Torque Pro, tablets and OBD2 adapters, oh my
Thread Starter
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 531
Likes: 5
Torque Pro, tablets and OBD2 adapters, oh my I picked up a $100 Lenovo tab 4 the other day and I'm wanting to hard-mount it in the turbo T56 truck for additional gauges. I was able to get the factory GMT400 gauges to work with the LQ4 but like most GM gauges of that era, they're kinda meh. The precision and the speed at which the gauges and sensors update in HPT scanner made me think that a permanently mounted tablet would be a nice addition in the truck to monitor things and also check against the GMT400 gauges. What is this like an airplane or something? Kinda lol, I like redundancy I guess.
ANyways. I picked up an OBD2 to USB adapter from Amazon and so far I haven't been able to get it to work with the Torque Pro app. I have a bluetooth OBD2 adapter on the way also. I wanted to test a wired USB OBD2 adapter vs a bluetooth OBD2 adapter and see if there is any speed difference in populating the gauge layout. I'm guessing there will not be any.
Anyone that has experimented with a setup like this or intends to and otherwise knows anything about this, please chime in. Details of your setup, what you had to do to get it working etc.
ANyways. I picked up an OBD2 to USB adapter from Amazon and so far I haven't been able to get it to work with the Torque Pro app. I have a bluetooth OBD2 adapter on the way also. I wanted to test a wired USB OBD2 adapter vs a bluetooth OBD2 adapter and see if there is any speed difference in populating the gauge layout. I'm guessing there will not be any.
Anyone that has experimented with a setup like this or intends to and otherwise knows anything about this, please chime in. Details of your setup, what you had to do to get it working etc.
Restricted User
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 7,192
Likes: 109
From: Ohio
Torque is decent. I have Torque Pro and use it with my phone from time to time.
I'd recommend downloading and trying out RealDash for a more permanent application.
Lots of very high quality gauge layouts you can buy for a few bucks if you don't like the free ones.
It also uses GPS to turn your gauge cluster into a navigation screen that can datalog your trip.
It'll also datalog the sensor data it gets while connected, and read CEL codes.
Torque works better for diagnostic stuff and as a quick plug and play app. For something you want to look at everyday, I'd try RealDash.
I'd recommend downloading and trying out RealDash for a more permanent application.
Lots of very high quality gauge layouts you can buy for a few bucks if you don't like the free ones.
It also uses GPS to turn your gauge cluster into a navigation screen that can datalog your trip.
It'll also datalog the sensor data it gets while connected, and read CEL codes.
Torque works better for diagnostic stuff and as a quick plug and play app. For something you want to look at everyday, I'd try RealDash.
TECH Fanatic
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 1,074
Likes: 17
From: sarasota fl
I got this one here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I think once I play with it a little bit I can get it working like I intend!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I think once I play with it a little bit I can get it working like I intend!
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Staging Lane
Joined: Jul 2018
Posts: 83
Likes: 3
From: FL
I'm interested in this as well. I need to find a full time gauge option for my truck build. was thinking the same thing on tablet with torque but ill try and research realdash some as well. post up what you guys find please. and ELQueFor I found people saying theres different Bluetooth adapters that effect response time. didn't look at the one you posted but was definitely something I made note of when looking at torque stuff. have to look again and see which ones others had good luck with.
Thread Starter
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 531
Likes: 5
I'm interested in this as well. I need to find a full time gauge option for my truck build. was thinking the same thing on tablet with torque but ill try and research realdash some as well. post up what you guys find please. and ELQueFor I found people saying theres different Bluetooth adapters that effect response time. didn't look at the one you posted but was definitely something I made note of when looking at torque stuff. have to look again and see which ones others had good luck with.
I have so far not been able to get oil pressure to display. I have read about needing to tweak or custom define some PIDs to make them work on our LS vehicles????? Even though my PCM is a 411, and my harness is a RED/GRN that I repinned to RED/BLU, and, this 411 was from like a 2002 F body which did NOT display oil pressure from the factory in the data stream, I DID get it working.... On the HPT scanner I can view and log oil pressure, so it would be awesome if I could get the torque app to display it also.
