted by DKM3Power

Its very simple....BMWhat Ap will be "plug & play" with iPhone's with the Elm327 Wifi, Androids are plug and play with the Elm Can 327 BLUE TOOTH. iOS WILL NOT WORK WITH BLUETOOTH, AND WIFI WILL NOT WORK WITH ANDROID...IDK WHY? ITS JUST THE WAY IT IS...

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The coding options are different for every BMW. The e9x platform has multiple control Units (Engine, Transmission (Both DCT & 6MT), Airbags, lighting, safety, etc) The app and a wireless connection only has a strong enough signal to change settings of 2 out of 7 "code-able": computers.

Although I already coded my car using the DCAN cable and NST expert software. I did mess with BMWhat App and successfully changed some other settings...

Also from my understanding if you buy the special cable and plug directly OBDII port you will gain access to additional ecu's (not all). Some require adapters and run independently from the OBD system (for safety and or reliability reasons).

I run both, as each iOS and Droid have diff apps, that do things the others do not. I use my iOS products to run Dash Command/Rev for realtime PID's as in my opinion they look the coolest, also seems to be the most accurate in estimating HP/TQ at the wheels (provided you correctly enter the EXACT weight (including fuel, passengers, options, and cargo) , 1st-6th gear ratios, final drive ratio, wheel/tire weights and tire sizes, coefficient of friction and aerodynamics of the specific car.

When it comes down to it, this is a great tool for enthusiast's who want to get into complex programming without letting them go deep enough to cause irreversible damage...

Off the top of my head, the two most commonly requested changes are "DVD in Motion" and elimination of the seat belt GONG.

This App with wireless hardware in unable to modify these things... (As of 11/12/14)

What it can do:
Elimination of the orange corner light
Fold mirrors with fob lock
Unfold mirror with fob
roll windowns up with fob
pragram the settings of up to 4 kyes differently (most only have two)
Choose the time it takes to fold mirrors (5 sec, 2 sec, .5s)
AND DOZENS OF OTHER LOCKING 7 LIGHTING RELATED STUFF.
TO ANSWER ONE PERSONS POST, YESS YOULL BE ABLE TO MAKE ANGEL EYES BURN HOTTER BUT BE CAREFUL!

Also, important to note you can still use regular internet, calls, etc on phone if you asssign the eml327 as a "static connection" otherwise it will occupy the signal used for imessages and such...

The one benefit Android has over iOS in my opinion( aside from it bring less in ab pita to link bluetooth than someone accidentlitally use up your wifi) is "TORQUE PRO APP" it has a plug-in that lets you record of a video and overlay certain PID's like RPM, throttle position, or RPM. This IS PERFECT for track or

Can you please instruct me what exact coding selection I should do to eliminate the orange corner lights?

[DKX4///M]

Originally Posted by Stephen142

Can you please instruct me what exact coding selection I should do to eliminate the orange corner lights?

Sorry man. 1 day too late. M is at BMW so i cant play with it\ to rememner

[Stephen142]

I can wait if no one comment with the instruction later

[superchink]

Originally Posted by Stephen142

Can you please instruct me what exact coding selection I should do to eliminate the orange corner lights?

I, too, have been looking for this. I can't recall what I did change, but it ended up turning off the amber signals with the headlights but not the small LED in the very corner. Also, that change somehow caused my headlights to turn on as DRLs… Can anyone confirm exactly what changes worked for this?

Thanks!

[Stephen142]

Can you show me how you turning off the amber signals with headlights on???

[Helmsman]

Guys, did you actually manage to read engine parameters? Chatting with the developer (Pravis) they say S65 is not supported and in fact are curious to understand more from people who still did. Confusing, please confirm if and how.

Thanks

[DKX4///M]

I have both the Elm327 BT & the Elm 327 WiFi....Both were "Prime" on Amazon and they both came out to under $20 each shipped, and both arrived in 2-3 business days...

Amazon's ELM327 BLUE TOOTH Adapter (Use for Torque, Torque Track Recorder & just downloaded a few HUD or Heads Up Display Apps that Ive been using on my loaner vehicle).

Amazons ELM327 WiFi Adapter I originally d/l for Dash Command, Rev Pro by Toaster to simply monitor PIDS in realtime. Later used it with the full $40 version of BMWhat App...

After my experience with both, If you have a droid & iOS device and were only going to purchase 1 adapter, I would ONLY take the BT version...Hardware & software were both much cheaper, the signal seemed to be stronger and the apps I bought the WiFi adapter for were all available on BT (Dash Command & Rev)....

Click the underlined links above to buy the EXACT interface from the same source.

Hope this Helped, and I actually have a few questions myself...

1. Anyone use the specific BMWhat Adapter ( BT or WiFi)???

2.Can you use one of those cheap mini USB to USB combined with a d-can USB to OBD2 adapter for a Droid device?

3. Has anyone successfully coded DVD in motion or seatbelt gong removal with this app? If so what hard/software did you use? I have so buddies out here in our"M3 and BMW Club" It'd be cool to code em up for free..

4. Is the USB --> OBD II wire used for coding , the .same one used to install a tune from BPM or ESS?

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by DKM3Power

I have both the Elm327 BT & the Elm 327 WiFi....Both were "Prime" on Amazon and they both came out to under $20 each shipped, and both arrived in 2-3 business days...

Amazon's ELM327 BLUE TOOTH Adapter (Use for Torque, Torque Track Recorder & just downloaded a few HUD or Heads Up Display Apps that Ive been using on my loaner vehicle).

Amazons ELM327 WiFi Adapter I originally d/l for Dash Command, Rev Pro by Toaster to simply monitor PIDS in realtime. Later used it with the full $40 version of BMWhat App...

