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Any Open Source Solutions For DIY Auto Diagnostics?
slaxx writes "As an avid tinkerer, I really want to collect as much data about my car as possible. Using On-Board Diagnostics (OBDII) sounded great to me, but the pricetags of systems like AutoTap Scanner are a bit much for my college budget to handle. Are there any free, open source solutions available? What do Slashdotters do to tinker and record the inner workings of their own vehicles?"
If $199 is to expensive for the hardware and software onyour Budget what do you expect to be able to fix on the car for cheaper?
Absolutely nothing... there's a reason equipment that hooks into safety critical systems is so damn expensive.
I'm all for tinkering, and tinkering with cars used to be a great hobby. But tinkering with proprietary chip sets - with consequences not only your driving experience, but on the safety of others around you - without the proper equipment strikes me as a uniquely bad idea.
It's the underlying protocol of OBD II.
Just do a quick search on hackaday, there's been several projects in the past which may be helpful to you.
When I have the time, i've been meaning to try something like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBDuino
Into my Car so I can get additional performance gagues + graphs. I have the Arduino board, and can solder things here and there, I've just never gotten around to it ....
Why aren't you encrypting your e-mail?
hardware - http://www.amazon.com/Crescent-OBD2-Multi-Protocol-Diagnostic-Scanner/dp/B001MT0XPK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1274012569&sr=8-2
software - pyodb2
go to autozone and have them read it for free. Some of the stores may not and would require you to rent it. But either way it is cheaper than buying one outright.
If you're electronically inclined, there are a few resources for rolling your own OBD circuits:
Software for controlling can be run through a serial port
Project design for a stand-alone unit:
http://www.elektor.com/magazines/2007/june/stand-alone-obd-2-analyser.91904.lynkx
Chips for making your own OBD II. Datasheets have schematics.
http://www.elmelectronics.com/obdic.html
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.
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.
http://freediag.sourceforge.net/
You can always get a cheap OBDII interface from somewhere like Multiplex-Engineering and write your own. Or Scantool.net... or any other number of sub-$100 sources. Even Alex's tools at OBD-2.com are good enough. No need to reinvent the wheel though.
Once you start talking about hacking in to your PCM and changing things though, that's a whole other can of worms. People hold the keys to the kingdom on those VERY tightly.
http://slashdot.org/story/10/05/14/1225256/Hacking-Automotive-Systems
Check out the researchers web site here or the full paper here, doesn't seem that hard.
I like the "self destruct" feature btw....
From the dark, old days of the Internet when men were men, women were men, and children FBI agents
Slashdotters telecommute, so the only vehicle is the comp..
I've looked into this a fair amount and one thing I will say is beware of fake ELM ICs.
The ELM327 IC is what the vast majority of these scanners will be based on. The ones at www.scantool.net will use genuine ELM ICs, but the ones like this one and this one will almost certainly use non-genuine ELM ICs.
The ELM327 chip is just a PIC with some custom firmware on it. A few years ago someone managed to get the firmware off one of these PICs and since then the fake ones have really taken off. Whereas the genuine ELMs have frequent updates, the fake ones obviously don't.
In the 'Stuff to watch' category though, I've found this developer working on hacking his GM HSCAN bus to the point that he can remote start his car from his Android phone with a bluetooth OBDII dongle. He's working on releasing a couple of Android apps, but everything looks good so far. Website http://gtosoft.webs.com/ and Blog http://gtosoft.blogspot.com/
I'm not so sure about open source options but I've done this before using customized configurations for my '96 Chevy Impala. The PCM was from a '94 and was an ODB1 unit (more programable than the ODBII based PCM), hooking up a laptop with a custom built ODBII to Serial cable I was able to use various shareware / freeware to flash and monitor the PCM. It has been a while so I'm not sure what software was the best. There are a number of people (i.e. http://www.pcmforless.com/ (who I used)) that offer tuning services online because they know what the correct settings are for various vehicle configurations. It is not a good idea for a novice to just jump in and start changing fuel mixture ratios or shift points on the transmission ;)
I'm all for tinkering, and tinkering with cars used to be a great hobby. But tinkering with proprietary chip sets - with consequences not only your driving experience, but on the safety of others around you - without the proper equipment strikes me as a uniquely bad idea.
