Get Car Diagnostic Pro from Google Play. It is under $10. Or Dash Command if you want nicer, filtered interface - but have pay $10 extra in-app for each vehicle (total $20).

Car Diagnostic Pro will actually do more (and read clear codes for other systems like SIR, ABS, HVAC, etc), but you never know if a selected Live Data PID will actually work on your vehicle until you try. List of PIDs is very extensive and is non-filtered for your vehicle. You will even have to sort through PIDs for Ford diesels. Nonetheless its my first goto app. Once you understand this about Car Diagnostic Pro it is a great app. No you don't have to make a gauge to add a PID. Just do a quick and easy data table under diagnostics.

You may find one dongle to be much faster than the other one. So try both dongles with multiple PIDs monitored at same time (including RPMs) and then look for a smooth rpm curve (not stepped) during driving. For Cam Sensor Retard it won't matter the speed. For O2 sensor and Fuel Trim cycling and RPM type PIDs, it will. The more things you monitor at a time, the slower the refresh rate will be. I like the BAFX Bluetooth OBD2 adapter on Amazon. Have had mine since 2013. It's a full 10x faster than the first one that I bought (as measured using Torque Pro). With the BAFX I get about 35 updates/second to be split between the PIDs I am monitoring.

 

I got Dash Command and tried it out in eval mode. I ran it and tried looking for cam sensor retard, but I couldn't find it before the interface froze on me. I came to this page before it did freeze, but I don't think "Timing" is the same as cam sensor retard.


I thought the freeze was teh 30 second eval expiring, so I bought the full app.
But once I was back in I had a very difficult time trying to reconnect to the OBDII adapter. Bluetooth kept disconnecting on me and the app would take a very long time to read the OBDII and then throw an error unable to read data.
Not sure what's going on here. Before BlueDriver I was using the cheap-o ODBII Bluetooth with Torque Lite, and that app would freeze on me constantly then the OBDII adapter would occasionally fail to connect to Bluetooth. This is why I went for BlueDriver.
Since using BlueDriver I have not had any of these freezing or disconnection problems. It just worked.
Today when trying to my cheap-o ODBII adapter with Dash Command the freezing/disconnect problem came back. I switched back to the BlueDriver ODBII adapter and the BlueDriver app, but the BlueDriver OBDII adapter was having the same disconnecting problem too.
My stock Google PIxel 3 would refuse to connect to either the cheap-o OBDII adapter and BlueDriver. I got it to connect for a few seconds unplugging the adapters and plugging the back in, but they would eventually disconnect and refuse any futher connection.

I can't tell if this is a smart phone problem or an ECM problem.

Usually when either of my two ODBII adapters are working there is a blue light. But today during these problems the lights were red. There's obviously a communication error, but I don't know why or how to resolve it.
It sometimes resolves itself turning off my Blazer and restarting the engine, but it didn't work today. I'm planning to try again later.

 

Dash Command wont let you do cam sensor retard until you buy the app and then pay $10 more in-app for the enhanced GM PIDs for your vehicle - total of $20, as I said previously.

Your cell phone in settings should tell you if phone is connecting to dongle by bluetooth. At least I can see what is actually connected in mine.

Try torque light as a test. Its free and should connect if anything will.

One thing I can say is that you need to exit the apps properly before going to a different one. Just closing the window doesnt do it. You might try both unplugging the adapter and rebooting your phone at same time.

 

And use "Data Grid" in Dash Command to view cam sensor retard and other things once you have bought the enhanced PIDs through "account/purchase" and are connected.
But first make sure you can connect with the app. My data grid below is without connecting to vehicle. You hit the + to add PIDs from all possible.

 

Once you buy the Enhanced PIDs you will be able to add Cam Sensor Retard to the Data Grid from within the General Tab. Click on any you don't want and you can remove them.

 

Ok, I verified I have the enhanced PIDs for GM 2002. At first I was just trying to stop the damn thing from freezing on me. It still does after a few mintues. I don't think the app is the problem. It's definitely this $7 OBDII Bluetooth adapter giving me issues. It doesn't stay connected to Torque Lite either. It just randomly disconnects then has issues reconnecting until some hard reset happens. If someone could recommend a better OBDII Bluetooth adapter, I'll gladly check it out.





