Elm327 wifi so no internet?

I bought an elm327 wifi dongle that plugs into the obd2 port on my 2013 Jetta TDI, it works great. I use Dash Command on my iPhone 4 and can monitor the coolant temp among other parameters.

The elm327 connects to my iPhone as soon as I get into the car, wonderful, except if you want to check email or the weather or anything online. My iPhone tries to get that through the elm327, which of course isn't connected to the internet, just the car.

To solve this the problem I turn off the wifi and now my iPhone will connect to my cellular carrier and I can check weather etc. When I get home I of course forget to turn my wifi on my iPhone back on and proceed to burn through my data plan downloading apps, music etc.

Also if I'm using an online Nav app like Waze, I can't monitor the car temp or anything from the obd port.

Are there any techie people out there that have solved this problem? Many thanks, Mark in Montreal

I have the same issue with my obd2 dongle using wifi and iphone, both suck and can't really do much about it unless you select which wifi you want to use.
I just try not to use internet when in the car.


Sent from my Current time and location

Unless I get the new iphone 6 when it comes out and leave the 4 in the car for extra gauges. But that means another device in my Apple list (tree?) and I'm at 5 already.

Should have bought the bluetooth version.

An iPhone cannot be on 2 different wi-fi networks at the same time. To use a wi-fi ODBII adapter with an iPhone and have the internet at the same time, you basically have 2 choices (I think).
1) Figure out a way to put that wi-fi adapter onto your home wi-fi network so the adapter and the internet are on the same wi-fi network. (of course, this will only work when you are at home)
2) Jailbreak your iPhone so you can configure it as a wi-fi "hotspot" (many Android phones can already do this). Then you could configure the adapter to join your iPhone's wi-fi network. Perhaps newer iPhones will include this capability.

Have Fun!

Don

Thanks Don, I doubt #2 will work on my old iphone 4. Maybe when the iphone 6 comes out in the fall. Don't really want to Jailbreak my phone.
Yeah, Bill I should have bought the bluetooth version. I searched here for info but I must have missed the posts that said no internet when using an obd dongle that uses wifi. The good news is, it was only $20.
Trying to find a similarly priced bluetooth version for an iPhone is proving to be impossible. Plenty for android but I've drunk the apple koolaid so I'm doomed.
cheers, Mark

I didn't think the version mattered, it's a bluetooth device.. It should work fine with either Android or Apple.

I read that it does matter, you need a Bluetooth dongle that says it will work with iOS.

http://cartech.about.com/od/Connected-Cars/f/ELM327-iPhone.htm