Question:
I have a 2003 Ford Expedition, and UBP refers to the communication protocol. OBDLink MX Bluetooth and Forscan have had very few troubles connecting to several vehicles from early models to more recent MS-CAN equipped models. I wonder if the vxdiag vcx nano ford ids is able to access old Fords with UBP.
Answer:
Most other vehicles use CAN, but these older Fords use UBP to communicate with the PCM. Most devices available cannot communicate with UBP.
Obdlink does not support UBP. VXDIAG VCX NANO does not do old UBP Ford either.
The reason you see a request for a switch to ISO/UBP is because in trying to develop UBP support for ELM based adapters, the Forscan development team was attempting to modify a kline protocol and use the same procedure used for MSCAN support to read the UBP bus. As of the last communication I had with them they were continuing to look for a solution but all attempts have failed so far but the switch request has been left in in hope of finding a method.
As for the VCXNano, the one I have has never connected to either of my UBP equipped vehicles without erring out in Forscan or crashing the test man run time in IDS.
Forscan has UBP support as of version 2.3.09 but only for Ford VCM2 Adapters and VCM2 Clones.
Support for UBP protocols in ELM327 based adapters is still being worked on hence the prompt for the switch change if ISO/UBP is expected on the board but to date reading UBP with ELM327 adapters has not been successful!
You need a UBP compatible scan tool. One of the few scan tools with UBP support is Ford VCM II.