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For $15/month? You can get the same thing from free apps if you buy the OBD device. The only down side is the teen could turn their phone off and I hardly see that happening.

YMMV OBD II Scanning Software - Free/Open source: Scanmaster ELM v.0.4.0.0 - http://www.wgsoft.de/ Digimoto Lite - http://www.digimoto.com/ wODB - http://www.werner-digital.com/obd/software.html ScanTool - http://www.scantool.net/?mode=browseSoftware OBD2Spy - http://www.obd2spy.com/ OBD-DIAG - http://www.er-forum.de/obd-diag-dl/index.php EasyObdII_v2 - http://www.easyobdii.com/downloads.php OBD Logger - http://pages.infinit.net/jsenk/obd.htm Mac OSX / Linux - http://www.cs.unm.edu/~donour/cars/pyobd/ Scanning Software - Pay for packages: EngineCheck - http://www.enginecheck.co.uk/#8232; PCMSCAN - http://www.palmerperformance.com/pcmscan.php ScanXL - http://www.palmerperformance.com/products/scanxlelm/ Scanmaster - http://www.wgsoft.de/#8232; OBD 2007 - http://www.glmsoftware.com/ VitalScan - http://www.vitalengineering.co.uk/

Someone posted about a tool called "Scantool" on Ubuntuforums a few years ago.

Absolutely nothing... there's a reason equipment that hooks into safety critical systems is so damn expensive.

http://www.scantool.net/ has open source drivers to go with their cheap USB / serial auto interfaces.
The protocol allows you to distinguish between read-only and read-write commands. I guess it's similar to using SNMP.

Of course, your safety is never guaranteed. I don't think you should take any risks today. Stay at home with the shutters drawn.

First, get the hardware interface: http://www.scantool.net/scan-tools/pc-based/elmscan5-compact.html with some OK software, $60 http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.28528 $29 shipped from hong kong. Hardware isn't free unless you really do want to build your own. ELM327 is a common OBDII interface chip, and they're probably nearly identical internally Then go to scantool.net, software downloads, and find the source. Hack away. Or, go to sourceforge and look at some of the linux based obdii software.

Look at http://www.scantool.net/ . I use a Scangauge II. I went through this same thing; in the end I decided that buying a scangauge gave me 90% of what I wanted, out of the box, without having a computer clutter up the driving area, and without spending weeks hacking up something that might work but then again might not.

i can bridge 2 pins on the ecu plug on mine, and its flashes the dash lights in sequence to give me the codes, its just a matter of looking them up. though im not sure if newer cars are still keeping anything like this available.

Also, generally if your engine light comes on, your car will go into limp home mode, which is a cut back operation that uses default configs and ignores either all or some of the sensors just to enable you to get home, or to a workshop somewhere without the working sensors.

That's a GM OBD-I. I had a few cars that could do that...I kept a paperclip handy in the ash tray. The codes provided were pretty standard...maybe 30 different types of codes at most.

Fords of the era had the same idea, but the "flashes" are measured by the pulses of a multimeter via a lead under the hood.

OBD-II is more resilient. Only if there is a severe problem does it go into 'limp' mode. It doesn't have the ability to retrieve codes without some sort of code-reading device. ElmScan is well priced, compatible with any car which conforms to OBD-II (pretty much all 1996 and newer). One needs a computer for those, but the free software available for it is fantastic at deciphering the codes and monitoring various sensors like RPM, O2 sensor voltage, Manifold Absolute Pressure, Calculated Engine Load, Throttle Position. One guy made an app using an ElmScan to calculate an estimated fuel economy based on the Mass Air Flow and Speed sensors. One can also get hand-held readers, which usually have an accompanying manual with all the code meanings included.

As I understand it, that technique of bridging the pins to get the flashing codes only works with older OBD-I interfaces...mostly on cars made prior to 1996. I know it can't be done on my 1996 Saturn, built the first year they used the OBD-II spec.