Does anyone know about how to get the oil pressure working in the Torque Pro app???? And like I say, even though some LS vehicles don't display oil pressure in the datastream from the factory you CAN pin in the wires from the OP sensor to the PCM and get it in the datastream as I have done. Just need to figure out how to get it in the Torque app.
Staging Lane
Joined: Jul 2018
Posts: 83
Likes: 3
From: FL
yea certain things not defined can have custom pids created. issue is having to dig around to find out what that pid info is. I had seen people doing the same thing for trans temp. also when I referred to the bluetoothy dongle and certain ones working better than other I didn't mean expensive ones, they were all like 20-25 bucks. but different manufacturers use different chips/controllers with different speeds. the one I haved saved in my amazon list is linked below. granted this was saved two months ago so there may be a better option but wanted to get back to you with what I had saved. maybe this will help boost refresh speeds for you cheaply.
Staging Lane
Joined: Jul 2018
Posts: 83
Likes: 3
From: FL
also....did anyone find any actual reviews from people using real-dash? I searched bookface and youtube and most all videos are from the company or people over the pond. anyone with an LS platform have any real world experience and any pics or videos to help us peasants that havent bought anything yet to make a decision? thanks in advance 
matt
matt 
check out the thread here and sift through the pages for users that recommended a decent obd2 Bluetooth dongle:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/pcm-diagnostics-tuning/1892142-inexpensive-opensource-flashing-read-100-working.html
most of the decent ones you'll most likely want to coin up and pay above $30-40+. I have a bafx that goes for $25 and it does the job but I found it is finicky on other vehicles that aren't a 4th gen. I tried using it on a grand prix gxp ls4 and it wasn't able to read with my torque app pro.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/pcm-diagnostics-tuning/1892142-inexpensive-opensource-flashing-read-100-working.html
most of the decent ones you'll most likely want to coin up and pay above $30-40+. I have a bafx that goes for $25 and it does the job but I found it is finicky on other vehicles that aren't a 4th gen. I tried using it on a grand prix gxp ls4 and it wasn't able to read with my torque app pro.
Restricted User
Joined: Mar 2014
Posts: 7,192
Likes: 109
From: Ohio
All various screens I tested from various RealDash layouts. All with megasquirt and USB so I can't comment on stock PCM with bluetooth.
My only complaint are the popups. Pay for the full version fixes that problem.
FAR nicer and more refined than Torque Pro. Will do GPS navigation right inside of the cluster, and will save datalogs in a few different formats. Lots of $5 premium layouts available that have tons of features, but I would recommend trying the free ones first. A few of the free ones have multiple screens you can toggle between which are more than enough.
I picked up a $100 Lenovo tab 4 the other day and I'm wanting to hard-mount it in the turbo T56 truck for additional gauges. I was able to get the factory GMT400 gauges to work with the LQ4 but like most GM gauges of that era, they're kinda meh. The precision and the speed at which the gauges and sensors update in HPT scanner made me think that a permanently mounted tablet would be a nice addition in the truck to monitor things and also check against the GMT400 gauges. What is this like an airplane or something? Kinda lol, I like redundancy I guess.
ANyways. I picked up an OBD2 to USB adapter from Amazon and so far I haven't been able to get it to work with the Torque Pro app. I have a bluetooth OBD2 adapter on the way also. I wanted to test a wired USB OBD2 adapter vs a bluetooth OBD2 adapter and see if there is any speed difference in populating the gauge layout. I'm guessing there will not be any.
Anyone that has experimented with a setup like this or intends to and otherwise knows anything about this, please chime in. Details of your setup, what you had to do to get it working etc.
ANyways. I picked up an OBD2 to USB adapter from Amazon and so far I haven't been able to get it to work with the Torque Pro app. I have a bluetooth OBD2 adapter on the way also. I wanted to test a wired USB OBD2 adapter vs a bluetooth OBD2 adapter and see if there is any speed difference in populating the gauge layout. I'm guessing there will not be any.
Anyone that has experimented with a setup like this or intends to and otherwise knows anything about this, please chime in. Details of your setup, what you had to do to get it working etc.