This page has some suggested procedures for setting up an ELM327 device on WinXP (along with a little info on setting up an ELM327 on other operating systems). It also links to what I did to recover from my initial setup failures, and what I did several months later to upgrade the CP210x VCP Windows drivers from v6.5.3 to v6.6.1. Finally, a short Summary is included. The summary can be used as an overall plan of action.
Important Note #1:
Some of the external links provided here can be quite useful
for also setting up an ELM327 for other operating systems besides
WinXP.
Those externally linked pages may also deal with setting up other
ELM327 devices -- eg, Bluetooth ELM327 devices, or wifi ELM327 devices --
rather than the Silicon Labs CP210x chip-based ELM327 USB cable
(and FTDI chip-based USB cable) which this page is focused primarily
on.
Important Note #2:
ELM327 Bluetooth tools are usually the easiest to setup,
since operating systems usually have the Bluetooth drivers imbedded in
the operating system.
In those situations, drivers do *not* have to be downloaded / installed.
Instead, you simply have to pair your ELM327 device with your
host operating system. If you have an ELM327 Bluetooth device,
I'd suggest searching for Bluetooth on this page, noting what it says
there, then ignoring the remainder of this page.
Important Note #3:
This page is concerned with providing enough detail
to receive basic ELM327 AT commands and issue responses,
ie, to get your ELM327 setup well enough so it can communicate with
the host computer.
This page is *not* concerned with providing details to get
your ELM327 device communicating with your car.
It's true this page does contain a very small amount of info on
OBDII emission diagnostic software --
OBDwiz, TouchScan, Torque, etc --
that runs on the host computer and can utilize an ELM327 to communicate
with the car and perform OBDII emission diagnostics.
But that's not this page's focus.
And there is absolutely no detailed info on this page
to get the ELM327 device talking with the car ECUs
using a vendor proprietary protocol.
If you have a 1996-1998 Volvo 850/S70/V70/etc, and
if you already have your ELM327 setup well enough so it responds with
"OK" and other appropriate responses to the ELM327 AT commands, and
your goal is to have the ELM327 use the KWPD3B0 protocol
(to talk with the '96-'98 Volvo 850/S70/V70 COMBI Instrument Panel,
SRS, ABS, AW 50-42, Motronic 4.4, MSA 15.7, Immobilizer, etc),
then your next best place to explore is probably going to be
ELM327 Reads Volvo 850 and SVC70 Mileage,
starting with the
Some purported ELM327 devices are incapable of KWPD3B0 communication
warning on that page.
For all other cars
(besides '96-'98 Volvo 850/S70/V70/C70/XC70),
you'll have to research elsewhere on the net
to find out how to use the ELM327 to communicate with your car.
To repeat: This page is concerned primarily with
getting an ELM327 talking with the host computer,
not the car.
When your ELM327 arrives, review any instructions included
by the manufacturer or seller, but then consider following instead the
exceptionally well-written instructions at totalcardiagnostics.com's:
How to Install ELM327 USB Cable on Windows and OBD2 Software
article, which avoids connecting the cable too early, and has
some very thorough troubleshooting steps to diagnose probably 99%
of the problem cases.
That totalcardiagnostics.com page is generalized to handle many different types of ELM327-compatible devices. The page has improved a lot over the last several years, and it is still being maintained well. Kudos, totalcardiagnostics.com!!!
Consequently, as of the 2017-05-10 update to this elm327_setup_on_winxp.html page, I'm going to cease checking any driver packages on the totalcardiagnostics.com page. I'll leave you to do that.
The following caveats and suggestions for slight changes to the totalcardiagnostics.com article will still be included here. But be forewarned: the following caveats and suggestions may be out-of-date (and therefore confusing).
* STEP 1. Download and Install Latest ELM-327 Driver Files
- I would normally suggest downloading the "Driver Pack 1"
(CP210x_VCP_Win*.*) directly from Silicon Labs at:
CP210x USB to UART Bridge VCP Drivers
since that Silicon Labs page has links which can be followed to download
the latest Windows drivers for Win 7/8/8.1 and Win10, and
it has a link to a page where you can (probably) still find the WinXP driver,
if needed.