You've apparently got no understanding of what the OBD II interface lets you do.
OBD II lets you read trouble codes and operational data (sensor values, fuel integrator, ignition timing, etc.), and lets you clear trouble codes.
That's it. There's no danger at all. You can't alter anything other than clearing trouble codes.
To the original poster, google for "ELM327" to find the hardware, and "ELM327 software" to find software, including many free apps that will use the ELM interface to talk to OBD II.
I use a free app on an old Palm with an ELM327 adapter I bought off of eBay for OBD II work. Works great. I paid a little more for one that works over Bluetooth; the less expensive varieties can be plugged into an RS232 port on a laptop (old, cheap laptops are powerful enough and are more likely to have an RS232 port).
The ELM 327 is fully documented and you can write your own software to talk to it. The datasheet is here: http://www.elmelectronics.com/DSheets/ELM327DS.pdf, ELM's OBD product page is here: http://www.elmelectronics.com/obdic.html.
Putting moderation advice in your
Some of top comments thus far seem to be saying "Oh noes if you touch their special stuff your carz will splode!" Well, that's not true...
Vehicle manufacturers have been required in most places for quite some time to provide OBD standards-compliant diagnostic info. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Board_Diagnostics#Standard_interfaces for some info on the OBD standards...
OK, so that sounds good. But then you have the first snag... the communications protocol.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Board_Diagnostics#OBD-II_Signal_Protocols
So there are a number of "standards" that could be used, depending on what your manufacturer chooses. You need an interface that will work with the standard for your vehicle. You can google your vehicle make and "OBD protocol" and probably find it. Some use (or have used) multiples, though. VW, for example, historically support ISO 9141, but some vehicles supported ISO14230, and most now have completely transitioned to ISO 15765. Depending on your interface it may work with all those protocols, some of them, or none of them.
OK, but you know your protocol and you want an interface. OK, good, there are a number of open source diagnostics suites that work to varying degrees. Your question leads me to believe that you never even bothered googling for an answer, but anyway, take as examples:
http://www.opendiag.org/ (dead in the water??)
http://freediag.sourceforge.net/
http://www.obdtester.com/pyobd
The first 2 of those links include links to hardware info where you can build an interface yourself.
Also, some commercial software will work with those interfaces, and some (such as older versions of VAG-COM) will support some basic OBD functionality without paying anything.
But wait, what do I mean basic OBD functionality? Isn't OBD the end-all be-all of diagnostic tools? No, they're actually largely POS's with anything remotely modern. The reason for this is fairly simple - vehicle manufacturers for a long time have only had to implement basic OBD functionality, like reading/clearing codes, and even which codes are implemented (or what they mean) has been largely left to them to decide. So guess what? Most chose to basically give you no info, or misleading info, so that any real problem required a trip to the dealer for them to see the "real" codes which are much more specific and helpful.
As an example, there's a popular interfaces for VW's called vag-com. It emulates VW official diagnostics tools such as VAG1551/1552, etc., which (now that they've been forced to make available) sell for a small fortune. The protocol has been reverse engineered, and in fact the data for the various functions of the scan tool is constantly being updated as new things are discovered. The difference between an interface like this and a generic OBD scan tool is like the difference between an abacus and your computer. I'll leave it to you to look at ross-tech's site to see some examples of what it can do beyond the "generic OBD" functions it also supports.
It's similar with Toyota. Generic scan tools exist, along with some with "modules" that can emulate some of the special functionality of Toyota's mastertech, but to truly be able to do what Toyota can you need to build/buy a (compatible) J2534 interface and use Toyota's techstream.
