FORScan forum

As realized recently, china pirates have cloned ELS27 (original adapter site: http://els27.ru/en-us/) and illegally sell it now as a "ELS27 FORScan" product.

The adapter is cloned wrongly: some important components are simply missing. As a result, the following protocols do not work (first two protocols in bold are used by FORScan):

SAE J1850 PWM (Ford vehicles)
ISO 9141-2 (Asian, European, Chrysler vehicles)
ISO 14230-4 (Keyword Protocol 2000)
SAE J1850 VPW (GM vehicles)
GMLAN Single Wire CAN (GMW3089)
SAE J1939 OBD protocol

As a result, absolute majority of vehicles from 1996 to 2004 are not read by this adapter at all, Other vehicles up 2010 may be read only partially (vehicle would be detected, but some modules are missing/not found).

The product is sold from OBDTOOL.CO.UK, product page: http://www.obdtool.co.uk/wholesale/esl2 ... anner.html, http://www.atsfly.com/wholesale/esl27-f ... anner.html. There can be other places as well.

We already have complaints from some of users who purchased it because thought this is really an adapter created and sold by FORScan team. We would like to inform our users that this adapter has nothing common with FORScan team or ELS27 team and uses these names illegally. FORScan team doesn't produce or sell any adapters at all. . Please do not purchase these stuff, and if you purchased it by mistake, please return it and ask your money back.

Also, behlow are some pictures of the true ELS27 adapter. It has a transparent case, so comparing the counterfeit adapter with these photos, you should be able to see the missing components.

Ah, it would be a good idea to clearly indicate which picture is the bad clone and which is the authentic device?!

upper photo with white PCB = good ELS27

Hi,

This clone?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2016-Ne ... 26050d0370



Bad Clone or recommended type? For Ford S-MAX 2013.06 2.0Tdci 140LE WA6 UFWA ?

Thanks
Kalo

most definitely a clone.

Well, since the price was 1/2 of the "official" ELS27, I have tried my luck:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2016-Ne ... 91112.html
Results on my 2001 Ford Explorer and 2001 Mercury Sable are as attached:

A real ELS27 should show STN2120 V4.1.1 (ELM327 v1.3a). A real ELS27 has a special version of the STN1170, I think with bigger buffers or something. The clone most likely has a microchip microcontroller with cloned/hacked firmware and may not even have the real STN1170 firmware. Furthermore, looking at some of the clones, they probably do not support all the interfaces that a real ELS27 does. If your car needs one of the special buses other than MS and HSCAN, the clone probably won't work.

For the extra bit of cost, the real ELS27 is worth it. I have one it works great.

The listing says "PIC24HJ128GP+FTDI Microchip".
My cars need the SAE J1850 PWM protocol and connections (they are 2001 Ford/Mercury models).

SoNic67 wrote:The listing says "PIC24HJ128GP+FTDI Microchip".
My cars need the SAE J1850 PWM protocol and connections (they are 2001 Ford/Mercury models).

That is most likely the reason it does not work. If I am not mistaken most ELM327 clones support only canbus and not J1850, extra parts are needed for that interface. More than likely the ELS27 clone also only supports canbus like the ELM327 clones.

You could check by openning up the adapter and looking at the PCB traces and components to see if anything is connected to pins 2 and 10 of the ODB connector. If nothing is connected then there's no J1850 support.

PIC24HJ128GP is just the microntroller and FTDI refers to the serial to USB chip. Doesn't tell you if J1850. If the chip inside is marked PIC24HJ128GP or similar you can say for sure it is a clone, the real chips are marked STN1170 or STN2120. The real chips are nothing more than a PIC series micrcontroller programmed with the authentic firmware.

Aliexpress gives me the round-about for the return. Seems like I will have to as my credit card provider to do a charge back and close my account with Aliexpress.