Macworld 2010: Diagnose your car's issues with CarMD

My (perhaps wrong) understanding is that iPhone SDK 3.0 added an "External Accessory Framework". However, the only external accessories visible to the system via this API are "Made for iPod" and "Works with iPhone" licensed devices.

A standard Bluetooth SPP ODB-II scanner (or GPS receiver for that matter) hasn't gotten (paid for) Apple's official external accessory blessing.

GPS applications seem to have found ways around this by jailbreaking -- http://www.roqy-bluetooth.net/wp/

The review, of course, says "Anything that can save me some dough is welcome." In that respect, software that locks you into using proprietary hardware, rather than an inexpensive commodity ELM chipset ODB-II USB scanner isn't too much of a bargain. You might have a different point if it was advanced as "consumer friendliness" for a premium price of more than double the cost of existing Windows and Linux solutions. I'd be willing to pay a bit extra for an OSX ODB scanning solution, but not $50+. If that's all that's available, I'll keep sendng my ODB USB device into a VMWare virtual machine running another OS.

And, while on the topic of unnecessarily expensive solutions, Rev. looks like a nice bit of code. Too bad the iPhone doesn't support standard Bluetooth SPP so that a Bluetooth ODB-II scanner could work with it, instead of needing the considerably more expensive WiFi versions.

I'll stick to my ScanGauge thanks. OBDII reader and extra gauges. When needed just look up the code on one of the OBD sites out there and get a good idea what may be wrong.

Like this one: http://www.obd-codes.com/

Of course like mentioned, most auto parts places will scan for free and tell you what it might be.

2nd on Rev. I have a friend who has rev and it's very good!

Guys -- I've had beautiful software on my iPhone for a long time now that does this, and a lot more, without needing to drag my damn laptop around.

http://www.devtoaster.com/products/rev/

It's called Rev. Seriously, it's amazing. I use it on the track and to diagnose my car, and again NO LAPTOP.

Seriously, what an odd review. Is this a friend of TUAW's editors?

Free and open-source PyOBD (http://www.obdtester.com/pyobd) worked under Panther and claims compatibility with "any Posix-type system meeting the requirements below":

1. An ELM 32x OBD-II interface such as ELM-USB
2. Python 2.x or greater
3. pySerial
4. A car supporting OBD-II

OSX driver for the USB ELM interfaces is available here: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

Any auto parts store will scan OBD2 codes for free. Your OBD2 port is a diagnostic tool, not a well trained mechanic. Yes, sometimes something as simple as the gas cap turns on your light, but some of the codes that come across are so vague, so unspecific, they're only good for diagnosing what's NOT wrong with the car.

I did some quick checking and found exactly ONE software solution for Mac OSX called Yhasi (http://www.yhasi.com/index.html) for $49. An ODBII/USB cable runs $25-$40 on ebay. So you can have your own solution for $75+ or you can get it all in one package that you know will work with this newcomer. Not bad if you ask me.

If you think CarMD is interesting then you might want to check out CarCheckup. It does the "Check Engine Light" functionality that CarMD and the $39 auto parts store scanners do, but it also give you information about the problem in terms a mere mortal can understand.

It also monitors telemetry like speed, RPM, Throttle Position and records it along with trip data like date/time, trip length and the like.

Check it out at http://www.carcheckup.com

Most auto parts stores sell OBDII Code Readers for about $30 - they will tell you what is causing your Check Engine Light to come on.

The best solution is to purchase an OBDII cable and some real software - theres plenty of neat features you can turn on and options you can change, codes you can clear, etc by having some real software.