My car fires up every time. Not sure where you're getting " they drain the battery if you leave them plugged in"?? Maybe you need a new battery.

 

I know the led on mine stays on and it stays paired with my phone after the car is off. I imagine the power draw isn't thaaaat much, but I'm not sure if I want to risk it.

 

Watson 29, there's no led on mine apart from 'cold connection' sequence but the data display freezes when I stop for 20mins or so then refreshes when I resume the journey. This is probably due to the 'phone...

When this happens the flashing bluetooth pairing symbol that I get surely infers that they don't remain paired when the ign is off? (Perhaps some adapters turn off automatically?)

Like InjectedGT I don't feel too anxious about leaving the adapter connected, personally. I've often left it connected and unused for up to a few days without any noticeable change in starting effect. And I still get the feeling that if the hi-fi shuts down after ~20mins everything else does, unless disturbed.

Can anybody venture any useful 'normal' data parameters they feel it's useful to monitor?

 

Useful to monitor? Fricken anything more than JUST tach/speed like Mini seems to think is enough. I personally monitor boost and coolant temp the most. After that, Oil pressure is a heck of a good one.

 

which adapter do you have? yeah maybe your adapter has a auto on/off feature, I have seen some of the cheap ones say that but they don't go into any detail more than "power save feature". I'm surprised it was never mentioned here about the battery drain since I've read about it on almost every other forum thats talking about odb2 scanners. if you don't drive your car for a few days to a week and leave it in you'll probably have a dead battery. again its not a big issue since that rarely happens. if you look at this scanner's features, it has a auto on/off. getting into a mini cooper that has a dead battery with the windows up is going to suck, since the windows open/close that inch when you close the door.


"
Automatic Sleep and Wake-up

OBDLink MX exclusively features automatic sleep and wake-up functions, which virtually eliminates battery drain when your car is parked. Competing devices require you to get under your dash and physically remove the interface when you park if you don't want to risk a dead car battery."

 

Hmm...I haven't managed to get mine to read oil pressure.
That would be really useful. I'll try it again.

 

also keep in mind, your car must have a sensor that sends a reading to the computer to get a reading off the OBD port. I think I heard oil pressure on the N18 wont read because of something they did different. I could be totally wrong, but I swear that's how I heard it.

 

All R56 series engines, turbo or not, lack oil temperature sensor. If you want one, you'll have to add a physical sensor in the engine bay.

EDIT: I originally wrote that it lacks oil temperature. This is wrong. See my post below for more.

 

Well darn. That is super odd to me, for sure. Oil pressure to me is kind of a big one.

 

How come then ScanGuage is able to display these?

 

if you want to know if yours is on when the car is off, just scan for active Bluetooth connections with your phone or laptop after your car has been off for a while but the device is still plugged in. It may not be clear just from looking at Torque, since with the car off it may not be actively sending data, but if the Bluetooth connection is still active, it's being powered from your battery.

 

Because I'm wrong! According to this post on ScanGauge II in R56, the SCII can read oil temperature from the engine, just not oil pressure.

According to this post in a different thread, the UltraGauge can read oil temp only when specially programmed; it does not come loaded for that. (Apparently Way Motor Works pre-programs them so they "just work" with a MINI.) So, apparently it's not just the devices.

That said, I'm not sure how you can display oil pressure on your SGII, since it appears others cannot. Did you add a sensor or something?

Thanks for forcing me to check my source, and apologies for any confusion I have created

 

good info, good info all around!

 

Agreed; we'll all benefit from 'stirring' it up...

 

Well I don't have anything yet. I ordered a ELM BT adapter from Amazon and plan on using it with the Torque app, I knew that SGII from WMW could display more information as they specially programmed them for Minis. I was just curious myself

 

Just a couple of observations from an iPhone user.

Since MINI/BMW decided that we don't want or need Bluetooth streaming unless you have MINI connected or NAV, I don't ever bother to take my phone out of my pocket. I use an old iPhone as an Ipod in the smartphone armrest for music.

I do have a scangauge. It's set to display water temp, boost, intake temp, and volts. Notice I said boost, not manifold absolute pressure (which is what the ECU/obd reads). You have to take the MAP signal and remove atmospheric pressure. (easy to program into the SC)

Since I don't take my phone out, I'll never forget to take it out of the car, or have to disconnect a power source, or **** around flipping screens when I should be driving...lol

It will scan and clear codes, not that I've EVER had any.

It was expensive, but so what? It's only money, I'll make more...lol Besides it looks way cooler than having your phone mounted up there, pretending to be something it clearly isn't. (ok, edit to insert humor... )

(ok, the real reason I've got a SC is because there wasn't anything like Torque app for the iPhone when I got the car...lol)

 

The boost reading on the Torque app also calculates atmospheric pressure. Don't talk so negatively as if the Torque route is somehow not as user friendly or right as an SG.
It also can have 4-6 readings on ONE screen the same as your SG, so there goes that downplay you had to throw in about flipping screens while driving.
My phone's screen is larger than that of the ScanGauge and I can change the display types to whatever format I can read easiest/quickest while driving.

Lot's of negativity about a product you haven't even used, Richard.

 

Did you actually read my post? I said nothing negative at all. I made a statement about what I had to do with the SC>.. Sheech...

And the last line summed it up. It WASN'T AVAILABLE when I got the SC....

Lighten up dude...

 

Your post sounded very "Scan Gauge is far superior" in the way you point out that you have 4 gauges displayed without flipping screens(which I can/do as well), then the whole "so much better than having a phone mounted up there" (which actually provides me with a far more vibrant, easy to see, bigger screen than the Scan Gauge does), and then the "removing atmosphering pessure"(Which the Torque app actually has a gauge option that already does that[one with one without], so even with your "easy to do on SC", Torque can easily compete).

Just sounded very anti-Torque until the ONE line at the end of your post.

 

Your reading comprehension skills need work. They were observations made by me, about what I do... Nowhere did I ever say it was superior.

 

Yeah I have that, had a dead battery the next morning....dead as dead gets!

Have to remove it when your not using it

 

I'm planing on doing what one of the reviewers did on amazon did and wire a switch to the constant +12v, but then I thought about it some more and decided to ditch the toggle switch and add a relay to switch the constant +12v and trigger the relay off the cigarette lighter (or other switched +12v). That way whenever the car is off, it will open the relay killing power to the obdII port, and when the car is on, it will close the relay letting power go to the port. I may also look at tucking the obd port up under the dash more. Every once in a while I accidently kick my adapter while going between the clutch and dead pedal.

 

Oh that would be cool, it's a great app, but I didn't want to have to pull it out and put it in all the time.

That would be cool if you can kill it when needed.
I learned the hard way

 

you people need to have your batteries load tested, or you bought shitty BT adapters. Mine does not run when the car is off, my car fires up every single morning with no issues at all.

 

Same with mine. Works just fine for me.