And yes, I've built interfaces, and bought interfaces, for all sorts of vehicles, including generic units. After learning from my mistakes I only buy interfaces that will emulate the manufacturer's hardware. Of course this means that if I have 3 makes that I need to work on I need 3 separate scantools. It adds up.
If you want the best bang for your buck you can get some pretty good
Your cheap scanners still give you the manufacturer codes (or rather, can read them), they just don't automatically turn them into something useful like they can with standard codes so you have to rely on either a mechanics manual or a quick google search to find the meaning of the code. If he's asking for help on Slashdot then I'm sure he can manage that. If he's specifically looking for fancy sensor readouts though, he might be better off buying a prepackaged solution anyway, sadly.
RomRaider is available for Subaru vehicles.
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I bought an overpriced OTC/SPX code reader and scanner for $300 many years ago. I've never used more than the code reader portion of it to effect repairs. You can buy hand held code readers for ~$100 now. Skip the scanning/data logging.
When I was into modifying/tuning cars I did have Autotap, but for straight up repair work, read the code and follow the troubleshooting procedure in the factory service manual.
First off, there's a few different variants of CAN. For the basic OBD-II set they are mostly the same.
Here is a link to a forum thread with links to basic/starter info: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/hardware-development/51772-class-2-data-bus-j1850.html
I know GM uses j1850 for their OBD-II/CAN setup. Some of the things that can be read off of pin 2 at the OBD-II connector include Tach signal, bypass the chip-in-key, control door locks (mostly on 2001 and up though some older ones apply as well), control OEM alarm, turn on heated accessories, etc as well as getting diag codes from port as normal.
There are other locations for the CAN interface in other makes/models as well. For example, in Hyundai cars one can find a low speed CAN in the drivers kick panel. IIRC it's a Red/Black & Blue twisted pair (in around the 2006-2007 model years) that will control door locks and OEM alarm. There's a high speed CAN that's an Orange & blue twisted pair that controls significantly more within the car.
Via the CAN on newer Honda's (2008+ typically) you can control the door locks, factory alarm, read if the brake pedal is pushed or not, hood pin status if there's an OEM hood pin, when a door is opened, tach signal, e-brake status, VSS, etc.
Even reading Wikipedia or googling for how CAN works is a good start. Also check out Socketcan that according to the Wiki entry VW Research released to the Linux Kernel and can be found in 2.6.25 and up. The concept extends the Berkley sockets API that adds a new protocol family that coexists with other families such as IP. Here's a quote from the article:
The SocketCAN concept extends the Berkeley sockets API in Linux by introducing a new protocol family PF_CAN that coexists with other protocol families like PF_INET for the Internet Protocol. The communication with the CAN bus is done analogue to the use of the Internet Protocol via Sockets. Fundamental components of SocketCAN are the network device drivers for different CAN controllers and the implementation of the CAN protocol family. The protocol family PF_CAN provide the structures to enable different protocols on the bus: Raw sockets for direct CAN communication and transport protocols for point-to-point connections. Moreover the broadcast manager which is part of the CAN protocol family provides functions e.g. for sending CAN messages periodically or realize complex message filters.
One more link for you: Canbus
For an idea on where various CANs are located within a car and what features may be possible, look at the different companies that make utilities and/or interfaces for that car. For example, idatalink allows you to look up which of their modules work for which car, which features they have been able to implement (using different "platforms" after loading the correct firmware), and in the installation directions it shows where they tagged into the CANbus at.
They'll read your ODB unit at no charge. Reason is, of course, they hope that you will then elect to buy the part(s) you need from them to fix it. Just go in and ask, they'll bring out a portable unit that reads the diag codes. They'll take that back to a computer, upload the results, and give you a printout.
If you are looking to read codes/reset codes then autozone will do it for free.. or sell you a scanner for 79.
but as has been said... if 99-199 is too much, then don't even think about trying to enter into this very expensive hobby.
even ultra low budget and open source solutions are more than $99, even if you build the ecu yourself like with older megasquirt systems
IF you need a scanner, that's an amazing price.
