Anybody?

Hi there!

The Ad-Hoc requires rooting (which you have done), but also you need to edit a couple of configuration files to then connect to the wifi adapter in ad-hoc mode.

Why android cannot "see" ad-hoc networks by default (ie: it's been disabled for some reason) is not really known.

Unfortunately the link on the main page that did point to the very concise guide on a remote site on how to get connect to an ad-hoc network, is now invalid (I checked today).

Another guide is at: http://blog.joint.net/2009/07/connecting-android-phone-through-adhoc.html

You will need to adapt it for the PLX adapter, and yes, it is complicated. Get it wrong and you blitz your wifi(not permanently) on the phone so backup backup backup!!

The kiwi wifi is a nice adapter - I had one for a while, but the fact Android doesn't support adhoc very well is *really* annoying!!

Anyway, hope this helps get you started. The wifi stuff hasn't been tested for about 3 months since I sold my kiwi adapter, so please let me know if you have any issues.

Ian

Your help is greatly appreciated. I'm not too worried about messing up my phone as I have about 30 nandroids to fall back on. Gonna get this setup now...let ya know how it works out.

Ok, so I've modified the required lines through my terminal emulator and used PLXDevices as my ssid and now I don't know what to do from there.
Do I have to add the devices ip and stuff while in the emulator edit mode? Let me know if you can help with this. Thanks

Hi

From what I can remember, you should now be able to associate with the adapter (and it should say so when you're connected in the android system).

Click the PLXDevices access point in your android system wifi settings and use the menu to go to the advanced section - you're looking for an IP address 'entry' on the screen displaying something like 192.168.X.X, if you find the IP address field and it is similar to that then all is good so far.

Assuming you have managed to get the above done, then you now need to start Torque and go into the settings. In there, choose the 'Connection' option and select WiFi.

Then scroll further down in the settings and verify that the IP address and port number is correct for the PLX device - they default to 192.168.0.10 and 35000 respectively.

After this, then you should be good to go. Just make sure your ignition key is 'on' (the engine usually does not need to be running) and relaunch Torque. It should connect to the adapter (the adapter icon should stay solid blue), then the car to the immediate right of it should go blue as well.

It's been a while since I have tested this code - I did have a wifi adapter but sold it recently as it was a bit of a pain due to Android constraints on ad-hoc networking. The other downside of using the wifi adapter is you tend not to be able to use the internet on the phone for the duration of the connection, depending on the version of android used.

Hope this helps. If you have a successful wifi connection to the adapter (the link light on the adapter should light up) and it still does not work, then use the 'send comms debug' option to send me some logs and I will see what I can do for you!

Ian

That part I understand, but even after editing the necc lines, the ad hoc doesn't show up in my wifi settings network list. Saw another part of the procedure that says if it still doesn't work, to add "ap_scan=2" to the beginning of the line. Just gotta figure out which line he's talkin about.

Oh, I did remember one gotcha with the text file editing!

The text editor you use is very important. The main reason for this is that windows editors embed a 'CRLF' at the end of a line instead of what android expects just a 'LF' (I can't remember which but it is one only, not both).

If both are there, I think (as this was part of the gotcha) the CR is taken as part of the SSID string, and thus you don't get a connection.

But, if you are using 'vi' (incidentally it is the worlds best text editor) then you should be absolutely fine.

This gotcha wasted a few hours of my time until I realised what was going on! Good luck!

(Just in case you don't know, CR is a common abbreviation of a carridge return - 13,0x0D, and LF is LineFeed - 10,0x0A)

Regards,

Ian

I'm actually editing straight on the phone using a terminal emulator. I believe it uses a vi editor as that is what I have to enter to access the files to edit. I'm a master automotive technician, and though my specialties are driveablity and electrical, including custom electronic systems, this is a little beyond what I'm used to doin. I talked to plx and they say they have several android apps in the works but I'm not much for waiting. Also, after all your help, i would much rather use your app. I haven't given up on this yet, but at the moment its startin to feel like its a long shot.

Hey Ian. Ok, apparently plx meant that they were coming out with a new bluetooth version of the kiwi, and not any android wifi apps. So I guess I've definitely gotta figure out how to get this thing working through an ad hoc connection. After I add all the lines in the editor, it still doesn't show up in my network settings. Not sure what to do now.

