Adapters
The dongle between the OBD port and the phone. These are families, not shop SKUs — match the chip or product line on a card to place an adapter you already own. Protocol support and clone quality matter more than the printed brand.
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ELM327-class Bluetooth/Wi-Fi dongle
ELM327 / clone · ISO15765, ISO9141, KWP
Cheap Bluetooth or Wi-Fi sticks sold under many labels. Torque Pro and Car Scanner usually connect; extended, hybrid, and UDS requests often fail on clones. Typical products: unnamed Amazon “ELM327” dongles, Veepeak OBDCheck, BAFX, Konnwei, and ANCEL units marked ELM. Judge by chip quality, not the printed brand.
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OBDLink / STN class
STN1110 / STN21xx · ISO15765, ISO9141, KWP, ISO15765-4
ScanTool STN adapters (STN1110 and the later STN21xx family). More reliable than generic ELM327 for dense multi-PID logging, including many custom hybrid PIDs. Typical products: OBDLink MX+ (current flagship), LX, CX (BMW-oriented), EX (USB, often used with FORScan), SX, and LELink 2 (more common in the US than in EU retail).
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UniCarScan class
WGSoft Cortex-M0 · ISO15765, ISO9141, KWP
WGSoft UniCarScan (Germany). ELM327-command compatible, but not a generic clone and not STN: a Cortex-M0 design that can send long CAN frames (up to 255 bytes) and handle K-Line segmentation. Common with Car Scanner in DE/AT/CH; also used with BimmerCode, BimmerLink, and MotoScan. Trip CSV logging is the same as other phone dongles — the extra capability is multi-frame manufacturer requests and BMW coding, not extra hybrid PID coverage. Typical products: UniCarScan UCSI-2100 (current) and UCSI-2000 (predecessor). In Car Scanner or BimmerCode on iOS, pick the UniCarScan adapter type (system Bluetooth pairing is not used).
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Vgate iCar Pro / vLinker class
STN / ELM compatible · ISO15765, ISO9141
Vgate’s EU retail line. Treat iCar Pro as ELM-compatible unless the chip is confirmed; vLinker MC+ behaves closer to the STN class. Typical products: iCar Pro / iCar Pro 2S, and the newer vLinker MC+, BM+, and FS. Same manufacturer; vLinker MC+ (roughly €35–50) is a common EU alternative to OBDLink MX+ and supports MS-CAN / SW-CAN with Car Scanner, Dr. Prius, and FORScan.
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