A *really good* scanner will cost you another zero. This one looks pretty good.
However, most electrical repairs cost more than $200 because the most important tool (the diagnostician's brain) isn't working properly. It's amazing how many people replace the starter and battery for a low crank, when the real problem was a $10 battery cable. I've seen people replace the entire secondary ignition system because they didn't look for a broken ground wire.
If you failed a smog test, the most likely faults will be fixed for pennies. Like a loose wire or broken vacuum line. But you can usually diagnose a failed sniff best with the sniff results.
If you have a lot more time than money, you can diagnose the pre-OBD way. With a table of normal computer inputs and outputs (try the library -- Mitchell publishes these) and both analog and digital voltmeters, plus tach and dwell/duty cycle, you can get pretty far.
Most local auto part supply stores will happily loan you an OBDII diagnostic tool for free. I've done this many times to read fault codes out of my car. It may not be as sexy as rolling your own, but it meets your price requirement.
Neil
Why don't you get rid of your current car and buy a vehicle which is old enough to be (mostly) free of microelectronics?
Easier said than done, sir. Even my '79 aircooled VW bus had a computer in it. Cars that old were much more prone to rust than current ones. The government was recently paying cash for those clunkers. They're getting rare. Not impossible, but not as easy as you make it sound to buy an old car in any kind of good shape. And not cheap if you find one in seriously good condition.
Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse. -- L. Long
When will it be the Year of Linux on the blacktop?
rewriting history since 2109
I use OBD Guage on a lifedrive and on my laptop for basic stuff; it's easier than pulling out my "real" scanner with all the cables. It's a nice basic program that does data stream, snapshots, acceleration tests, reads and clears codes, and some other stuff. For hardware, I have a cheap ODB2 bluetooth dongle I got off ebay for 30 bucks that talks to the palm and lappy. It has about 25 feet of range, which is great when you have to work under the hood while watching the data. Best part--no cables to drag around. It won't talk to ABS or airbag computers, though. Still, for engine control diagnostics, it's about all most folks would ever need, as it does read all the popular protocols. The have a pocket pc version too. Since most folks here already have a pda or smartphone or laptop, the final cost is about 30 bucks and a 2-week wait as they ship from China. http://www.qcontinuum.org/obdgauge/
When I was an "avid tinkerer" (in my case, backyard mechanic), $200 took some scrimping but it was a good price for good tools. It compares pretty favorably with the price of a good-quality torque wrench, and very favorably with that of an air compressor and set of air tools, even cheap ones.
Just as long as all you want is 96+ (and possibly a few 95's thrown in) I've had an older serial based scantool.net ELMSCAN 5 kicking around since 2003. One of the reasons I was excited when netbooks first hit was that I could buy one just to use with it just to use with it. I paid $120 for the tool back in the day, and it was well worth it then, but I think the newer usb elmscans are only going for like $60... The free software is limited, but will give you just about everything you need and is still much more.. if you need anything more, I've been really happy with the scanmaster xl software, which although not free, gives you a bunch of functionality that you don't even see in $900+ scan tools.. As far as linux based software for the elm327
if you want cheaper, there are schematics online somewhere you can use and I think there's somewhere you can pick up an ELM327 chip, you should be looking at somewhere around $25 in parts+ your time to put it together. Stay with a reputable manufacturer and/or reseller though, as the multiple clones on ebay are usually somehow made incorrectly (Sadly), even though it's such a simple design....
good luck!
I went with Carman for Nokia's Maemo platform and a generic Bluetooth scantool. The advantage of this setup is that the Nokia webpad serves as an in-car media player, GPS unit and car computer, providing me with real-time diagnostics, positioning and entertainment.
For fault diagnostics, I gave up in the end. At least for my car, (an Audi S8) it seems there are error codes that are manufacturer specific. Without a translation table, the error codes aren't particularly useful and I couldn't find any software package that included them or, indeed, just the Audi S8 code table. Happy to be proved wrong here if someone else knows better than I do..
