[TriLUG] ODB2 bluetooth help needed

[Joseph Mack NA3T]

On Thu, 29 Jul 2010, Bill Farrow wrote:

> Hi, I am trying to connect my Ubuntu laptop to the On 
> Board Diagnostics in my car using a $35 bluetooth adapter. 
> I have been following a nice guide for doing this on an 
> Andriod Phone [1].  From Ubuntu I can detect the ODB2 
> bluetooth adapter, get the MAC address, and create a 
> serial device for it (/dev/rfcomm0).

Hi Bill,

         I'd be interested on hearing progress here. About a 
year ago I bought serial, usb and bluetooth versions of 
these adapters and managed to get a connection to the car 
via serial and usb (I think I got the rpm and a few other 
measurements). I was thinking of making this a project for a 
couple of months. I didn't get a bluetooth connection to the 
ODB2 system and I didn't have a way of checking that my 
linux bluetooth installation was working (no other bluetooth 
devices to test with). I did manage to put in the bluetooth 
PIN using a windows laptop.

 	I got busy with other things and haven't got back to 
it. At the moment, if I wantd to do an ODB2 reading, I'd 
have to go to the gas station or buy an ODB2 reader, which 
is a little ignominious (self proclaimed Linux expert's 
laptop doesn't talk to his car; windows and Mac users report 
no problems).

 	Just googled for ODB2 and find a lot more entries 
than I did a year ago.

 	Do you know about this

http://www.carobd.com/index.html

> When I run minicom I get prompted for the blutooth PIN, 
> and then minicom fails to open the device.  I am not even 
> sure if the pin number authentication succeeds...

I expect you'd see something like "OK" back.

> $ minicom
> <prompted for password at this point - gui dialog box>
> minicom: cannot open /dev/rfcomm0: No such file or directory

Does minicom list /dev/rfcomm0 as one of its devices?

Joe
-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml
Homepage http://www.austintek.com/ It's GNU/Linux!