Every car produced after 1996 is fitted with an On Board Diagnostic (OBD2) port. It’s used by technicians to check the health of your car and to see what parts are failing. Nowadays you can do more with your OBD2 port, for example use it while driving to show more information about your cars sensors than your normal dashboard does.
Browsing the iPhone App Store I hit on this gem by accident. I found an iPhone application called DashCommand and started reading. It turned out that you needed a device to connect to your OBD2 port in your car. This device creates a connection to your laptop of iPone. Many are available but I bought the PLX Kiwi Wifi, because it creates a wireless connection. So my setup is an iPhone, a device to connect to your OBD2 port (PLX Kiwi Wifi) and a piece of software (DashCommand), but of course you can use many different setups.
Connecting everything
It took my no more than 5 minutes to connect everything to my Suzuki Swift 1.5 GLX, the ODB2 port is easily located at the drivers side, under the dashboard at the right side. The PLX Kiwi Wifi came with an easy five step manual, all you need to remember was the change the wifi network of your iPhone to the network that the PLX Kiwi Wifi creates. Start the iPhone app DashCommand and you’re done!
Monitoring car sensors
It depends on your car capabilities what sensors can be read. I was quite surprised by the number of sensors that are available in my Suzuki Swift. Just to name a few: speed, torque, throttle position, horse power, intake manifold pressure, air intake temperature, fuel pressure, mass air flow rate, fuel consumption, engine load, ignition timing, coolant temperature, etc… Take a look at some of my screenshots and be surprised what your car knows about you :)
More information
- OBD2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics/
- DashCommand: http://www.palmerperformance.com/products/dashcommand/
- PLX Kiwi Wifi: http://www.plxkiwi.com/kiwiwifi/
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