fsufan6000

Are there any brick and mortar stores that carry these like Best Buy or Radio Shack?

jasonlitka

You're asking if there's a retail establishment that sells a device with a chip inside that everyone knows is counterfeit?

fsufan6000

To everyone else: Is there any kind of device that doesn't contain a counterfeit chip that would work? One that may be purchased at a brick and mortar store?

I'm looking for an explanation as someone who is unfamiliar with the concept, not for some Internet message board a$$hole response.

Thank you.

jasonlitka

You got that answer because if there was anything you could buy at retail that worked it would have been mentioned. Carista themselves just said that there are no real ELM327 devices available.

The answer is no. Your best bet, right now, are the ones for $30 on Amazon under the brand ikkegol.

fsufan6000

Would it have been so hard to just write this out the first time? If any of what you wrote about counterfeit chips was clear in the previous posts or on Carista's hardware page I wouldn't have asked it.

Carista

At this point we have something similar to this for the C7 platform: Customizations | Carista OBD2 - Vehicle Diagnostics and Customization

But we're actively adding functionality to that platform, as there are many other settings that we could support. Do you already have an ELM327-compatible device? If so, I'd love to get some technical data from your car, so we can add more customizations for that model. Btw, I didn't know the 2016 model year had come out already. Don't next-year models start production in May usually?

Carista

Not that I know of. You may be able to find some in a local auto parts store, but a quick search on the big chains' web sites shows no results. But Amazon ships very quickly and accepts returns

Right. Carista is compatible with the ELM327 standard. You can use it with any device that supports that instruction set, regardless of who made it. As far as I know, it's legal for anyone to produce a device that conforms to that instruction set, so those Chinese devices are legal. So anyway, where you get the device is up to you, and it's true that most of those Chinese ones are not super high-quality. But most of them work fine. There's practically no risk for the car - the communication protocols have built-in protection against mis-delivered messages (look up the CAN protocol if you're interested - it has checksums and other ways to determine if a message is corrupted or not), and the car's computers themselves will reject any command that does not conform to the protocol that they expect. So all of that technical mumbo-jubmo is to say that you don't need to worry about something bad happening to your car from using those devices. The only thing I'd recommend is NOT to leave the device plugged into the car when you're not using it - for battery drain and security reasons.

jasonlitka

I have an adapter. I do not have the car. It should be here in a week or two (currently stuck in Davisville, RI, as far as I know).

The 2016 model (refresh) is early to North America. The ROW calls it the 2015. In any case, this is the newer MIB-2 infotainment system, so I'm guessing some things have changed.

Carista

Ah, I see, that makes sense. Well, if they kept the same BCM ("central electronics" module), then most settings should still apply (and Carista will automatically pick that up). But if they changed to a new module, you probably won't see more than just a few customizations. If the MMI is new, then we certainly won't have any settings for it yet. But we will try to update the app with support for the new modules in a timely fashion. When you get the car, please send us a "debug data" report, which will just read all current values and part numbers. Do this before changing anything with the app. Thanks! Actually, if you'd like, email us at support@caristaapp.com and we'll hook you up with free usage of the Pro features if you agree to help test the new settings on your car.

jasonlitka

Sure, I'll drop you an email later today and send the debug once I take delivery. I just fired off another email to my dealer asking for status so hopefully it's looking good. I've got a decent drive next weekend for Easter and I'd love to be making it a vehicle that massages me on the way...