available OBD parameters constantly changing - IOS, KIWI 3, GM

Hi all,

I'm having a lot if issues with trying to read OBD parameters from a KIWI 3 on IOS. The "available channels" changes every time I go to that screen. Parameters are dropped or added constantly. Expectedly, when I try to log any parameters it is complete hit or miss if they show up. Sometimes you select one, exit the screen, come back and it's gone. Just completely unstable.

Also noticed the app seems to connect and disconnect from OBD a lot when navigating around app.

Am I missing a setting somewhere? Or perhaps I have a bad OBD reader? It is new, but maybe I got a dud?

edit: here's a quick video of what's happening: you can see it starts with 21 PIDS available, then 30, then 39.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBl5EKPCWgw&t=28s

Thanks for any help,

Ryan

Well, after fiddling with it the last 2 days, it seems to be working. Not sure what I did, but seems like turning OBD off and back on in the app, setting the polling rate to normal (didn't know it was reduced) and turning on "advanced features" everything is working and stable now. 49 PIDS available at all times and I've done a bunch of test runs logging.

Also figured out if you are using an iPhone 7, stabilize "ON" is a must. Night and day difference in video quality. It's not GoPro quality, but it's usable.

There are a few things I can think of that may be happening here:

1) If your car has multiple controllers that respond to standard PID requests (many modern cars do these days), then it's possible the app is seeing one and not the other. This may happen if the ignition isn't fully powered on during the initial OBD connection.

2) If the Bluetooth connection is intermittent or has interference (long distance from the phone, noisy RF environment, etc), that could cause the app to miss some messages, which could also trigger the situation in case #1 above to happen. These BLE devices are super easy to get setup and running, but unfortunately they don't have the range or power of traditional Bluetooth, so sometimes that can be an issue.

3) There may be some other oddity between the combination of the vehicle, the OBD interface, and the app. We can sometimes get different behavior by changing the OBD "Advanced Features" setting to the opposite of what it was when experiencing problems, by tapping on the 'i' gear icon under the OBD section. Sounds like you've already explored that one. Typically, disabling it helps when the OBD interface is acting odd (shouldn't be an issue for the Kiwi 3, but happens with the cheaper "ELM327" clones), while enabling it can help when the car has multiple controllers that we're trying to talk to.