An OBD Adapter is the first thing you need to establish a diagnostic connection between your car and a mobile device. Without one, you cannot do anything, get any information, or make any changes from and to your car. But is that necessary to get a high-end, more expensive one, while the cheaper one could do the same jobs?
In this article, I will review the Veepeak OBDCheck BLE+ Bluetooth OBD II Diagnostic Adapter – one of the lower-range adapters; then, in the end, I will give my opinion to answer the question above. Let’s start with the reason why I get this adapter.
Ok, things started to get complicated on my 3 months camping trip through Western Europe. I was in the middle of the west coast of France, on the beautiful island of Île de Ré. I spent one night outside. My batteries weren’t charged enough. I had to let my engine run for a while to get the batteries charged and keep us warm while outside is just a few degrees above 0 °C.
I woke up the next morning just to see the glow plug light indicator shine on my dash, as bright as the sun. I couldn’t manage to fix the error and remove the warning light. But that’s another story. After many days of running in limp mode and getting rejected by many garages, including official VW garages, the problem was fixed by a small garage in a small town in France.
The warning light has caused because of a blocked diesel particulate filter (DPF). Normally, the DPFs can regenerate under certain circumstances, but only if you drive your car for a long streak at passable speed. And for high mileage vehicles, the regen ability could deteriorate. Mine was more than 150,000 km already, which means the problem could happen again anytime.
No, it shouldn’t happen again. So I decided to keep the DPF-related parameters under control. To do that, I have two choices: (1) always connect the wired VAG-COM device to my laptop, or (2) monitor it on my iPhone. Of course, I opted for the second choice. But one more problem. My once high-end adapter OBDLink MX was long deprecated and no longer supported.
I looked on Amazon for an alternative because I don’t want to spend much money to buy an adapter I will use only occasionally, while the other cheaper ones could do exactly the same jobs. After a while, I found this one, priced at 38,24€, with 1-day shipping, with BLE+, and according to the seller, it is compatible with many OBD apps available.
According to some reviewer sites, the BLE+ is the best product under the same brand Veepeak. After all, if it doesn’t work, I can return the product to the seller. The heart of the adapter is an ELM327 microcontroller, which exists in almost every OBD II adapter available in the market. The product arrived on time the next day, as always.
I plugged the adapter into my car’s OBD II port, opened the OBD-Fusion app on my phone, and let them do the connection job. It happened seamlessly because, unlike older adapters, you don’t need to scan and manually connect the phone with the adapter before getting to the app. With the new BLE+, the phone does its job automatically (only on iPhone).
Once the device is connected, everything else is on the app. So far, the Veepeak BLE+ device can perform all the basic functions I need, such as reading and clearing fault codes, monitoring live data, clearing check engine lights, displaying freeze frame data, reset service reminder intervals… I tested to perform some coding from OBD Fusion with no luck.
Some reviewers said the build looks cheaper than other high-end products, but for me, who owned both, they looked the same. I could even say the Veepeak device looks a bit more robust, in my opinion. The device itself consumes very little power. You don’t have to worry that it will discharge your battery overnight, but it’s always better to unplug it if you don’t need to use it.
Final words:
The Veepeak BLE+ is an excellent adapter. So far, I have got it for a few months, and everything works normally. I even compared the data I got from Veepeak with the data I got from VAG-COM cable, and the data looked very similar. Most of the OBD II adapters use the same type of microcontroller, with some “addon” functions from a few manufacturers.
It’s always advised that you use a reliable, well-established brand’s product if you are affordable to pay. But if you are not, using cheaper products is no shame. On the opposite side, it could be a smart choice if you use it less frequently. Trust me, this product is not for daily use unless you work every day with your car (in that case, you might need professional OBD diagnostic devices instead).
The Veepeak BLE+ is not the best choice, but also not in any way the worst choice. My advice: if you need an adapter, get this one and save your money. You won’t go wrong with it!