Thats cool. If PLX are as you say coming out with a bluetooth unit then Torque will definately work with it. Torque will even be able to use extra features provided by that unit as the app is updated...

Yep, here's the link. http://www.plxkiwi.com/kiwibluetooth/ Too bad I already got the wifi one! I asked if they need any beta testers. Still waiting on a response. Doubt it, but it would be nice. I'm gonna keep tryin to get the wifi one to work on the droid so you can be sure you'll be hearing from me again...soon. oh yeah, they said release to be in sept. on bluetooth model.

Cool, that moved significantly faster than I anticipated! I hope you get the wifi adapter working and hooked up to your droid - you might benefit from using something called ADB/LogCat to view the logs on your phone to see what is going on (if you haven't already found this)

There is an app called aLogCat on the market which lets you easily view the phones logs on the phone itself. This might help you out a little!

Still no luck gettin it to work. I'm wondering if the process would be different on 2.2 roms. I'm runnin a bugless beast froyo rom right now. I may use one of my 2.1 nandroids and try it on that. Maybe there's been some type of permissions changes in 2.2.

Have you made any progress with this?
I also have a droid running 2.2 and I cant seem to get it to connect with the Kiwi Wifi either even after modifying the two files. The PLXDevices network shows up in the list of wifi networks for me but it never connects or shows that it sees the obd2 device.

Any progress here? I bought my copy of Torque (for my Nexus One) hoping it would give me more data than I'm currently getting from Rev on my iPhone. In particular I'm hoping Torque can calculate MPG from MAF data rather than fuel flow, as my S2000 requires MAF mode to support this. (Apparently the Kiwi MPG can be configured to use MAF).

I don't want to have to buy the Bluetooth PLX reader, because then I'll have two readers sitting around, and I'll need one when I'm using the iPhone (which is sitting in my dashboard as a car controller) and one when I'm using the Nexus One. This would go against my goal of trying to *reduce* the number of devices I use :)!

The instructions on how to enable ad-hoc mode don't work on the nexus one, in part because it doesn't have a tiwlan.ini file (because it doesn't use a Texas instruments wifi chipset).

Torque looks really cool, I'm glad a bought a copy, I just hope I can get it to work. The funny thing is, I can get the Nexus One to act as a bridge between my iPhone and the Internet (using CyanogenMod's wifi tethering app), which means the N1, the iPhone and the PLX Kiwi Wifi are already on the same network, but Torque still can't initiate a connection to my Kiwi. It works like this:

My Kiwi wifi is advertising ad-hoc mode on channel 1, using SSID PLXDevices. I configure the Android's tethering to use PLXDevices as the SSID, which the Android phone then joins. The iPhone then connects using PLXDevices as the SSID. The iPhone is able to connect to the Kiwi Wifi using this connection, and to the Android phone, which it uses for Internet access. (I can verify this works becuase I can run an internet speed test while connected to the Kiwi Wifi getting engine data). This means the iPhone can connect to the Kiwi Wifi and the Nexus One on the same ad-hoc network with the SSID of PLXDevices. What I cannot do is successfully get the Nexus One to connect to the Kiwi Wifi.

I've noticed the Android tethering app (not the built-in 2.2 tethering, but the CyanogenMod add-on) uses a random MAC address when activated UNLESS the KiwiWifi is already on and broadcasting, in which case it SEEMS to clone the Kiwi Wifis mac address. (This is based on WifiFoFum sniffs, which only show a single MAC address when started in this mode). I have to start it in this mode otherwise a bug in the tethering will not use Wifi channel 1, but instead uses channel 6.

I think torque can't connect due to the MAC address cloning, The problem could be in Torque, or in theory it could be in the phone as it's possible that packets desitned for the same MAC address as the Wifi adapter never make it off of the phone.

If I could change the PLX's Wifi channel I might be able to make it work, but I think I've worn out all my good-will with PLX in finding out how to change the IP address. *sigh* I'll contact them but I think at this point they think I'm an industrial spy trying to steal trade secrets - at least that's what the tone of their mails seemed to indicate.

I'm sure my scenario is far too complicated to expect any help, so perhaps I can help others in a less complicated situation and let you know you're not alone.

I can't imagine any suggested changes to Torque that could help in my situation -- even assuming my analysis is correct. Perhaps either ARP broadcasts or IP multicast might work, but testing those scenarios is far outside my expertise. I'll report back if I learn anything new.