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NickMikhay Newbie Joined: 05/02/2026 Location: United StatesPosts: 7
Posted: 07:59am 20 May 2026
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Does anyone know what happened to ELM Electronics? They appear to have gone out of business a few years ago, and their chips are not available anywhere. The unique product was an OBD2 interpreter, that can link up to the bus of an automobile and communicate with a PC using its own set of commands. There is lots of software and the OBD2 to Serial over USB adapter is available fairly cheaply, but I couldn’t find the chip from my usual suppliers in the US, like Mouser.
The chip was a Microchip MCU 16FXX and it is the firmware that makes it work, kind of like a micromite. It went by ELM327 but there were several variants, including the newer SPI modes.
It would be a shame for it to just dissapear, when there is no reason other than the company closing. Something just doesn’t add up.