Autozone will read and clear trouble codes for free. So if you just have a one time need, do that.
Currently you need a specially-adapted laptop, a highly proprietary cable, and some very expensive software. Garages can afford this: individuals can't.
I only have one car and I can't afford to have it not working so I don't tinker with it. I certainly am interested but I cannot afford the downtime. I can do it vicariously by going to the shop and watching the mechanic.
I have a computer that I need for work and I don't tinker with that either. But on that front at least I can afford to have another that I can mess with.
Thermodynamics fascinates me too but not enough to start taking apart my refrigerator.
Good lord if my mechanic were ever like the ones that people talk about here I would ditch them in a hot minute. It really is not all that hard to find one that knows what they are doing. Dig around on the web and look for testimonials.
TuxMobil provides a short (actually there a four entries) survey of Linux solutions for cars and automobiles. BTW: there are a lot more free and open source solutions for bicycles yet.
give the system by linear logic a check, its a data logger with write privileges. its a step in the right direction, but at least your unlikely to delete any root keys or files that are critical with it versus a open alternative that won't distinguish against them.
While there are many good and some great open software and hardware designs for automotive diagnostics they really lag far behind what the dealerships and mechanics that pay have to not only diagnose but adjust your car's computers.
One of my passions is motorcycling and I have a Suzuki B-King. This bike is the ugly cousin of the insanely popular Suzuki Hayabusa. There are a handful of folks that have create designs for the hardware interface and complete software tools that let you completely control the system.
You can watch the entire datafeed from the ECU in real time and remap the ignition timing.
You can buy adapters pre-made or buy your own. The software is free and open too: http://macmadigan.no-ip.com/ecueditor/
The point is that in certain areas where enthusiast and hackers have come together there are great options with enormous power for a shade-tree but depending on your make and model there may not be so much out there other than basics.
My car will display fault codes after you turn the key on and off 3 times. Count the flashes of the check engine light to get the error code. It won't give the extended codes but it is enough to diagnose a sensor fault.
The reason we subjugate ourselves to law is to better procure justice. If law does not accomplish this purpose then it m
You can get some great cheap hardware from ODBII usb cables through to handheld scanners here
Even a cool bluetooth link
Some of the links require Windows but the one I have works great with WINE.
-- ribbit
It depends on what you're resetting. If it's the MIL you're wanting to reset, that may be accomplished with a simple OBDII reader that places like Wal-Mart and most reputable auto parts places will sell you for about $60-90. You're going to find that it'll cost more to read CAN or the other protocols than it's worth if all you're looking for is reset capability.
However, if you're into tinkering and are looking for understanding the OBDII or a base platform for getting it into your laptop, you'll spend $200 on the gear however you do it. If you want to DIY an autotap, you'll have fun making one as there are four differing electrical signalling protocols in play on that connector (If you're being specific, you can find out which you're using and provide the interface to that. Now having said this, you can get schematics that will work against all four protocols, firmware that will work with said hardware to drive the ISO specific one, and if you don't want to muck with fully DIY, you can buy the completed device from Stern Technologies for $149 right at the moment (Regular price is $199, but the current design's firmware only supports ISO right now so they're discounting it $50...).
You will find that you're going to have a difficult time finding cheaper or the special connector (and it's a pita- because I'd had a lark of trying to make a CarChip a' la Davis Instruments and found out just how "fun" it could be getting that connector...) that you'll need for the design. It's a pretty nifty deal at $149.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Someone posted about a tool called "Scantool" on Ubuntuforums a few years ago.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
I don't want to tinker, but if I fix something simple like an air filter, I want to be able to reset the console warning lights.
If you just want to be able to read diagnostic codes and reset the warning light(s), at most you need a standalone OBDII device, not a laptop, special hardware and software. Harbor Freight has them for US$50 right now, and I got one on sale there for about $30.
The only reason I know of to go the laptop route is to get detailed engine data like an emissions-testing station or performance tuning shop would want.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
Why don't you get rid of your current car and buy a vehicle which is old enough to be (mostly) free of microelectronics?
