On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) and Electronics simulation

I find the progress that Vehicles have made when it comes to instrumentation fascinating.

It has taken a while since OBD on vehicles was mandated in USA and most of the world to get to a level of functionality which we have had in other areas for at least 10 years.

The progress of Smartphones have facilitated the progress of OBD and vehicle instrumentation, but cars are usually not changed every 2 years (in average), like Smartphones are.

Some manufacturers are more advanced than others, with Tesla leading the way, but eventually all will get there in the next 10 years.

HOWTOs

During my end of year vacation I decided to dig in into OBD and Electronic Simulation (using Ubuntu Linux of course).

I documented my findings in a nice howto at one of my Gitlab repos. I also keep it sync to Github, for wider availability.

• OBD Howto: https://gitlab.com/viktorgodard/robotics/-/blob/master/On-Board_Diagnostics-OBDII-on_Linux_howto.md

• Electronics Simulation Howto: https://gitlab.com/viktorgodard/robotics/-/blob/master/Electronics_simulation_on_Linux-howto.md

SOFTWARE

From the software that I tested on Ubuntu Linux 20.04, I liked the best: Screen, Scantool, and PiOBD-II. There are others that I still want to try though. See my howto for details.

HARDWARE

When it comes to OBD devices that work well with Ubuntu Linux 20.04 and did not give me any issues when connecting to a couple of vehicles, I got these 2 USB to OBD ones:

Xtrcuk ELM327 OBD2 Scanner USB

OBDLink EX FORScan OBD Adapter USB

Next I will try with an OBD to Bluetooth device:

OBDLink MX+ OBD2 Bluetooth Scanner

BTW, I highly appreciate if you use the links above, as it will provide me with a small commission to continue my experiments :)

Mobile Platforms Today (update)

On 2014, I expected that by now:

• Tizen would have taken a big share of the car infotainment, appliance, and wearable markets.
• Firefox OS would have taken a big share of the entry-level Smartphone market, especially in developing economies.
• Ubuntu Mobile would have taken a small share of the Android/iOS Smartphone market.

As of 2020, the above [partially] happen (and it maybe that 6 years is not long enough)

• Tizen has made big inroads on all those markets, mainly supported by Samsung, but it has not yet taken over.
• Firefox OS was discontinued by Mozilla, but being Open Source, other companies (like Panasonic and Acadine) and projects (like B2G OS and KaiOS) were able to fork it and use it in their devices.
• Ubuntu Touch was also discontinued by Canonical, but again, being Open Source, the UBports community took it over and it’s working with Purism to bring a niche , security focus, Smartphone to market. Also, Pine64 supports the UBports fork on their PinePhone.

Probably the take away is that there is a latent and ever evolving and growing consumer market that demands devices that run Open Source mobile operating systems as they are more versatile and can outlive the company that created them pivoting, increasing cost sharply, or loosing interest in further development (which is usually the case with Close Source software and hardware).

Companies that create Open Source Software and/or Hardware have as their primary goals to be Agile, improve Society, and leave a Legacy; with a secondary goal of been profitable.

This approach, even that is counter-intuitive, actually works because as technology advances faster every year, having to support legacy proprietary technology eventually becomes a heavy burden and companies end up not been able to pivot on time to deal with new competition and/or trends, or they decide to abandon the product and make a lot of customers turn to their competitors. If Software and Hardware are Open Source, customers can get 3rd party support, create forks themselves or via a community or association, therefore letting the original company pivot and still been a loyal customer for whatever new products they develop in the future.

For more info, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tizen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_OS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Touch

Update on tech interests and experience

Currently, my interests are on the realm of Open Source software and hardware technologies.
– Automation, Agile, GitLab.
– Linux, Open Stack.
– Kubernetes, Containers.

I’m also interested in emerging technologies such as:
– Machine Learning.
– Artificial Intelligence.
– Blockchain.
– Quantum technologies.
– RISC-V.
– Brain Computer Interfaces.
– Space Exploration.

And of course, Cloud. The one that I enjoy the most is AWS, with GCE in second place.

I’m not as keen on projects created in Kickstarter (and other similar sites) as I was before. Many of those end up under-delivering or eventually dying, and no longer supported. Some of them very interesting projects, like the Oculus Rift.

Unfortunately, buying the demo product is not as productive as investing in the company making the product. At the end of the day, all this one-off products end up being costly temporary toys.
It would be great if there would be a platform that allows you to invest in the companies or projects and get some equity instead of only the product.

It seems to be thought that this is the realm of the Venture Capital firms, at least for now.
Of course, I’m talking about been able to invest a very small percentage of what a VC firm can invest.  I think allowing this would be more productive for the public than been able to bet on sports or buying lottery tickets.

MOBILE PLATFORMS TODAY

When it comes to mobile devices, Android and iOS are the current dominant platforms.  There are other ones, but the ones that IMO have a bright future are the following trio:

– Tizen : Open Source Linux based platform, sponsored mainly by Samsung. Already running in Samsung smart watches.

– Firefox OS : Open Source Linux based platform, sponsored mainly by the Mozilla Foundation. Already running in many low end smart phones sold the world over. I have the latest ZTE one.

– Ubuntu Mobile : Open Source Linux based platform, sponsored mainly by Canonical. Promising, I have tested it on my old Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 devices.

Overall I see Firefox OS as the best mass market alternative because the low resources it needs and the focus on applications coded in HTML5 and JavaScript.
IMO, in the long run for mobile devices,  Java (or Java like) is a no-go, and .NET and objective C are not any better either.

On occasion, I still miss the simplicity of my long gone Palm Pilot III, and the elegance of my Palm Pilot V.
The Palm Treo 650 was my first Smart Phone, and probably the most usable and well integrated that I have ever used.

Now, a “Palm Treo 650”-like smart phone with Firefox OS, that will be my dream phone!

Robin

So, Ruth and I have the cutest puppy!

It’s a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, 9 months old and still has a lot of energy.

20121014

She’s curious about everything.

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