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For those who want to record your driving data for personal use, as opposed to real-time dissemination, it's amazingly inexpensive. Last week, I bought an ODB2
by jawns 13y ago
For those who want to record your driving data for personal use, as opposed to real-time dissemination, it's amazingly inexpensive.
Last week, I bought an ODB2 Bluetooth adapter on eBay for about $12. You plug it into your car's diagnostics port, below the steering wheel. (It's the same port that the DMV plugs into to check emissions stuff, or that Progressive Insurance uses to give a safe-driver discount.)
With the adapter plugged in, I synced it with Torque Lite, a free Android app on my phone. (There's a $5 paid version that offers more features, but the Lite version offers enough for me.)
In the app, I could see (and record) my speed, estimated MPG, fuel level, acceleration, ambient air temperature, engine coolant temperature, engine load, engine RPMs, fuel pressure, throttle position, and more.
- blueblob 13y agoI wish I had enough karma to upvote this (I tried). That's a brilliant idea and I plan to do the same. $17 sounds fair even for the paid version.
- brewdad 13y agoI picked up the same combo last year. It really is a nifty setup. My problem is that I rarely use it. My driving patterns are irregular enough that I can't safely leave the device plugged in, drawing power. The ODB2 port in my car is very inconvenient to get to, so most days the device just sits in the glove box gathering dust.
- darklajid 13y agoAnd you're sure that the ODB2 port is powered while the ignition is off? I was under the impression that mine isn't.
- npsimons 13y agoThe lights on my OBD2 adaptor come on when I plug it in, no key in the ignition. I can only assume for how cheap and dumb the device is that it has the bluetooth on all the time.