OBDLink MX Bluetooth OBD-II Automotive Scan Tool for Android and Windows

I bought this scan tool based solely off of a response of the owner of the company to an individual that wrote what I perceived to be a bogus review. After reading the owners response, I could feel his passion for his product and his dedication to providing the highest quality product he could make. That being said I bought this from Amazon and it arrived two days later.I wanted to use this scan tool with my Acer A500 Android Tablet. In the meantime before it arrived I went to the google store and bought Torque Pro, Dash Command, and OBD Link, the factory software. I loaded all of the software onto the tablet and before I had received the OBD Link MX. I noticed right off a problem with an intermittent wifi connection but couldn't quite figure out what was wrong with the wifi. In the meantime the scan tool arrived and I set about pairing it via bluetooth with my tablet. I also noticed that Amazon had shipped the package in an envelope that crushed the package. it was also missing the CD from the package. I plugged the OBD Link MX into my 1998 K2500 Suburban and immediately the data was not coming through to the Acer A500. It was late at night, I was tired, so I quit fooling around with it. I did though, shoot off a very short, terse, email to the OBD Link customer service, thinking I would get a response a week later if that. I was prepared to send it back to Amazon, but, by the time I was ready to crawl into bed, lo and behold there was an email reply from the OBD Link Customer Service and I thought to myself, WOW, I have never had an email response so quick. I read it and it took me a couple of days before I could try out the suggestions. It took three more email exchanges over a week to finally resolve the issue. The slowness of figuring out the problem was on my end. It took me a bit of time to finally get out to my Suburban and try something new that Customer service had suggested. I honestly think that if I had been on top of things, all of these email exchanges could have been done in less than a couple of hours. The OBD Link Customer Service was just that fast. They also sent me a replacement CD that I received just a couple of days later.The solution was that the Torque Pro software was ruining the bluetooth and wifi connections. Dash Command didn't work either. But you can bet your bottom dollar that after I uninstalled the Torque Pro software the OBD Link software worked perfectly.Bottom Line is that a measure of a company is not how they perform when things go well, it is inevitably judged how they perform when there is a problem.I give the OBD Link MX an A+ rating, but more importantly I give the OBD Link MX Customer Service an A+++++ rating. They were just that good. I really like companies like this. Unfortunately there aren't many like them that are so customer oriented.

This thing worked the first time. It paired with my Android and gave useful information. I was impressed by the quality of the data stream and the application that reads it. I also used another app, Torque, that provides more options. I bought a wireless charging mount for my Android and was looking forward to watching the internals of the car as I made my boring commute.The next day, it paired and then it seemed to drop. It tried to pair again by giving a different pairing code. While it was doing this, my dashboard was going all Apollo 13 on me. I hadn't even left the garage, but the computer thought the anti-slip was slipping, that the tires were low on air, and that there was something wrong with the engine. All the while, my Android (in its new cradle) was notifying me every 10 seconds that something wants to pair by bluetooth. It was quite an exciting time.I unplugged the thing, which quieted the apocalypse that had become my peaceful cabin. Left only were the traction control (DSC) light and check-engine light. After a few days, these timed out.A couple weeks later, I got brave and tried it again. Same assault on my peaceful place, except that when I unplugged it the only thing left was the tire inflation indicator. I checked the tires and they were fine, but the light took a couple days to turn off.So now it's past the Amazon return time. I have suggested to the manufacturer that they should send me a new one. I'll update this review if they are responsive.Update: They were pretty responsive and say they are sending me a new unit. I'll keep this post updated.Update: Got a new unit and it worked fine. For a while. Turns out that the Nexus 7 head unit that I was using couldn't figure out how to turn off bluetooth when it was sleeping so I'd wake up with a dead battery every morning. I swapped it out with a wired, USB OBD device.Update: Got rid of the Nexus 7 and put in a Joying Android head unit. It turns all the way off instead of just going to sleep, so the bluetooth turns off with it. I put the Scantool MX back in and everything works really well.

Ironically my 2002 Lotus Esprit has TWO OBDII ports, one in the front passenger foot well, and the other in the boot by the battery. Unfortunately, Lotus is very finicky and NOTHING that I have found thus far, such as the ScanGuage II or other generic OBDII readers works with it. I plugged this into the rear port (since the one under the seat is hanging on by a couple wires (they're kind of jenky built). Pushed the button and connected it to my Samsung Galaxy Tablet. Then I fired up the OBDLink software that you get from Google's Play store (for free) and was REALLY impressed by the polish of it. After configuring it to use ISO9141, I was getting readings and seeing error codes and all kinds of data!!!! I'm elated! Realizing that the tablet is way too big to mount to the windshield, I decided I'd try the same process with my HTC Evo 4G phone. Same thing, worked like a champ (meaning I can pair the OBDLink MX to at least TWO devices or more). AWESOME!Two things to note are that this has an auto-off mode so that it will not drain your battery, yet you can basically leave it connected and forget about it. The other is that it is way faster at sending data than the generic ones or any other one that I'm aware of for that matter. So your readings on the virtual guages should be much more real-time.I fired up Dash Commander and Torque from the market and both worked excellent as well. DC seems way more powerful than I need, but it also has the nicest default interface for the guages. The other two require a bit more pre-customizing work.I haven't tried the included CD for PC yet, but the program looks great from the screen shots I've seen.