Hello all,
I am very very new to sparkfun and totally new to the forum.
I am generally dealing with automotive so i am no expert on…probably everything else…and no expert on automotive as well, but i know lots of stuff.
Anyway, I was messing around with some automotive electronics when the idea hit me.
You can say that i am friendly person and i like to talk and interact with people and anything else i can find.
Idea: Create something that will allow me talk to control units on the bench. Thus i will be able to read/clear faults, actuate the units/gauges etc etc. I find rude and unsocial from an object, such automotive electronics to refuse on replying when i talk to them. And people thinking i am crazy because these things are “objects”.
Why: I generally have people sending me electronics for repairs. They sometimes or let’s say mostly do not include necessary info as i request. so being able to talk to the units can help and help me spend less time.
How: I have no idea. Talking to a module through CAN-bus or any other network, does not seem easy in my mind. Of course there are various CAN boards in the market flying around but none does what i need.
General idea is that there will be some sort of pin-out, or preferably OBD, on a board with wires that you connect them to the appropriate pins. TA-DAAAAAA. You are able to talk to the module.
What does this require: Knowledge on which electronics are required and create the pcb setup (not check), knowledge of what is where to get the pin connections right on the modules (definitely check), soldering capabilities to create the pcb (check), breadboard as an alternative (check), maybe some software writing/scripts etc (not check for sure).
As I write this one now I saw my RPI, on which I thought I could use on this. Bad thing is that I have no knowledge or at least not the required knowledge on software. Maybe RPI could be used though?
I took the time now to dig on this idea and found this: https://www.scantool.net/dev-tools/stn11xx/ .
Maybe can be useful? Its not done with RPI or Arduino, and it does not communicate with any modules. It only emulates modules and has an OBD as a communication port. But still it’s a good idea I guess.
Conclusion: I definitely need help on this.
If anyone here with more knowledge on the subject, could shed some light would be great.
Also if anyone has any idea of any equipment that help on troubleshooting as well as testing and verifying issue/repair, is also very welcome to suggest. (Other than scope, multimeter. Something more advanced and technologically up to date to get these complex types of jobs done.)
Thanks,
BADMOJO. :dance: