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Thread: OBD KIWI 3 for IOS

  1. #1
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    OBD KIWI 3 for IOS

    Hi, is the OBD Bluetooth KIWI3 now working with TA for IOS? Thank you

  2. #2
    HPT Employee Weston@HPTuners's Avatar
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    We don't support the PLX Kiwi 3 at this time... We do already support their more universal offerings, the Kiwi 1 & 2, and the new Kiwi 2+ should work as well; for iOS, you'd need their WiFi model of these products. The complication with the Kiwi 3 is that it uses a much different communication approach than other OBD products we've seen, so it would require a deliberate investment of development time to support this one product. It uses a different form of Bluetooth known as BLE (Bluetooth 4 Low Energy), which is not really universal or standardized in the way that it's being used here, but it does have the large benefit of working on iOS without needing a bunch of Apple approvals and related headaches.

    I do see the desire to support more Bluetooth OBD options on iOS, making the Kiwi 3 a prime candidate, however I didn't have the specific technical information needed for us to support it back when I had development time to allocate to that project. There were a couple of complications in obtaining that information, but I have since happened to have come across info on the BLE communication chip that it utilizes, so that bypasses the problems I encountered and I should now have what I need to support this and any other ELM327-compatible products that use that same BLE chip. It will still require a bit of work on our end, though. We're currently busy working on other new features and capabilities at the moment, and then I expect to take another look at adding this support in our iOS version...

  3. #3
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    The PLX Kiwi 3 has been out for many moons now, how about getting serious about supporting this adapter on iOS HPT? It works on other platforms too...


    It already has a lot of 3rd Party app support, but TrackAddict is notably missing!:

    http://www.plxdevices.com/Kiwi-3-OBD...7346002832.htm
    Last edited by libertyforall1776; 06-15-2016 at 12:51 PM.

  4. #4
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    Any news on this, perhaps a timeline to availability? TIA!

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Weston@HPTuners View Post
    We don't support the PLX Kiwi 3 at this time... We do already support their more universal offerings, the Kiwi 1 & 2, and the new Kiwi 2+ should work as well; for iOS, you'd need their WiFi model of these products. The complication with the Kiwi 3 is that it uses a much different communication approach than other OBD products we've seen, so it would require a deliberate investment of development time to support this one product. It uses a different form of Bluetooth known as BLE (Bluetooth 4 Low Energy), which is not really universal or standardized in the way that it's being used here, but it does have the large benefit of working on iOS without needing a bunch of Apple approvals and related headaches.

    I do see the desire to support more Bluetooth OBD options on iOS, making the Kiwi 3 a prime candidate, however I didn't have the specific technical information needed for us to support it back when I had development time to allocate to that project. There were a couple of complications in obtaining that information, but I have since happened to have come across info on the BLE communication chip that it utilizes, so that bypasses the problems I encountered and I should now have what I need to support this and any other ELM327-compatible products that use that same BLE chip. It will still require a bit of work on our end, though. We're currently busy working on other new features and capabilities at the moment, and then I expect to take another look at adding this support in our iOS version...
    I am interested to see if HP Tuner will work with the Plx kiwi 3 BT yet? Thanks E

  6. #6
    HPT Employee Weston@HPTuners's Avatar
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    That's actually the project that I'm working on today... Earlier today, I wrote the code needed to successfully establish communications with the PLX Kiwi 3, and am now working on hooking that up to our OBD core and then will be testing and refining it. So, things are looking good for having PLX Kiwi 3 support in our very next update to TrackAddict for iOS. If all goes well, the OBD selection on the "More Options" screen will add a "BLE" setting that will enable this. That would be in version 3.3.7 or higher, which I'd expect in the next week or two... (most of the anticipated delay is due to waiting for Apple's review process)

    And because we're not using any PLX-specific technical documentation for this, but rather that of the BLE communications chip that it uses, this means that it will potentially also work for other ELM327 devices that use the same BLE chip. I'm not aware of any others yet, but being able to build somewhat universal support is always a good thing.

    Note that this device support will be for iOS only. Android seems to have some BLE complications that could take more development time to do it well, but those users already have a wide variety of good traditional Bluetooth options anyway, and I haven't seen even a single Android user request support for this (as opposed to many on iOS).

  7. #7
    HPT Employee Weston@HPTuners's Avatar
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    Good news... Apple was faster than anticipated, so TrackAddict version 3.3.7 is available on iOS today, which includes support for the PLX Kiwi 3, along with several new features!

  8. #8
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    Awesome, thank you sir!

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    Good morning,

    Any idea if you will be developing operability for Kiwi 3 under Android? I bought my Kiwi 3 before finding your app and now I have this OBD reader that is currently being used as a small paperweight.

    Thanks

  10. #10
    HPT Employee Weston@HPTuners's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheAcadian View Post
    Good morning,

    Any idea if you will be developing operability for Kiwi 3 under Android? I bought my Kiwi 3 before finding your app and now I have this OBD reader that is currently being used as a small paperweight.

    Thanks
    We don't have any specific plans for BLE-based OBD devices on Android at this time, as there has been much smaller demand and it has some added complications on Android, but the Kiwi 3 would be a prime candidate if we build support for BLE OBD devices on Android.

  11. #11
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    Thanks for the speedy reply. I really appreciate it. Looks like I see a Kiwi downgrade in my future

  12. #12
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    Lightbulb

    Should be easy enough to add similar support for Android BLE, one would think, especially since other apps on Android already support BLE via Kiwi 3? Even though I use iOS, I know others who would want Kiwi 3 support on Android...


    Quote Originally Posted by Weston@HPTuners View Post
    We don't have any specific plans for BLE-based OBD devices on Android at this time, as there has been much smaller demand and it has some added complications on Android, but the Kiwi 3 would be a prime candidate if we build support for BLE OBD devices on Android.
    Last edited by libertyforall1776; 09-21-2016 at 01:26 PM.