Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - View Single Post - Just bought this ODB II interface, you guys might be interested.

lyd · 10-08-2008, 09:42 AM

Finished the interface and did some preliminary testing. Here's pics of front and back of the finished board (yes, I am putting my dodgy soldering technique out there for all to see). Last pic is the thing cabled up and encased in my usual temporary enclosure. I'd like to clean the flux off that thing, but I seem to have lost my solvent in the move to WI. *shrug*

The good news is that the interface appears to work. The bad news is that both ScanMaster and EasyOBDII have gone over to a "we don't support ELM clones" or, in some cases, a "we only support the interfaces we sell" attitude in their latest revisions, and older revisions are not available for download. ScanTool.net does not support "clones" in its current revision, but does in the previous revision and that is available for download. The ostensible reason given for this is increased support overhead due to close-but-not-quite emulation. This is no doubt true in part, but I also suspect a bit of arm-twisting and carrot/sticking on the part of the ELM folks.

The second good news, however, is that two other packages in addition to ScanTool.net seem to work. (I say seem because I have verified that they recognize the interface, but have not gotten out to the car with them yet.) They are the free version of Digimoto and WOBD. I have not fully exhausted the list of free apps to test yet.

Using ScanTool.net, I had no problem reading the codes (saw my old friend "EGR Malfunction" there ;-) and reading all the sensor data in real time.

Digimoto is the snazziest of the three that seem to work, and I'm looking forward to testing that next. It has the added interest of being only about $45 for the full version. I don't know what the difference is between the free and commercial versions yet, but if there is something missing that I want that price doesn't sting too much.

So, the summary for now is: I'm happy, you may not be. This is going to do what I need it to do without having to spend any more money on software, may do some fun things I want it to without having to spend any more money on software, and will do those sorts of things if I do spend some more money on software, or get into the code of one of the OSS projects like ScanTool.net.

All for now. Questions?

10-08-2008, 09:42 AM	#10 (permalink)
lyd It smells funny in here. Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Southern Wisconsin Posts: 63 GeeOh - '97 Geo Metro Base 90 day: 33.41 mpg (US) Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Finished the interface and did some preliminary testing. Here's pics of front and back of the finished board (yes, I am putting my dodgy soldering technique out there for all to see). Last pic is the thing cabled up and encased in my usual temporary enclosure. I'd like to clean the flux off that thing, but I seem to have lost my solvent in the move to WI. shrug The good news is that the interface appears to work. The bad news is that both ScanMaster and EasyOBDII have gone over to a "we don't support ELM clones" or, in some cases, a "we only support the interfaces we sell" attitude in their latest revisions, and older revisions are not available for download. ScanTool.net does not support "clones" in its current revision, but does in the previous revision and that is available for download. The ostensible reason given for this is increased support overhead due to close-but-not-quite emulation. This is no doubt true in part, but I also suspect a bit of arm-twisting and carrot/sticking on the part of the ELM folks. The second good news, however, is that two other packages in addition to ScanTool.net seem to work. (I say seem because I have verified that they recognize the interface, but have not gotten out to the car with them yet.) They are the free version of Digimoto and WOBD. I have not fully exhausted the list of free apps to test yet. Using ScanTool.net, I had no problem reading the codes (saw my old friend "EGR Malfunction" there ;-) and reading all the sensor data in real time. Digimoto is the snazziest of the three that seem to work, and I'm looking forward to testing that next. It has the added interest of being only about $45 for the full version. I don't know what the difference is between the free and commercial versions yet, but if there is something missing that I want that price doesn't sting too much. So, the summary for now is: I'm happy, you may not be. This is going to do what I need it to do without having to spend any more money on software, may do some fun things I want it to without having to spend any more money on software, and will do those sorts of things if I do spend some more money on software, or get into the code of one of the OSS projects like ScanTool.net. All for now. Questions?