After some research and trial and error I learned that the BlueDriver OBDII adapter doesn't work with Torque Lite nor Dash Command. It doesn't use the ELM interface those apps are expecting because BlueDriver seems to have it's own proprietary interface that the BlueDriver app is specifically designed for.

Once that was out of the way for now, I continued forward trying to get a cam sensor retard reading, and I'm having a diffcult time finding the PID. I have verified I have the enhanced PIDs for GM 2002, but I don't see it under "General". I tried searching for a few key words; zero resutlts. I then read through the full list of 100-something PIDs carefully to make sure it wasn't named something else, and I found zero hints. I'm scratching my head looking for this sensor reading.







EDIT:
Researching some PID issues. dropping this link as a future reference.
https://www.gmt400.com/threads/dashc...-retard.53142/

 

You first need to configure your vehicle in the app and then select it (both are done under "Vehicle"). Don't forget to validate PIDs after you connect. I suppose validating PIDs could be an issue, but I can't tell since mine are validated.

Then your General PID tab should look similar to mine below (mine is 2001). If you dont see the PID under general, then you'll have to look through the other tabs for it. But what you showed there is only basic PIDs not enhanced.

As I recommended before, I like the BAFX Bluetooth OBD2 Adapter from Amazon. 35 scans/sec and had it for 9 years. It has been the gold standard over the years for inexpensive OBD2 adapters. Only $20

P.S. I can set this PID up in data grid without ever coming near an active OBD2 adapter, so I think your cheap OBD2 adapter has nothing to do with your ability to find the PID in the software (unless it requires connection/validation for the PID to appear the first time).

Let me know if adding your vehicle and selecting it / validating PIDs fixes your issues. Did you power off or otherwise reboot your phone? This is all interesting to me - would like to figure out the source.

 

Sections here for Vehicle Manager and Data Grid in the User Manual may be of interest.
https://www.palmerperformance.com/do...ser_Manual.pdf

Here's the troubleshooting guide.
https://www.palmerperformance.com/do...ting_Guide.pdf

Here's a quick start guide.
https://www.palmerperformance.com/do...tart_Guide.pdf

 

I've already added my vehicle info when I downloaded the app but before I got the extended PIDs. I guess the chicken comes before the egg.
Still having issues, but I'm going to document this weirdness I've been troubleshooting triyng to diagnose the diagnostic tools.

I went back into the garage to connect the OBDII and validate PIDs. The app kept freezing on me during this process. Because it locks up on me, I can't view the logs to see if it disconnected like its been doing. I have to assume so.
Before it disconnects, I see this common entry in the logs every time
```
[timestamp] Opening OBD-II Connection...
[timestamp] Reading VIN...
[timestamp] Warning: Not scanning unsupported parameter SAE.BARO
[timestamp] OBD-II connection has been lost.
```

Then every attempt to reconnect has been met with these repeating logs:
```
[timestamp] Opening OBD-II connection...
[timestmap] Searching for ELM interface...
[timestamp] Checking OBDII Adapter...
[timestamp] Found ELM interface on OBDII Adapter!
[timestamp] OBD-II Error: Error detecting ODB-II protocol.
[timestamp] Opening OBD-II connection...
[timestmap] Searching for ELM interface...
[timestamp] Checking OBDII Adapter...
[timestamp] Found ELM interface on OBDII Adapter!
[timestamp] OBD-II Error: Error detecting ODB-II protocol.
```

Or it repeats these logs:
```
[timestamp] Opening OBD-II connection...
[timestmap] Searching for ELM interface...
[timestamp] Checking OBDII Adapter...
[timestamp] ELM interface not found on OBDII Adapter!
[timestamp] Checking OBDII Adapter...
[timestamp] ELM interface not found on OBDII Adapter!
```

I cleared my vehicle from Dash Command and added it back hoping this cold repopulate the PIDs. When I opened the Data Grid I got back less items under General.
It seems like the app does need to be connected to the vehicle to get all possible PIDs. But it will not stay connected and it locks up if a disconnect happens while validating PIDs.
I strongly believe the hardware is at fault here. I don't ever have this problem with BlueDriver, and I've restarted my phone and the truck numerous times. I order that BAFX ODBII adapter and I'm going to give this another try when it arrives.

 

Sounds like a plan. Let us know.