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Car adapter
An OBD-II Bluetooth adapter plugs into the diagnostic port under the dashboard, which nearly every car from the 2000s on has. The app reads the car's speed from it, twice a second. When GPS is jammed, that speed is what keeps the dot moving the right distance; the phone supplies the turns.
Without an adapter the app still works while GPS is good. When GPS goes away it can't tell how far the car moves: the dot stays at the last good position and the circle around it grows quickly. You can still navigate by following a route exactly (see When GPS fails), but an adapter is what makes the app useful under jamming.
The app reads the speed twice a second. What matters is that the adapter answers every time, without gaps, and keeps the connection for the whole drive: branded adapters do, cheap clones often don't.
| Phone | What connects |
|---|---|
| Android | Any Bluetooth ELM327 adapter: Bluetooth LE or classic Bluetooth, and the MFi models below too |
| iPhone | Bluetooth LE ELM327 adapters, and OBDLink MX+ and vLinker FS / MS (Apple MFi, supported by us) |
- OBDLink MX+: road-tested on two cars, one of them an older car on K-line. iPhone through Apple MFi, Android through classic Bluetooth. Press its button to pair.
- vLinker FD-IOS (Bluetooth LE): road-tested; steady speed, connects by itself.
- OBDLink CX (Bluetooth LE). The maker tunes it mainly for BMW and it doesn't speak the older protocols of GM and Ford cars from before 2008. Pairing asks for the code 123456, and works only within 5 minutes after the adapter is plugged in: missed it? Unplug it and plug it back in.
- vLinker MC+, FD+, BM+ (Bluetooth LE): the "+" models of the family we tested.
- vLinker FS, MS: on iPhone through Apple MFi (we have the maker's authorization), on Android through Bluetooth.
- Cheap ELM327 clones ("v1.5", "v2.1", no-name, Konnwei): many are classic Bluetooth only, so Android only. On our test the first connection to a car took over two minutes, and answers are slower and can come with gaps.
- Simpler branded ELM327 adapters: Vgate iCar Pro BLE / iCar2, Veepeak OBDCheck BLE / BLE+, LELink, Carista, Viecar, FIXD. They connect, but we haven't driven with them.
- On iPhone, classic Bluetooth only: OBDLink LX and MX (without "+"), vLinker BM, MC and FD without "+", BAFX, most blue "ELM327" clones. iOS doesn't let apps use classic Bluetooth. (On Android they work.)
- Dongles made for their own app: OBDeleven, Thinkdiag, Topdon TopScan, Autel AP200, BlueDriver, XTOOL iOBD2, Innova, Carly. They don't speak ELM327: the app may list them but gets no data.
- USB or Wi-Fi only: OBDLink EX (USB), Wi-Fi ELM327 adapters.
- iPhone: the box says "Bluetooth LE" or "BLE", or it is one of the MFi models above. Plain "Bluetooth" means classic: Android only.
- From Vgate vLinker, take a "+" model (MC+, FD+, BM+), or FS / MS.
- A "v1.5" or "v2.1" adapter for the price of a coffee is exactly the class we don't recommend.
Tried an adapter that isn't listed? Write to support@wtf-ai.uk how it went.
- Plug the adapter in and switch the ignition on.
- Tap the car button at the bottom of the map, then Connect.
- iPhone with OBDLink MX+ or vLinker FS / MS: press the adapter's button (or plug it in), then New adapter. Android with a classic adapter: pair it in Bluetooth settings first (PIN 1234 or 0000).
The first connection to a new car can take a couple of minutes while the app finds how to talk to it. After that it connects by itself whenever you open the app in the car.
| Dot | Means | You |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Connected, the car answers | Drive normally |
| Yellow | Connecting, or the engine is off | Switch the ignition on and wait |
| Red | No adapter found, or the car stopped answering | Tap it to see what is missing |
| Driving | A trip is on | Drive normally |