DIY OBD-II Car Computer Interface with LCD and Microcontroller

You're expecting an electronics video? Well, you're right. In this video, we're going to
show you how you can hook up your NerdKits microcontroller kit to the onboard computer
in your car and read the data from it.
Since 1996, all cars by law have a onboard computer that is hooked up to a bunch of sensors
in your car. The primary purpose of these sensors is to provide diagnostic information
about the car, like for your annual emissions test, or troubleshooting the check engine
light. Or you can also connect to the computer to get interesting real-time data, such as
speed and RPMs.
We have three wires that go to the NerdKit and plug right into the port. The three wires
are the battery, ground, and the data line.
Those three wires go up to the breadboard, which holds the microcontroller and the small
circuit that helps interface with the car's computer.
All cars are required to have an OBD-II connector, but that doesn't mean they all follow the
same standard. In fact, most major car manufacturers follow a different standard for communicating
with this bus. So, before undertaking this project, make sure you know what standard
your car follows.
The car we're reading data from is a '97 Chevy Cavalier, which means that it's using the
VPW standard, mostly found on GM cars.
Most digital signaling uses high and low voltages to represent digital 1s and 0s. However, the
variable pulse width protocol uses a slightly different method. It varies the duration of
the high and low periods to indicate 1s and 0s, and it uses a voltage transition to indicate
that the next bit has started.
The NerdKit is continuously polling the car computer and retrieving the data about the
velocity, RPM, percentage throttle, and the engine coolant temperature.
This circuit uses two optocouplers to allow the microcontroller to communicate at the
higher voltage levels used by the car. This way, the two halves of the circuit are connected
optically, but not electrically. Inside each optocoupler is an LED and a phototransistor.
The current flowing through the LED produces light that turns on the phototransistor, and
this is how the information is passed back and forth. We actually use two optocouplers:
one for transmitting to the car, and one for receiving information from the car.
The code implements the VPW standard. It uses two timer interrupts and a pin change interrupt.
One of the timer interrupts is used for receiving, and one for sending, and the pin change is
used to figure out when a transition has happened.
When we're trying to read the data from the car, we use the pin change interrupt to watch
the voltage changes. When a transition has occured, we check the timer and decide whether
the car was sending a high bit, or a low bit.
When we're trying to send information to the car, we use the other timer to decide when
we want to change the pin voltage depending on whether we want to send a 0 or a 1.
In the main loop, we keep sending the codes to read the values we want, and display the
values to the LCD.
For more information about our kits, or more videos like this one, visit www.NerdKits.com.
Now, let's go for a drive.