Sure, go ahead and get a gas hog rust bucket with crappy emissions.
Just buy a new car. Maintenance free so you dont have to tinker. Put that spare time to something useful. My last three cars (including a hybrid SUV now) I've never even opened the hood. Couldn't care less. I put gas in and it takes me where I want to go. Every few months or so I take it for a checkup. I'm an engineer and naturally curiuis, but car engines? - I could give a rat's ass.
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
http://www.elmelectronics.com/obdic.html
Check out the ELM327 chip on that page.
$33, rs-232 control of the chip and the chip speaks to ODBII: ISO 15765-4 CAN, SAE J1850 PWM, SAE J1850 VPW, ISO 9141-2, ISO 14230-4 and SAE J1939 protocols
You set the chip up with what to monitor and/or control (Similar in style to sending AT commands to a modem) and then it does the work of giving you the data stream.
Build your own standalone test gear, with or without a PC interface.
Googling for "ODB-II Connectors" was how I found the jack ends with pins to solder to. They varied in price a bit so where I purchased from 2 years ago no doubt isn't the cheapest now.
Have fun
If that is all you want AutoZone/AdvanceAuto will usually reset the lights and read the codes for free. They'll try and sell you the part to fix it, but they don't force you to buy it.
I use VCDS on my VW because when I'm diagnosing a problem on my car, I don't want to simultaneously diagnosing my tools.
It takes time and money to reverse stuff. There have been a few open source projects, but all stalled or weren't kept up to date. I see there's a new VW project on SF.
And as far as development goes, don't ask what a CANapelicense and hard ware cost.
http://hackaday.com/?s=obd-II
http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_111859/article.html purchase of article required
Look on Ebay for an ELM327 based OBD II to USB adapter. It should be in the $30.00 to $50.00 range and will do what you want. There is a boat load of software out there for free to get you rolling. Mike
Heh, not quite the same, but I used to turn the Air Conditioning on-then-off to create "Markers" in the data log.
Probably a solid state analog fuel/ignition 'controller', not really a computer in the modern sense. I guess it's a gasser thing. An '81 Jeep I used to own had one, but the '84 MB diesel I have now has no 'black boxes' at all. You can disconnect the battery after it's running if you want.
"Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world." - Alan Greenspan, 1999
Also, the older you get, the more expensive the replacement modules get. My friend had an early 80's Jaguar, and you don't want to know how much the replacement 'computer' for it will cost you. And the chips were more fragile and failure prone back then.
Just borrow a code scanner from Autozone or other autoparts store (deposit usually required). They are simple enough to use. The store may even do the scan for you for free.
The tool rental service that autoparts stores have is a great way to use expensive tools that you may only need once.
But can someone explain what this article is about using a car analogy?
My VW was fuel injected and had hydraulic valve lifters. It wasn't sophisticated compared to a modern vehicle, but it was still a computer in the sense that you couldn't just go in and bypass it or alter the settings in it.
Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse. -- L. Long
The problem is that it is a bit lacking in details.
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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/
wha'? where am i?
an open source hammer...
Unless something has changed in the last year that I've been living abroad, you can go to some of the big auto parts stores. Murray's and Autozone I've personally done this at. Go in there and slap down a $75 deposit on your credit card and they will loan you an OBDII sensor for free. Return the sensor and you'll get your deposit back.
Simple as that. I've done it on a couple occasions. Like I said it may have changed or you may not have either of those that I know for sure do it in your neighborhood, but for those that do it works out great.
A lot of people chatting on the OBDII subject today do not appear for to know what the hell they are talking about.
There is a diagnostic protocol called OBDII
OBDII Connector is the connector where you find all the communication lines used.
Not all lines are used for every vehicle.
Here are the connections for one of my tools for use with GM Engines and J1939/J1587 trucks with OBDII connector. For the bigger truck I use a connector convertor since the connector is different and round.
