Carista gen 2 or evo?

Thanks, snapped one as well!

11.58£ delivery to Finland but still a great deal. There can’t ever be too many OBD toys!

IMG_4950.jpeg
 
11.58£ delivery to Finland but still a great deal.
Actually, it's even better than it seems - the Finnish VAT seems to be included in the "delivery" costs :thumbsup:
Doh, I made a mistake and ordered one from EU Amazon (.de) to avoid extra costs and VAT - just few hours before this double campaign facepalm.gif. So got only -25.21€ promo, leaving grand total 52.93€ :cry::cry:

There can’t ever be too many OBD toys!
Exactly - Jumping.gif
 
Actually, it's even better than it seems - the Finnish VAT seems to be included in the "delivery" costs :thumbsup:
I think for <150€ items into EU sellers must include VAT and hence no customs. That’s why those small purchases from eg. AliExpress come through just fine
 
Well at least I didn't pay the full price but always sad when a deal happens just after you buy.

After reseting the engine management light thru the carista app, we took the van on a 400 mile round trip and it hasn't come back on. Couple of errors did show when we got back (608780 - latch motor sliding door and 01389 - function restriction due to low voltage - will order that charger!).

Can I just ask, what can you get out of the evo and app combination without a subscription as I can only see subscribing when serious errors (dash lights) come on?
 
I got one last time mostly as a decent/well regarded open bluetooth dongle (my OBD11 isn't open to other software which is annoying)

The EVO is very bulky compared to my OBD11 and iCar WiFi OBD dongles and doesn't seem to power save.

I've not tried the software side yet (as I'm covered with the OBD11) and I'm happy with the cheap price - but for the allegedly "advanced" version I'm not super impressed with the hardware to be honest.
 
and doesn't seem to power save.
It should - factory setting is to fall asleep after 20 minutes idle.

Code:
2024-07-04 11:17:18.499 STSLCS
2024-07-04 11:17:18.509 CTRL MODE:  ELM327
2024-07-04 11:17:18.509 PWR_CTRL:   LOW PWR = LOW
2024-07-04 11:17:18.509 UART_SLEEP: ON, 1200 s
2024-07-04 11:17:18.509 UART_WAKE:  ON, 0-0 us

Current consumption (average):
23 mA when Bluetooth connected​
16 mA idling (not connected on Bluetooth), vs. old Carista 36 mA​
3 mA asleep​

A bit disappointing feature the Carista EVO (still) has - even asleep it broadcasts it's willingness to pair with anyone. And, indeed it will wake up, pairs up, and happily communicates with the new Bluetooth partner.

For data collection with 3rd party apps the EVO dongle is twice as fast as the old Carista - so it's now at the same level as other inexpensive dongles. See a comparison below.
 
Ah I was judging by the fact the BT was still running when I came back to a van that had been locked for a day - my simple iCar WiFi dongle shuts down completely if you don't connect to it within about 5 minutes and has a simple wake up button - which I find much easier (apart from the WiFi annoyance as Android phones will do anything to avoid being connected to WiFi without internet access it seems no matter what settings you change)

The unrestricted always live BT is the deal breaker for me.

I think I will get the BT version of my iCar as that's a very good fit for my use case of just wanting my secondary phone to display DPF data on.

Owning 4 OBD dongles isn't excessive, right?
 
the BT version of my iCar
That's a product of vGate company?
The unrestricted always live BT is the deal breaker for me.
vGate vLinker series has models which initiate pairing only by pressing device's Connect button. So a passer-by can not connect - without access to the button.

Actually, EVO seems to be a variant of vLinker series (based on the chips used and their software identifiers - identical to vLinker). Interestingly the EVO even has a button...

Owning 4 OBD dongles isn't excessive, right?
No, it's just a good start ;)
 
The unrestricted always live BT is the deal breaker for me.

VW has ignition live on OBD port pin 1 (non-standard feature) so you could always make the dongle to power on ignition rather than relying on sleep modes. I did this for my old Carista in rather violent way but you could also make an OBD adapter cable to sit in between the port and dongle.
 
VW has ignition live on OBD port pin 1 (non-standard feature) so you could always make the dongle to power on ignition rather than relying on sleep modes. I did this for my old Carista in rather violent way but you could also make an OBD adapter cable to sit in between the port and dongle.
Yes I'd seen that, but I'm 95% happy with my existing iCar WiFi (yes it's a vGate product @mmi ) for the basic DPF monitoring the aim was just to remove the annoyance of the WiFi. I went for the Carista Evo due to the price, VAG-DPF developers recommend it (or at least the older version) and I tend to suggest getting one to several folks so it would be useful to know how the Carista app works.

(Originally I went for the WiFi version as I was trying to debug a startup issue on the XC70 and at the time it was much faster than the BT version)

Anyway I thing for the purposes of the thread what I now see as which one to choose is:
1. If you are just buying as the most economic "help me fix this issue with my Transporter by reading fault codes" just buy whichever is the cheapest at the time
2. If you have non VW vehicles and don't have OBD type dongles for them the EVO may be a better choice if it covers them
3. If you want something fit and forget for basic monitoring all the time neither are an ideal choice (there may be better generic options or you may need some hardware hacking)
 
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