Also, the Silicon Labs page links to drivers for other operating systems
(like Mac and Linux)!
***************************************************************************
***** The following 2 paragraphs contain some OLD INFO ********************
***************************************************************************
As late as 2014-02-22, the totalcardiagnostics.com link for
CP210x_VCP_Win_XP_S2K3_Vista_7.exe was still an OK link, since it pointed
to the exact same v6.5.3 binary as the one that I downloaded on 2012-07-14
from silabs.com, but that v6.5.3 driver is not the latest one for Windows.
As late as 2016-02-19,
the latest Silicon Labs driver download for WinXP/2003/Vista/7/8/8.1 was
named "CP210x_VCP_Windows.zip", corrected a few errors, worked with Win8.1,
was numbered v6.6.1 (or higher), was dated 2013-10-24 (or later), but it
required uninstalling the previous Silicon Labs CP210x VCP Windows driver,
unzipping the .zip of the latest driver, running the appropriate
CP210xVCPInstaller_x86.exe or CP210xVCPInstaller_x64.exe installer
for your machine. NOTE: The drivers will not be completely installed
for the latest CP210x_VCP_Windows.zip distribution until after
the ELM327 is plugged into the USB port (at a later time). See the
Upgrading CP210x VCP Windows driver from v6.5.3 to v6.6.1 section below
for an example of upgrading from pre-v6.5.x (or prior) CP210x VCP Windows
drivers to v6.6.1 (or later).
***************************************************************************
***** The above 2 paragraphs might contain some OLD INFO ******************
***************************************************************************
Note that (sometime between 2016-02-19 and 2017-05-10) Silicon Labs
(slightly) changed the driver names. So you'll have to adapt examples
on this page to account for the new naming.
- I did not need the "Driver Pack 2". I think that the Prolific driver
is for someone that has an ELM327 device with a DB9 connector, or maybe a
DB9 to USB connector. In any case, I've never downloaded that driver.
- Concerning the FTDI VCP drivers provided in "Driver Pack 3", those drivers
are necessary if your ELM327 is not interfaced to a Silicon Labs chip,
but is instead interfaced to an FTDI chip.
I've had success with v2.08.24, v2.08.30, and v2.10.00 on WinXP, and with
v2.12.18 on Win7.
The v2.08.24 and v2.12.18 are still available on the FTDI site:
www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/CDM/CDM 2.08.24 WHQL Certified.zip
www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/CDM/CDM v2.12.18 WHQL Certified.zip
The v2.10.00 is available on the totalcardiagnostics.com page as
"Driver Pack 3".
I presume versions up until v2.12.18 will still work on WinXP
(even though it is not WHQL Certified for WinXP).
And I presume the latest version (v2.12.28 or higher) works on
Win7 / Win8.1 / Win10.
For Mac, Linux, Android, and older or less common Windows systems, try
these high quality FTDI links:
www.ftdichip.com/FTDrivers.htm
www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm
www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/D2XX.htm
- I did not need the "Driver Pack 4", since none of my ELM327-compatible
devices are CH340 chip based.
- The point here is to load the driver for the particular chip that interfaces
to your ELM327. It might not even be Silicon Labs or FTDI. For example,
for an ELM327 RS232 device, it might involve an Analog Devices ADM232A chip
(www.analog.com) or one of Maxim's MAX232 chips (www.maximintegrated.com).
For the non-USB cases, you might want to find another good reference page
on the net by searching for something like: "How to setup bluetooth ELM327"
or "ELM327 RS232 setup".
* "How To Scan / Diagnose Any Car with OBD2 Software" section and
"Free Software To Test If ELM327 is Working with Windows and Vehicle" section.
The two software programs that are linked to in those sections are for
OBDII emission diagnostics. For European cars from before 2000 or so,
those two OBDII emission diagnostic programs might be useless, since the
EOBD standard was not yet applicable. For those European cars -- and even
for the 1996+ USA cars (and some 1995 USA cars) that did have OBDII
mandated -- the following initial manual checking of the ELM327 can be made
to ensure it is setup correctly, even before the ELM327 is physically
connected to the OBDII diagnostic port (ie, DLC / female J1962).