1 GMLAN Single Wire CAN
2 + J1850 line
3 GMLAN MS CAN H
4 Chassis Ground
5 Signal Ground
6 GMLAN HS CAN H
7 K Line
8 J1708 (J1587 software)
9 GMALDL
10 - J1850
11 GMLAN MS L
12 LSFT H
13 LSFT L
14 GMLAN HS L
15 L Line
16 un-switched VBatt
Pins 1,3,6,8,9,11,12,13 and 14 are called Discretionary, meaning that they will differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. If you look in your car you will see some pins missing, those are simply not supported.
Simple, rip out the factory computer and buy a megasquirt kit. A couple of hundred bucks gets you a kit to build your own stand alone engine management system which can do pretty much anything you'd want it to (engine only). It plugs into your laptop and you can geek out to your hearts desire! Even works with linux if you use the megatunix software.
Of course, if your car has other functions like transmission control built into the engine computer you'll need to sort that out somehow..... Probably best to sell the car and get one that doesn't! IMO, it's worth it, there is nothing like the satisfaction you get from programming your own ECU and being able to tune it in real time while driving.
A lot of those warnings can be reset without any tool, for example to reset my oil life monitor I push the button under it a couple times and get a message that says "oil life reset" at which point I hold the same button in for 5-10 seconds. Other systems can be much less obvious but read through the owners manual, it's often buried in there.
more of the same on Twitter.
Why don't you get rid of your current car and buy a vehicle which is old enough to be (mostly) free of microelectronics?
Because my current car, which has lots of microelectronics, is more reliable and much more pleasant to drive than any vehicle that fits your description. Yes I'm old enough to have owned and driven cars with little in the way of microelectronics. I've even been in the business of buying/selling classic cars. Old cars might look nice but those electronics (usually) make a huge difference in performance and reliability. Car manufacturers don't use them because they think sensors and microcode are cool. They'd rather save the money if the electronics didn't really work.
Then you could not only easily tinker with pretty common tools but also fix mechanical defects as they occur.
That presumes you can find parts for an old/ancient car for reasonable prices. Old and mechanical does not necessarily equate to "easy" or cheap or pleasant to drive or reliable. Today's cars are demonstrably more reliable than those of decades past. Personally I prefer a car that breaks down less in the first place. You're not going to find some relic of a car that isn't going to need constant wrenching to stay on the road.
How do you know that it doesn't trigger when it shouldn't?
You can feel the ABS system work when it comes on. If you can't feel it, it probably didn't come on when it shouldn't have.
Say an emergency stop on the freeway, but without skidding? ABS helps with steering, but it hurts braking power.
Unless the highway is covered in gravel, sand or deep snow, ABS has been proven to improve braking performance such that even expert drivers would have difficulty improving on the braking distances. Furthermore the primary purpose of ABS is to maintain the ability to control the car on slippery surfaces when braking.
I have been fixing my own cars for 40 years and I just came in after spending 40 hours fixing oil and water leaks in my 245,000 mile 93 Dodge Caravan. In extension cars never transcend.
The craft of fixing cars is 1/2 tools and 1/2 knowledge. Even as a tinkerer you will need both.
On the "knowledge" part, I recommend both getting a good shop manual and then doing Internet searches.
Car manufacturers do withhold information and they do set things up so the effect is to "screw the independent mechanic". (Example: Shallow Torx screws on the crankshaft pulley of a MBZ '92 190e. You can't see them, so you strip a few by blindly using a hex bit. It took me 6 months to figure out how to get them out. Got'em out in 10 minutes when I discovered a new tool: external bolt head extractors at a hardware store. I probably would have read about the solution if I had spent more time scrounging on the Internet.)
On the Internet, you will find others who have tried the same task and learned something.
If anything, what I wish for is a syntactically sensitive auto repair search engine. A real AI challenge to be sure, but at least the vocabulary is more limited. (Something to make a structured Wiki out of the jumble a Google search returns.)
