What is a good source for an OBDII dongle / reader software?

The newest car I have owned prior to this 2007 Prius was a 1998 Volvo S70. This was only two years after OBDII went into effect in US. I never really had a need for anything but a very basic off the shelf code reader. I bought it way back then and it lacks pretty much all but the very basic functionality. It does not read any proprietary codes my Volvo puts out, but it can extinguish the CE light. More recently I bought a couple of those super cheap $10 OBDII bluetooth dongles and realized that they are total crap. They have very hard time connecting to my phone. Torque pretty much refuses to connect to either of the two dongles I have. OBD Car Doctor Pro manages to connect sometimes, but the connection is bad and drops out often. It is a frustrating experience to use these things.

So, my question is which are the good bluetooth adapters and which software is best. I know Torque is very popular, but since this car is a hybrid I wonder if Torque or other mainstream software will provide all I need. I read about CanView, TechStream, etc. but have no idea where to get those or what they do or how much they cost. I also saw some open source software out there like PriiDash. Is that any good?

First I need to get a good reliable adapter, of course. A bluetooth is great, but I am not averse to USB laptop adapter. Seems like a smartphone would be more convenient, but I am not sure if that will be as fully functional as a full PC piece of software.

Please advise!

Thank you.

 

Thanks. It appears that the software that comes with that invalidates Windows license. Chinese pirates? I do not have a spare lappy hanging around for just this. Price is right, though...

 

I understand. Is this software really that good that it's worth dedicating a laptop to it? If it's just your basic tool that can be had for like $130 (like ScanTool.net options), then it seems that it's not worth it for me to procure a junk laptop.

 

I see, this appears to be a copy of Toyota software dealers use (TechStream). Is this correct? Seems worth it if it is that comprehensive.

 

Can you read hybrid battery details on this? I am not sure a generic OBDII adapter can, but this may be different. The whole point is to be able to access hybrid-specific issues. Otherwise any decent OBDII reader does the same thing with an appropriate app.

 

That's great! But I am looking for a tool that can read voltages on the 14 battery modules. Can this tool do that? that would be very useful information. A simple code that means "change hybrid battery" is not very useful. I can probably figure that out from a triangle of death.

 

That is perfect. So Torque Pro with what dongle? I have a cheap Chinese $10 Elm327, but it has hard time connecting and staying connected to Torque (I did not pay for Pro because of that). I use OBD Car doctor and that connects to the cheap elm327 dongle okay, but I do not see a way to read the battery state. Perhaps I need a pro version of that? Or just get a better quality dongle. What do you use?

 

Great! Thanks. I do not want the wi-fi version, but I believe there is a similar bluetooth dongle in the same price range that seems to get good reviews. Also, there is also this one, which will power down and go to sleep if left plugged in. But it's a lot more expensive.

 

I am definitely planning to get a mini VCI, but as I understand it, it requires a dedicated laptop. I do not currently have one that I can use for that. I am sure one of these days I will stumble upon such a laptop. I will buy the mini VCI cable and probably be back here to ask where and how to get the software (I assume the one that comes with the cable is not up to date).

As for a budget bluetooth reader, I definitely want one that is better than my elm327 unit, which is just more frustrating than useful (though once connected it does things like read and reset codes). I will probably get one of the two I mentioned above (there is a $22 and a $50 choice and I will decide which one) and Torque Pro.

Thanks for the help!