Will it work on my car?
Almost certainly, if it has an OBD port. How much it can show depends on how it’s connected and what the car or ECU shares.
Three ways in
Pick the one that suits the car, or use more than one: each page has its own source.
- WIRED CAN
On the car’s CAN bus
Fastest and fullest. can2gauge listens to what the car’s modules already say to each other, and can ask the engine for OBD-II values alongside. Best on VW Group cars and aftermarket ECUs.
- K-LINE
On OBD pin 7
For cars before CAN, such as the Mk4 Golf era. Reads any VAG module’s measuring blocks, logs a Bosch ME7 quickly, and does KWP2000 OBD-II.
- DONGLE
Bluetooth LE or Wi-Fi OBD
No wiring to the car’s data at all, just power for the gauge. Standard OBD-II PIDs on almost any car, plus the VIN for Match car.
Cars
| Car | How | What you get | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| VW Group PQ Golf Mk4–6, A3 8P, Leon, Octavia… | CAN (listen) + K-line | Rpm, pedal, coolant, speed, fuel, gear and selector, oil temperature, the oil-pressure warning; any module over K-line | Supported |
| VW Group MQB Golf Mk7–8, A3 8V, Tiguan… | CAN (listen) | Rpm, speed, pedal, temperatures, fuel, gear, gearbox sump temperature, shift and lock-up | Supported |
| Audi MLB A6 / A7 C7, A8 D4, Q5 8R | Drivetrain CAN at the gateway | As MQB, plus the ZF 8HP: ATF temperature, shift, lock-up and input speed | Supported |
| Any OBD-II car | CAN, K-line or a dongle | Standard PIDs: rpm, speed, boost, coolant, intake, load, timing, lambda, trims… | Supported |
| A car in the opendbc library | CAN, with its DBC | Any signal the DBC describes. The web UI identifies the car from the IDs it sees | Supported |
| BMW with ZF 8HP F / G-series | OBD CAN or a dongle | ATF temperature, lock-up and the selector by UDS | Early support |
| Other makes on K-line | K-line | KWP2000 / OBD-II now; make-specific protocols are being worked on | In development |
Aftermarket ECUs
| ECU | How |
|---|---|
| MaxxECU | Its Default CAN output, or over Wi-Fi with usb2ip |
| Link | Generic Dash 1 and 2 on CAN, or usb2ip |
| Haltech | Its CAN stream, or usb2ip |
| ECUMaster EMU Black / PRO | Its CAN stream (Black), or usb2ip (PRO) |
| Ignitron | All 380 channels over Wi-Fi with usb2ip |
| Bosch ME7 | K-line ME7 logger, about 34 or 50 samples a second |
usb2ip plugs into the ECU’s USB cable and shares every channel over Wi-Fi: 596 on a MaxxECU, 831 on a Link, 936 on a Haltech, 1,409 on an EMU PRO. Any of them can go on a page.
Also works with
| Device | What it adds |
|---|---|
| OpenHaldex | Lock, target and mode over CAN, or everything over Wi-Fi. Change mode from the glass |
| adc2can | Eight 0–5 V sensors per board, up to two boards: oil and fuel pressure, wideband, EGT, temperatures |
| can2gauge Link NEW | Google Maps turn-by-turn from an Android phone |
| Another can2gauge | Shared values over CAN or Wi-Fi, with one gauge as master |
OBD adapters
The gauge’s ESP32-S3 has Bluetooth LE only, not Bluetooth Classic. A Bluetooth adapter must be a BLE (“iPhone compatible”) one. Wi-Fi adapters work too.
| Adapter | Link | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| OBDLink CX | BLE | STN chip; the recommended adapter |
| Vgate iCar Pro BLE 4.0 | BLE | The adapter the raw CAN, TP2.0 and K-line paths were written against |
| Veepeak OBDCheck BLE / BLE+ | BLE | |
| vLinker MC+ / BM+ / FD | BLE | “FD” is Ford MS-CAN, not CAN FD |
| Generic BLE ELM327 clones | BLE | Slower (5–10 values a second) and sometimes flaky, but fine for a few pages |
| Any Wi-Fi ELM327 | Wi-Fi | The gauge joins the adapter’s network and keeps its own Wi-Fi up |
| OBDLink MX+ / LX, “Android” SPP adapters | Bluetooth Classic | Not supported |
What a dongle can’t do: VAG KWP1281 (the Mk4-era measuring blocks and the cluster’s oil level), the ME7 logger, and basic settings like throttle-body adaptation. Those need the gauge’s own K-line wire.
Not sure about your car?
Ask on Discord with the make, model and year, and whether it has an aftermarket ECU.