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These things are a god-send for the auto industry in my opinion...specifically professional drivers. as a lead automotive mechanic for a semi truck shop, I bou

These things are a god-send for the auto industry in my opinion...specifically professional drivers. as a lead automotive mechanic for a semi truck shop, I bought about 5 pi's for our techs. We use them for reading OBD diagnostics and doing resets or long-term vehicle observation for certain problems. Theyre cheaper than most of the commercial rent-seeking computer tools we use and if a tech accidentally crushes one, its cheaper than dirt to replace. We even have a customer who keeps long term backups of log books and GPS data on a pi running off her cigar lighter, as well as her favorite audio books. Trucking companies dont care if you whine the most about your miles, but send them a ZIP file of 6 years of logs and the CEO himself will write you a pay raise. best of all, she tucks the pi in her shirt when she switches trucks. Try doing that with a qualcomm or a laptop!

bnycum 8y ago
Just curious what software are you using for the ODB diagnostics? I'm currently using a cheap ELM327 reader hooked up to an Android tablet with Torque. I have wanted to switch to using a Pi with software I could modify myself, but I guess my previous search was a little short. It's a dream, but I would love to see some open-source software that would be equivalent to the diagnostic tablets from some of the tool trucks.
IloveHN84 8y ago
What kind of software are you using for reading OBD?
- makerofspoons 8y ago
  Not OP, but I found this Python library for reading data from a car's OBD port that people seem to be having success with, including on the Pi: https://python-obd.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://python-obd.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
- teh_klev 8y ago
  This looks like the kinda setup: https://www.cowfishstudios.com/blog/obd-pi-raspberry-pi-displaying-car-diagnostics-obd-ii-data-on-an-aftermarket-head-unit https://www.cowfishstudios.com/blog/obd-pi-raspberry-pi-disp... Also a search for "reading OBD diagnostics with raspberry pi" brings back some promising results.
valarauca1 8y ago
how do you deal with power surges during start up and shut down. I imagine the inductive loads/peak inrush would be massive?
trumped 8y ago
For when you need it only for OBD-II, this might be a better/cheaper option: https://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-Bluetooth-Mini-ELM327-V2-1-OBD-II-OBD2-Auto-Car-Diagnostic-Interface-Scanner/192370047568 https://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-Bluetooth-Mini-ELM327-V2-1-OBD-... (it connects to your phone via bluetooth, it needs no external power and there's a bunch of apps on the Play store that you can use).
orev 8y ago
A word of warning for that customer using it for backups — pi’s have a habit of corrupting sd cards once in a while, or the sd cards just go bad. Make sure to have backups of the backups!
- mcmatterson 8y ago
  This is a perennial problem for the handful of Pi's I have deployed around the house (homebrew DAC, weather station, boiler manager (wip), workbench terminal). They're all 'purpose built' and sit almost entirely idle while fulfilling a single, usually non-interactive task. And after 18 months or so, they all start failing the same way: * Random userspace crashes (most recent one was a reproduceable crash in the bowels of the python runtime) happen with greater frequency * (Usually in the process of debugging the above) strange filesystem artifacts show up (files disappearing after reboot, etc) * Booting ends up taking 5+ minutes, if it succeeds at all. The solution to the above ends up being 'rebuild the box on a new SD card'. This is usually on 'brand name' (Kingston, etc) SD cards bought through proper retail channels, so while they're not high end cards, they're at least not (likely) counterfeit either. I still don't have enough data to know if simply dd'ing the old card over is sufficient, or if a full ground-up rebuild is sufficient. Would love advice on this, especially around brands of cards with known good lifetimes in similar environments.
  - dbuder 8y ago
    This was recommended in a previous HN post. https://www.digikey.com.au/product-detail/en/atp-electronics-inc/AF8GUD3A-OEM/AF8GUD3A-OEM-ND/5361063 https://www.digikey.com.au/product-detail/en/atp-electronics... I would consider using a SBC with onboard eMMC/NAND flash, such as the beaglebone or orange pi.

bnycum 8y ago

Just curious what software are you using for the ODB diagnostics? I'm currently using a cheap ELM327 reader hooked up to an Android tablet with Torque. I have wanted to switch to using a Pi with software I could modify myself, but I guess my previous search was a little short. It's a dream, but I would love to see some open-source software that would be equivalent to the diagnostic tablets from some of the tool trucks.

IloveHN84 8y ago

What kind of software are you using for reading OBD?

makerofspoons 8y ago
Not OP, but I found this Python library for reading data from a car's OBD port that people seem to be having success with, including on the Pi: https://python-obd.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://python-obd.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
teh_klev 8y ago
This looks like the kinda setup: https://www.cowfishstudios.com/blog/obd-pi-raspberry-pi-displaying-car-diagnostics-obd-ii-data-on-an-aftermarket-head-unit https://www.cowfishstudios.com/blog/obd-pi-raspberry-pi-disp... Also a search for "reading OBD diagnostics with raspberry pi" brings back some promising results.

valarauca1 8y ago

how do you deal with power surges during start up and shut down. I imagine the inductive loads/peak inrush would be massive?

trumped 8y ago

For when you need it only for OBD-II, this might be a better/cheaper option: https://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-Bluetooth-Mini-ELM327-V2-1-OBD-II-OBD2-Auto-Car-Diagnostic-Interface-Scanner/192370047568 https://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-Bluetooth-Mini-ELM327-V2-1-OBD-... (it connects to your phone via bluetooth, it needs no external power and there's a bunch of apps on the Play store that you can use).

orev 8y ago

A word of warning for that customer using it for backups — pi’s have a habit of corrupting sd cards once in a while, or the sd cards just go bad. Make sure to have backups of the backups!

mcmatterson 8y ago
This is a perennial problem for the handful of Pi's I have deployed around the house (homebrew DAC, weather station, boiler manager (wip), workbench terminal). They're all 'purpose built' and sit almost entirely idle while fulfilling a single, usually non-interactive task. And after 18 months or so, they all start failing the same way: * Random userspace crashes (most recent one was a reproduceable crash in the bowels of the python runtime) happen with greater frequency * (Usually in the process of debugging the above) strange filesystem artifacts show up (files disappearing after reboot, etc) * Booting ends up taking 5+ minutes, if it succeeds at all. The solution to the above ends up being 'rebuild the box on a new SD card'. This is usually on 'brand name' (Kingston, etc) SD cards bought through proper retail channels, so while they're not high end cards, they're at least not (likely) counterfeit either. I still don't have enough data to know if simply dd'ing the old card over is sufficient, or if a full ground-up rebuild is sufficient. Would love advice on this, especially around brands of cards with known good lifetimes in similar environments.
- dbuder 8y ago
  This was recommended in a previous HN post. https://www.digikey.com.au/product-detail/en/atp-electronics-inc/AF8GUD3A-OEM/AF8GUD3A-OEM-ND/5361063 https://www.digikey.com.au/product-detail/en/atp-electronics... I would consider using a SBC with onboard eMMC/NAND flash, such as the beaglebone or orange pi.