With a terminal emulator such as:
free ScanTool.net STNterm (for WinXP/Win7/Win10),
free OBD Now Terminal app (for Android),
free Bluetooth USB WIFI Terminal app (for Android),
US$1.99 xiaotec "850 OBD-II" app (for Android),
Realterm (for Windows),
Hyperterminal (for Windows),
PuTTY (for Linux / Windows / ??),
cKermit (for Linux / Windows / ??),
or maybe one of the other terminal emulators mentioned in the
Elm Electronics Choosing Software tips:
- Issue the following 4 commands: ATZ, ATL1, ATE1, and ATI, in that order.
- Don't be surprised if ATL1 overwrites the ATZ and its response.
- Ensure the ATE1 command responds with OK.
* If your terminal emulator software works better with ATE0,
then use that instead.
- Ensure the ATI command responds with "ELM327 v1.2" or, preferably,
a higher version. Any version prior to v1.2 is probably too old to be
of much use.
If you can see something similar to the following output for the ATE1 and
the ATI, then you've got your (hopefully) ELM327 (compatible) device
talking to your laptop, tablet, smart phone, etc:
>ATE1
OK
>ATI
ELM327 v1.3
My port settings on the "Port Settings" tab of the "Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge (COM7) Properties" window -- available in Device Manager by:
say:
I seem to recall that I've used my ELM327 cable at both speeds, so I've opted for the faster one -- to lessen the possibility of overruns where the car's ISO9141-2 connection (at 10400 baud) produces too much for the ELM327 (at 9600 baud) to pump to my laptop. At 38400 baud, there should not be any overruns due to the ELM327-to-laptop connection.
When clicking Advanced on that "Port Setting" tab, an "Advanced Settings for COMxx" window appears. In it could be seen:
Note:
I discovered the
totalcardiagnostics page while reviewing some
Interfuse LLC ELM327 info. Interfuse LLC was the distributor of
my
ELM327 v1.5 clone USB cable.
This section's record of my initial download and installation of the Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge VCP v6.5.3 drivers on 2012-07-14 has been deleted (as of 2020-05-11), since: a) its old Silicon Labs driver link is no longer applicable, and b) the section is probably unnecessary clutter for most people nowadays, yet c) that history can still be retrieved at its 2019-03-16 archive on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
This section's record of my 2014-02-22 upgrade of CP210x VCP driver v6.5.3 to its updated (DPInst based) v6.6.1 version has been deleted (as of 2020-05-11), since: a) its old Silicon Labs driver link is no longer applicable, yet b) that history can still be retrieved at its 2019-03-16 archive on the Wayback Machine.
Install the drivers before plugging in the ELM327.
Read any instructions provided with the device.
Consult any forums available from your ELM327 device's distributor.
Consult any forums available from your ELM327 device driver's manufacturer.
If your car did not have OBDII emission diagnostics legally mandated (eg, for pre-2000 European cars), then test by issuing ATZ, ATL1, ATE1 or ATE0, and ATI via a terminal emulator (eg, STNterm, OBD Now Terminal, Bluetooth USB WIFI Terminal, xiaotec "850 OBD-II", Hyperterminal, Realterm, PuTTY, cKermit, etc).
If your car did have OBDII emission diagnostics legally mandated (eg, for 1996+ USA cars), then test with OBDwiz, TouchScan, Torque, or other OBDII emission diagnostics software.
Recover as necessary.
Reference the many links on the web re getting the ELM327 (and OBDII cables in general) operational with your operating system.
Be patient.
Hopefully, this page will save you some headaches.
Reminder to owners of 1996-1998 Volvo 850/S70/V70/C70/XC70:
If you got your ELM327 communicating with your host computer and/or
got it communicating with your car enough so it can perform some basic
OBDII emission diagnostics, and you are ready to get
the ELM327 communicating via the Volvo special KWPD3B0 protocol
that the Instrument Panel, SRS, ABS, AW 50-42, Motronic 4.4,
MSA 15.7, Immobilizer, etc use,
then your next best place to explore is probably going to be
ELM327 Reads Volvo 850 and SVC70 Mileage,
starting with the
Some purported ELM327 devices are incapable of KWPD3B0 communication
warning on that page.
