This is for those who are looking for a good Ford diagnostic and programming tool off China, including Ford VCM 2, Allscanner VXDIAG VCX NANO for Ford and ELS27 adapter with Forscan software.
Ford VCM 2:
VCM II is the right choice, if you buy a good clone with a good serial.
It has full chips and high quality.
(The best should be VCM 2 SP177-C1
Why SP177-C1 is the best: http://blog.obdexpress.co.uk/2017/12/27/vcm-ii-sp177-c1/ )
Suggest to buy an old laptop with at least 3gb of memory and 256gb disk drive. I
It functions flawlessly including updating it and adding wireless to it with a pair of the proper wifi dongles.
You use VCM II for Pass Thru for Xentry, HDS, TIS, GS2, JLR, Volvo, Nissan Consult and numerous other. Right people can flash it Maserati/Ferrari.
But be careful programming!
Just slightly more expensive then VXDIAG nano.
For diagnostic, it is the same as VCM2.
And Vxdiag for reprogramming is slower than VCM2.
But for new software, Vxdiag is better because (black list) only if you have VCM2 with not blacklisted serial.
Keep in mind when purchasing a vcm2 that there are look alike ones out there that are vcx nanos in vcm2 clothing. (I made that mistake as well lol) Buy it from someone who shows photos of the inside. the fake vcm2 will have a single pcb with one main chip and not allot else going on. A good vcm2 has a second pcb on a riser with two noticeable capacitors on it and both boards a nearly covered with components.
Forscan:
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.
That is, ELM327 clones support only canbus and not J1850, extra parts are needed for that interface
You could check by opening 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.
So, if you want a tool only supports CAN BUS, it’s worth ELS27 China clone, confirmed to work perfectly like the ELM327 clones.
