OBD2 Dongle Reviews

I have purchased four ("4") different dongles in order to try and find the "best" dongle for my 2006 Prius (in combination with Torque Pro). I have purchased the following dongles so far (first dongle was actually purchased by my wife for me as a gift):

1. Golvery Car Bluetooth OBD OBD2 OBDII Diagnostic Scan Tool purchased by wife for $7.69 from Amazon;

2. vgate iCar Pro Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE) OBD2 Fault Code Reader OBDII Code Scanner purchased for $29.20 from Amazon;

3. ScanTool OBDLink LX Bluetooth: Professional Grade OBD-II Automotive Scan Tool for Windows and Android purchased for $49.95 from Amazon; and

4. PLX DEVICES Kiwi 3 Bluetooth OBD2 OBDII Diagnostic Scan Tool for Android, Apple, Windows Mobile purchased for $99.95 from Amazon.

Review of above devices:
1. I was unable to pick up the bluetooth signal thus it did not work;
2. Works nicely.
3. Bought this one because I wanted to see what advantages are more expensive dongle provides. However, my phone was unable to pick up a bluetooth signal from this dongle.
4. Works nicely but not really any better than "2".

I will likely return items "3" and "4". And keep dongle "2".

 

I am now having trouble with the #2dongle and #4dongle (AKA PLX DEVICES Kiwi 3 Bluetooth OBD2) regarding information/data being received and processed by the Torque Pro app. IOW, the Torque Pro app is not receiving the data from the either of the two working dongles (AKA #2 and #4). Embarassingly, I have two blue icons flashing on the Torque Pro app. However, I am unable to find even a basic manual for Torque Pro so that I can decode these blue icons. When I tap on the icons flashing no further info is displayed.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

PS The dongle#4 support staff suggested that I try the following:
a. ) try communicating with Torque Pro still using dongle#4 with a different cell phone (obviously installed with Torque Pro); and
b.) try downloading the Kiwi app (which provides information similar to Toruqe Pro). The URL for Kiwi app is as follows: Kiwi OBD - Apps on Google Play Apparently, the Kiwi app also has a version that works on iphone.

I shall report back whether suggestions "a" or "b" have helped to resolve the problem.

 

Finally found the blue icon information for Torque Pro (from another blog). I have also marked up a screenshot of icons and uploaded the file here.

The top left hand corner of the Torque Pro screen contains four ("4") blue icons as follows:

1. The left one is GPS it will flash until you get GPS lock on.
2. 2nd icon from left shows that the app is running.
3. 3rd icon from left shows status of connection to the ELM327 OBD device. Flashing = Not connected. Solid Blue = Connected.

4. 4th icon from left is connection to the car’s ECU, for this
the ignition needs to be on.
Flashing = Not connected
Solid Blue = Connected.

 

#4 dongle (AKA PLX DEVICES Kiwi 3 Bluetooth OBD2) worked for the first 15 minutes of use and then quit. I did a number of things suggested by the customer service representative but ultimately the #4 dongle did not revive. And, for these reasons it has been sent back to Amazon as defective. I am now using the #2 dongle* (AKA vgate iCar Pro Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE) OBD2 Fault Code Reader) successfully.

*- purchased dongle#2 for a little less than $30 from Amazon. While dongle#4 was a little more $100 with sales tax.