I spent about $100 on a Scantool. I even got the software to compile on my Gentoo laptop. It works on essentially all newer domestic and foreign cars. It's great to have even if you only use it to find out if a "check engine" light is something serious enough to warrant towing to your mechanic.

OBD information should be COMPLETELY open and readily available to owners. And that dosn't mean I go down to the dealer where they can tell me what the car is saying or that I have to maintain a yearly subscription to some service. I want direct access to the information from the car with no intermediaries. When I buy a new car it should come with a CD with access software and dongles for connecting it to my laptop/computer/palm pilot etc. Or perhaps wireless/Blue Tooth. In otherwords the access to this information should be via standard interfaces to common equipment.

Google is your friend. There are already tons of OBD-II readers on the market, several of which are fairly inexpensive for what they do. (A couple of interesting models are here and here. The second one even has several Linux-based programs that work with it.)

I bought an OBD2 interface board from scantool.net works pretty well, pretty easy interface protocol.

I wrote up some functions to grab different data from the box, and drop it in a struct for later processing. I also wrote up another function to handle the later processing and give you the raw value. Pretty simple code really.

The only problem I ran into (which was the kicker for me), I was only able to get about 3 samples per second from my Jeep's computer...Hardly fast enough for a realtime display of all the normal dashboard information, but cool none-the less.

Maybe I'll zip up the code I wrote and post it on the net, now that it's getting warmer I might be interested in spending some time on it.

The big problem is that all the gauges have been replaced with the master idiot light: "Check Engine". However, computer diagnostics are not that big of a deal. I built my own for around $60 using this site. My check engine light was flashing and I wanted to know why, and since I dabble in electronics every now and then I thought it would be a cool project to built my own diagnostics board. I printed my own circuit board, drilled the holes, mounted the circuits, hooked it up to my laptop, and volia! It was a cylinder that was missing every now and then, easily fixed by replacing the plugs and wires, and brushing the corrosion off of the electrodes.

Each of these systems is specific to the automobile's make. Moreover, diagnostic systems are proprietary.

This is not exactly true. The diagnostics systems on all cars are standard, and based on standard codes. The three protocol standards for communicating with the diagnostics bus are VPW, PWM, and ISO. Most GM cars use VPW, Ford tends to use PWM, and most foreign cars use the ISO standard. After you figure out how to talk to your car, there is a standard set of error codes that all cars use. However, each manufacturer has other codes they add on specific to the car. That might be the "proprietary" business you were talking about. But those codes can easily be had on the Internet.

The long and short of it is, It's my opinion that computer diagnostics make it EASIER to work on your car because now it can tell you what's wrong instead of you having to guess. The mechanics of today just have to reach a new paradigm.

I know I'm in the minority here, but the slippery slope and big brother aside, how bad are these things, really?

Lurking around a bit, I noted that many people are saying "How come nobody's been told about these things? Is it a CONSPIRACY?" I doubt it.

This so-called "black box" is nothing but the OBDII diagnostics module, which every car built after 1996 has. It keeps track of how just about every subsystem in your car is functioning, as well as realtime statistics such as speed, RPM, temperature, mixture, etc. For a complete list of general error codes, take a look at these pages:

Chassis
Body
Powertrain
Network

When "Check Engine" comes on, OBDII has detected a failure in one of these subsystems and logged it. Your dealer plugs their computer into the diagnostics port, finds out what the error is, and fixes the problem (usually), and clears the code. The site I referenced for the error codes, Scantool has circuit specs and software you can use to access this data. The downside is that there are three OBDII protocols, and with this system you need a separate module to read each one. There are other places you can go to get a universal reader, but prices are usually pretty expensive.
The upshot is that's it's relatively cheap, and if you like electronics and want to build it yourself it's even cheaper. Autozone stopped doing the free OBD scans, so I used this little project as an excuse to learn how to print my own PCB and have my own diagnostics card for when I need it. Also a big plus is that the software source code is available.

