Suggestion: Older cars

[Callumgw]

Hi there,
ODBII is a great thing and I think the world can thank California for it.

I often play with cars that are older than 1996 and therefore don't have the luxury of an ODBII port, but I'd still like the benefit of using the great tools that are being developed for these ports. I sure I'm not alone. I have been looking for a system that would allow for ODBII ports to be retro fitted to older cars. Now I understand that it would be extremely difficult to source and replicate all the data options in the ODBII standard for a large variety of cars. However, even just the option to provide power and RPM would be extremely useful in a logger. If the hardware was managed in an open source manner many enthusiast groups are likely to pick up the case for their individual cars and develop input solutions for this hardware and their vehicles of interest.

While being technically minded a project like this is a little beyond me, but from the suite of tools offered by Freematics, I'm sure it sit well within your capabilities.

Happy to hear the thoughts of others,

Regards,
Callum

[protomor]

I think you've found yourself in a Catch 22. The reason for OBD2 was because manufacturers made too many OBD types and none of them were standardized. So by making a solution that would take pre OBD2 inputs, you'd have solved the problem that OBD2 was created to surpass.

On the other hand, I am looking into a way to "retrofit" the OBD2 dongle into non OBD2 cars. You'd simply power the freematics unit through a 12v source and attach another arduino to do the manual data collection with your own sensors/inputs. Although, theoretically, at that point you'd no longer need the freematics unit itself but I like keeping the ability to pull it out and put it into any other car.