The information amateur mechanics like you and me need is scattered among 7 or 8 websites plus another 20 generic "how to fix it" enterprise sites.
There is a ton of stuff that needs to be reverse engineered, described and published accessibly on the internet.
As a tinkerer you can replace the brushes in an electric window motor ($10.50 vs $175 replacement), get the dog paw sand out of a Mercedes console window switch ( $0 and 15 minutes vs $17), figure out the electrical circuit in a '93 Isuzu electric window master switch ( $3 vs. $326) and more.
The key to all this is quality tinkering or reverse engineering and publishing at least some of your findings back on the Internet for others to follow.
And remember, take a deep breath (CO2 ~360 ppm and rising). There is a huge body of information needed to counteract the industry wide effort to exclude the independent mechanic and simplify repair to a "component exchange only" scheme.
There are immense environmental issues now evident about problems with the American auto centric societal scheme. All this stuff is meta information about cars not contained in any shop manual. Perfect action material for the clear eyed tinker and the non-romantic greasy fingernail home mechanic.
One might consider what Robert Pirsig suggested, the thing being worked on is in a way you.
http://www.elektor.com/magazines/2009/september/obd-analyser-ng.1041201.lynkx
I see there's a new VW project on SF.
SF???
As long as we are referencing Wikipedia, you will need this one as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBD-II_PIDs
Armaments, 2-9-21 And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade' N
20% off coupon from HF: http://www.harborfreightusa.com/html/SingleMagLanders/americanprofile/images/20_c.jpg
Sourceforge, perhaps?
I refuse to believe corporations are people until Texas executes one. -- desert rain on http://www.dailykos.com/user/
The GP neglected to mention which bluetooth device he bought and for how much. This is a price gouging hole because of the lack of options in the market. I found that the OBDkey you linked to costs $160 for the bluetooth, and $350 for the WiFi version.
I had discovered this $50 alternative when I had been looking, but don't know if it will work as well as the more expensive ones. ~$50 is surely a much more decent and reasonable price though.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16921
You can read the reviews which are ok, and it even works with the open source scantool.net software, ScanXL, Scanmaster, etc. So it can't be all that bad.Several Free OBD2 software tools are listed on this page:
http://www.webpg.net/sc/pages.asp?pageid=60
More open source ones here:
http://www.geekmyride.org/wiki/index.php/Open_Source_OBD_software
I also noticed a similar one on ebay which is more like $25. Again, no idea how good these actually are.
I have also read that bluetooth may not support sufficient bandwidth for realtime monitoring of modern ECUs with a large number of sensors, data etc. Wifi is better, but I haven't found anything actually affordable.
My own goal was a laptop-less self contained logging device that can be handed to my friends to simply plug in and go. That would allow me to log sensor data and analyse it later to diagnose intermittent issues that we cannot reproduce on demand. I didn't quite succeed in this. The most obvious option is the "Carchip", which turns out to be pretty lame. It can only record about 10 or so parameters and that only at 5 sec intervals. Many intermittent issues only last a few seconds so this would be useless for diagnostics. Its more a fleet management solution.
There aren't many other affordable datalogging devices. I finally bought the very expensive Auterra dashdyno, which turned out to be a huge disappointment also. It can log several times a second but is also limited to 16 pids. This wouldn't be such a problem if the user interface was not an absolute horror to use. I will leave that review for another post. This precludes it being used as a plug and go tool. It is for geeks only and needs babysitting.
I guess the next best idea is that I will buy that bluetooth device next and see if any data logging software is available. Also need to upgrade my phone to Android I guess. At least a laptop is not required, but still not the plug-and-log that I want :/
This looks like a job for geekmyride.org.
It depends on exactly what car you have, but some of the idiot reminder lights don't require any equipment, but just complex manipulation of apparently irrelevant buttons (turn the radio power on, cycle the windows up and down, turn the ignition off, then to accessory, then back on, that sort of thing) or require two pins to be shorted together.
Ask Google about your car.
The preferred solution is to not have a problem.