After my experience with both, If you have a droid & iOS device and were only going to purchase 1 adapter, I would ONLY take the BT version...Hardware & software were both much cheaper, the signal seemed to be stronger and the apps I bought the WiFi adapter for were all available on BT (Dash Command & Rev)....

Click the underlined links above to buy the EXACT interface from the same source.

Hope this Helped, and I actually have a few questions myself...

1. Anyone use the specific BMWhat Adapter ( BT or WiFi)???

2.Can you use one of those cheap mini USB to USB combined with a d-can USB to OBD2 adapter for a Droid device?

3. Has anyone successfully coded DVD in motion or seatbelt gong removal with this app? If so what hard/software did you use? I have so buddies out here in our"M3 and BMW Club" It'd be cool to code em up for free..

4. Is the USB --> OBD II wire used for coding , the .same one used to install a tune from BPM or ESS?

Yep I use the BMWhat BT adapter. Have the black/orange ELM327 but that didn't run secure com for coding.

Again, do you read out engine parameters on your S65?

Cheers

[superchink]

Originally Posted by DKM3Power

3. Has anyone successfully coded DVD in motion or seatbelt gong removal with this app? If so what hard/software did you use? I have so buddies out here in our"M3 and BMW Club" It'd be cool to code em up for free..

I asked, and according to their support, only the BMWhat adapter supports coding of the seatbelt gong (CSM ECU), as far as they know. It has something to do with special BMW-specific communication apparently. I haven't tried it yet, but it explains why it never works with an ELM327 adapter from Amazon.

Still looking for help on the Amber corner lights bit. Anyone who can chime in there?

[DKX4///M]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

Yep I use the BMWhat BT adapter. Have the black/orange ELM327 but that didn't run secure com for coding.

Again, do you read out engine parameters on your S65?

Cheers

Yep. I thought I posted these already but maybe not..

These are screen shots on my iPhone 5c using the Dash Command App and the pictured WiFi adapter...

[Helmsman]

Got it, so not using BMWhat.

Cheers

[DKX4///M]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

Got it, so not using BMWhat.

Cheers

Id agree, if you're only using it for monitoring and not coding, the cheap Amazon adapter does the trick. Glad I could help...

[krx927]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

Guys, did you actually manage to read engine parameters? Chatting with the developer (Pravis) they say S65 is not supported and in fact are curious to understand more from people who still did. Confusing, please confirm if and how.

Thanks

Did developer told you when they will support S65?

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by krx927

Did developer told you when they will support S65?

No timeline given but they have S65 on the list so I'm sure it will come.

cheers

[DKX4///M]

My BMWhat app shows S65 4.0 V8? Is that what you are talking about?

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by DKM3Power

My BMWhat app shows S65 4.0 V8? Is that what you are talking about?

Sure it comes up when you reg the type of car, but you can't be reading out engine parameters right?

[DKX4///M]

I haven't have tried to access parameters through BMWhat. I will try when I get my car back friday...

But I have accessed parameters through other apps w the elmCan.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by DKM3Power

I haven't have tried to access parameters through BMWhat. I will try when I get my car back friday...

But I have accessed parameters through other apps w the elmCan.

Yep, me to throught for instance torque but believe more in BMWHat and like that to come along onboard...

[krx927]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

Yep, me to throught for instance torque but believe more in BMWHat and like that to come along onboard...

I tested it yesterday and S65 is not supported for engine parameters. I send the session log to Parvis and he said that he will be working on new engines in the next weeks. S65 is on his to do list.

But in general the app is great! I bought it to read fault codes as my car went to limp mode last week. I found 15 fault codes

I also did some missing coding which is extremely easy to do. 45 EUR for the app already repaid

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by krx927

I tested it yesterday and S65 is not supported for engine parameters. I send the session log to Parvis and he said that he will be working on new engines in the next weeks. S65 is on his to do list.

But in general the app is great! I bought it to read fault codes as my car went to limp mode last week. I found 15 fault codes

I also did some missing coding which is extremely easy to do. 45 EUR for the app already repaid

While we're discussing the BMWHat crew; I had some conversation with Parvis too, seem like a very knowledgeable guy. One of his mail I found particular interesting which I'm sure he is OK with me sharing:

"Actually there is a big difference between other OBD apps and BMWhat.

All manufacturers – and BMW too – open up certain parameters on standard generic OBD commands.
So whatever params BMW decided to provide through the standard OBD communication is available on these apps as long as they understand the BMW PIDs over generic OBD
These generic OBD apps are limited to only a few standard values – all looks very nice on various apps – but the information itself is mostly quite limited. That’s also the reason why most other apps have nicer looking gauges than we do ;-) since they focus on the design rather than the depth of the information. (since they cannot access the real deep information with generic OBD)

BMWhat on the other hand uses BMW specific detailed communication like the original pro-tools. Many thought that this was not even possible…
And in fact while many engines can be read with standard BT or WIFI dongles – certain other engines cannot since they required BMW communication which is just not supported on the standard adapters.
This is the reason why we have our own adapter – where we adjusted the communication firmware in such a way that it supports even the most complex BMW communication.
Whether one requires a BMWhat original adapter for the params (or even for some selected ECUs to be coded) or not really depends on technical details and the only way to find out is to try on each specific car.

This is why some users with certain BMW models and engines can use standard OBD adapters while others need the BMWhat adapter to fully use all BMWhat functions.

I am sorry that this is that complicated – we have learned all that also only over time – and always try our best to make BMWhat functionality available to as many users and models as possible.

Just as a comment: Due to the complexity of BMW specific communication the update rate of these params is also limited compared to using generic OBD commands."

[Slammo]

Thanks for the info Helmsman! I just ordered the BMWHat wifi adapter. I figured for the extra $'s, it would eliminate any possible issues versus the generic OBDII wifi units.