Carly for Bmw

[Cropperlaa]

Has anyone tried the Carly for bmw obd bluetooth adapter before? Are they worth it? Also can anyone get cheaper subs to get full access to the pro carly app on android? Thanks

[kis]

Fair few people have Carly. I don't think general adaptors work. Carly is good but depends how many BMW's you have and how much coding or diagnostics you're going to do? May not make it worth while as it's a bit expensive. I think now they may even be charging annually, so like a subscription to the service?

May be worth checking this one out and finding someone local you can have a chat with and get to test the app?
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=97818

[Pbondar]

Fair few people have Carly. I don't think general adaptors work. Carly is good but depends how many BMW's you have and how much coding or diagnostics you're going to do? May not make it worth while as it's a bit expensive. I think now they may even be charging annually, so like a subscription to the service?

May be worth checking this one out and finding someone local you can have a chat with and get to test the app?
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=97818

The Carly is 'fixed' to their own Bluetooth adaptor, even if you frig another adaptor to start working it usually lets you down just when you want to do some coding..you could end up frying a cpu in a unit then you are in deep doo doo..

[Nick9one1]

I have carly pro and use this generic adapter.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-OBD2-EL ... SwjEla4wL~


I didn't have to do anything other than pair it with the phone. Pretty sure everything works apart from the iNav coding. Never had any problems with it at all.

[Smartbear]

I have carly pro and use this generic adapter.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-OBD2-EL ... SwjEla4wL~

Pretty sure everything works apart from the iNav coding. Never had any problems with it at all.

I’ve heard of different outcomes using third party dongle thingys, when you consider what could happen I wouldn’t risk damaging the car for the sake of £50
Rob

[Nick9one1]

I'd agree, but I dont believe there is anything special about the official dongle. It's the same dongle with a tiny bit of extra circuitry so that The app can recognize can tell you've purchased the dongle from Carly. Basically it's a way to make more money.

Carly always makes a full backup of the module youre coding. So if something does go wrong with the write process, you can restore the backup.

Also, there is no official dongle for NCS expert, ISTA, INPA etc. These have far more potential to create problems if something went wrong.

[Pbondar]

I'd agree, but I dont believe there is anything special about the official dongle. It's the same dongle with a tiny bit of extra circuitry so that The app can recognize can tell you've purchased the dongle from Carly. Basically it's a way to make more money.

Carly always makes a full backup of the module youre coding. So if something does go wrong with the write process, you can restore the backup.

Also, there is no official dongle for NCS expert, ISTA, INPA etc. These have far more potential to create problems if something went wrong.

Whilst you are entirely correct IMHO in all your assertions the issue is that Carly is writing its new changes to a CPU and it goes wrong in that process you could and it has happened a few times end up with a corrupted unit that has not got the ability to recover itself...

Like so many things what’s the price for doing it ‘properly’ vs ‘taking a financial or technical shortcut’

Having spent my life gluing all sorts of hw sw firmware together when it goes wrong it can be difficult and time consuming to recover...

Having said all that if someone knows that there are risks and wishes to proceed fair enough...

Fortunately most people can’t code recode their ABS or DSC...

[R.E92]

I'd agree, but I dont believe there is anything special about the official dongle. It's the same dongle with a tiny bit of extra circuitry so that The app can recognize can tell you've purchased the dongle from Carly. Basically it's a way to make more money.

Carly always makes a full backup of the module youre coding. So if something does go wrong with the write process, you can restore the backup.

Also, there is no official dongle for NCS expert, ISTA, INPA etc. These have far more potential to create problems if something went wrong.

Whilst you are entirely correct IMHO in all your assertions the issue is that Carly is writing its new changes to a CPU and it goes wrong in that process you could and it has happened a few times end up with a corrupted unit that has not got the ability to recover itself...

Like so many things what’s the price for doing it ‘properly’ vs ‘taking a financial or technical shortcut’

Having spent my life gluing all sorts of hw sw firmware together when it goes wrong it can be difficult and time consuming to recover...

Having said all that if someone knows that there are risks and wishes to proceed fair enough...

Fortunately most people can’t code recode their ABS or DSC...

Carly itself is a shortcut. The proper method of doing any coding would be using the real software like ISTA or WinKFP.

[AnubisZed]

So, here goes my findings on the subject....

I originally bought this one from Amazon... https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06 ... UTF8&psc=1

It connects to Carly perfectly well with a good signal strength, in fact on all the use I had out of it I had no problems what's so ever.
BUT!!..... It will NOT connect to all ECU's, one in particular is the roof module.

So in the end I bought the official Carly adaptor and it connects perfectly to all available ECU's without problem.
So would I recommend paying the extra, yes I would.

But if you are serious about coding then I'd recommend something like NCS Expert where you can code properly, but it's not for the faint hearted though as can be very daunting to the untrained eye, and there isn't that much reliable information out there. There are BMW coding web sites but they are very stagnated with a lot of members that never go there, don't know anything themselves or are simply not prepared to help. And that comes from experience as every question I've asked on them so far I've simply ended up finding out for myself!

So if it's fault codes and a simple bit of coding (number of blinker flashes, folding mirrors, digital speedo etc) then stick to Carly.

[tigermain]

Fair few people have Carly. I don't think general adaptors work. Carly is good but depends how many BMW's you have and how much coding or diagnostics you're going to do? May not make it worth while as it's a bit expensive. I think now they may even be charging annually, so like a subscription to the service?

May be worth checking this one out and finding someone local you can have a chat with and get to test the app?
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=97818

The Carly is 'fixed' to their own Bluetooth adaptor, even if you frig another adaptor to start working it usually lets you down just when you want to do some coding..you could end up frying a cpu in a unit then you are in deep doo doo..

Sorry I disagree with this, whilst some generic bluetooth dongles may be cheaply made (and should be avoided as discussed), Carly actually works perfectly well with them, however there are certain features that won't. These can only be done with a Carly official adaptor e.g. iDrive or Live Dashboard. I've coded both CAS and FRM without any issues on an Power 2.0 adaptor I had from about 4 years ago.

[JSmithyP]

I've been using the Carly adapter for a while now.
It's good for diagnostics, and basic coding, but to be honest, if you look on the website for what you can do with an E89, most of that you can't actually do, or at least I can't!