Allright, now that I'm off my tangent, I'll get back to the original subject. It's pure conjecture to guess why the realtime statistics are put in a rolling log for 5 seconds. Could it be a deal with insurance companies? Maybe the computer averages the saved statistics to determine if there's an event? Maybe the orgininal intent was for safety? Who knows?

But remember the data not only can be used against you (which won't happen, you are all safe drivers, right??), but also to exonerate you if the other driver tries to set you up.

And in the article, I didn't see any uses of the logs I particularly disagreed with. If your drunk ass is doing 120mph and you kill two teenage girls, maybe you need to be put in the cooler for awhile.

I know I'm in the minority here, but the slippery slope and big brother aside, how bad are these things, really?

Lurking around a bit, I noted that many people are saying "How come nobody's been told about these things? Is it a CONSPIRACY?" I doubt it.

This so-called "black box" is nothing but the OBDII diagnostics module, which every car built after 1996 has. It keeps track of how just about every subsystem in your car is functioning, as well as realtime statistics such as speed, RPM, temperature, mixture, etc. For a complete list of general error codes, take a look at these pages:

Chassis
Body
Powertrain
Network

When "Check Engine" comes on, OBDII has detected a failure in one of these subsystems and logged it. Your dealer plugs their computer into the diagnostics port, finds out what the error is, and fixes the problem (usually), and clears the code. The site I referenced for the error codes, Scantool has circuit specs and software you can use to access this data. The downside is that there are three OBDII protocols, and with this system you need a separate module to read each one. There are other places you can go to get a universal reader, but prices are usually pretty expensive.
The upshot is that's it's relatively cheap, and if you like electronics and want to build it yourself it's even cheaper. Autozone stopped doing the free OBD scans, so I used this little project as an excuse to learn how to print my own PCB and have my own diagnostics card for when I need it. Also a big plus is that the software source code is available.

Allright, now that I'm off my tangent, I'll get back to the original subject. It's pure conjecture to guess why the realtime statistics are put in a rolling log for 5 seconds. Could it be a deal with insurance companies? Maybe the computer averages the saved statistics to determine if there's an event? Maybe the orgininal intent was for safety? Who knows?

But remember the data not only can be used against you (which won't happen, you are all safe drivers, right??), but also to exonerate you if the other driver tries to set you up.

And in the article, I didn't see any uses of the logs I particularly disagreed with. If your drunk ass is doing 120mph and you kill two teenage girls, maybe you need to be put in the cooler for awhile.

I know I'm in the minority here, but the slippery slope and big brother aside, how bad are these things, really?

Lurking around a bit, I noted that many people are saying "How come nobody's been told about these things? Is it a CONSPIRACY?" I doubt it.

This so-called "black box" is nothing but the OBDII diagnostics module, which every car built after 1996 has. It keeps track of how just about every subsystem in your car is functioning, as well as realtime statistics such as speed, RPM, temperature, mixture, etc. For a complete list of general error codes, take a look at these pages:

Chassis
Body
Powertrain
Network

When "Check Engine" comes on, OBDII has detected a failure in one of these subsystems and logged it. Your dealer plugs their computer into the diagnostics port, finds out what the error is, and fixes the problem (usually), and clears the code. The site I referenced for the error codes, Scantool has circuit specs and software you can use to access this data. The downside is that there are three OBDII protocols, and with this system you need a separate module to read each one. There are other places you can go to get a universal reader, but prices are usually pretty expensive.
The upshot is that's it's relatively cheap, and if you like electronics and want to build it yourself it's even cheaper. Autozone stopped doing the free OBD scans, so I used this little project as an excuse to learn how to print my own PCB and have my own diagnostics card for when I need it. Also a big plus is that the software source code is available.

Allright, now that I'm off my tangent, I'll get back to the original subject. It's pure conjecture to guess why the realtime statistics are put in a rolling log for 5 seconds. Could it be a deal with insurance companies? Maybe the computer averages the saved statistics to determine if there's an event? Maybe the orgininal intent was for safety? Who knows?

But remember the data not only can be used against you (which won't happen, you are all safe drivers, right??), but also to exonerate you if the other driver tries to set you up.

And in the article, I didn't see any uses of the logs I particularly disagreed with. If your drunk ass is doing 120mph and you kill two teenage girls, maybe you need to be put in the cooler for awhile.

I know I'm in the minority here, but the slippery slope and big brother aside, how bad are these things, really?

Lurking around a bit, I noted that many people are saying "How come nobody's been told about these things? Is it a CONSPIRACY?" I doubt it.

This so-called "black box" is nothing but the OBDII diagnostics module, which every car built after 1996 has. It keeps track of how just about every subsystem in your car is functioning, as well as realtime statistics such as speed, RPM, temperature, mixture, etc. For a complete list of general error codes, take a look at these pages:

Chassis
Body
Powertrain
Network

When "Check Engine" comes on, OBDII has detected a failure in one of these subsystems and logged it. Your dealer plugs their computer into the diagnostics port, finds out what the error is, and fixes the problem (usually), and clears the code. The site I referenced for the error codes, Scantool has circuit specs and software you can use to access this data. The downside is that there are three OBDII protocols, and with this system you need a separate module to read each one. There are other places you can go to get a universal reader, but prices are usually pretty expensive.
The upshot is that's it's relatively cheap, and if you like electronics and want to build it yourself it's even cheaper. Autozone stopped doing the free OBD scans, so I used this little project as an excuse to learn how to print my own PCB and have my own diagnostics card for when I need it. Also a big plus is that the software source code is available.

Allright, now that I'm off my tangent, I'll get back to the original subject. It's pure conjecture to guess why the realtime statistics are put in a rolling log for 5 seconds. Could it be a deal with insurance companies? Maybe the computer averages the saved statistics to determine if there's an event? Maybe the orgininal intent was for safety? Who knows?

But remember the data not only can be used against you (which won't happen, you are all safe drivers, right??), but also to exonerate you if the other driver tries to set you up.

And in the article, I didn't see any uses of the logs I particularly disagreed with. If your drunk ass is doing 120mph and you kill two teenage girls, maybe you need to be put in the cooler for awhile.

I know I'm in the minority here, but the slippery slope and big brother aside, how bad are these things, really?

Lurking around a bit, I noted that many people are saying "How come nobody's been told about these things? Is it a CONSPIRACY?" I doubt it.

This so-called "black box" is nothing but the OBDII diagnostics module, which every car built after 1996 has. It keeps track of how just about every subsystem in your car is functioning, as well as realtime statistics such as speed, RPM, temperature, mixture, etc. For a complete list of general error codes, take a look at these pages:

Chassis
Body
Powertrain
Network

When "Check Engine" comes on, OBDII has detected a failure in one of these subsystems and logged it. Your dealer plugs their computer into the diagnostics port, finds out what the error is, and fixes the problem (usually), and clears the code. The site I referenced for the error codes, Scantool has circuit specs and software you can use to access this data. The downside is that there are three OBDII protocols, and with this system you need a separate module to read each one. There are other places you can go to get a universal reader, but prices are usually pretty expensive.
The upshot is that's it's relatively cheap, and if you like electronics and want to build it yourself it's even cheaper. Autozone stopped doing the free OBD scans, so I used this little project as an excuse to learn how to print my own PCB and have my own diagnostics card for when I need it. Also a big plus is that the software source code is available.

Allright, now that I'm off my tangent, I'll get back to the original subject. It's pure conjecture to guess why the realtime statistics are put in a rolling log for 5 seconds. Could it be a deal with insurance companies? Maybe the computer averages the saved statistics to determine if there's an event? Maybe the orgininal intent was for safety? Who knows?

But remember the data not only can be used against you (which won't happen, you are all safe drivers, right??), but also to exonerate you if the other driver tries to set you up.

And in the article, I didn't see any uses of the logs I particularly disagreed with. If your drunk ass is doing 120mph and you kill two teenage girls, maybe you need to be put in the cooler for awhile.