Robert Kwiatkowski designs and deploys data logging systems for Condition Based Maintenance on aircraft carriers. To improve the fuel efficiency of his thirsty truck, he’s doing data logging via the OBDII port using this simple interface, a laptop computer and Windmill, a data acquisition application… Link.
2 thoughts on “DIY – improving fuel efficiency”
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this is AMAZING!! i’ve always wanted to make one of these, especially back when i actually owned a sports car.
what i don’t understand on his schem’s though is why in the world he used a DB25 connector (parallel port connector on desktops) and then adapted it to a DB9 connector (serial connector). why not just use a DB9 on both sides so that you can use a cheap serial cable, or a USB to serial adapter cable. I guess even better yet would be to drop a USB chip onto the board, shouldn’t be too hard and i believe that there is a marvel chip especially for that. of course, you probably want to use a junky old computer to do this with, so maybe serial is the way to go!
i don’t know if this has been covered or not yet, but there is also an entire open source car computer project going on called MegaSquirt(http://megasquirt.info/), and prices are pretty cheap(~$200 for the controller setup, plus any modifications that you have to make to your car). Here’s a really good writeup of an install on a volvo:
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/news/102005/megacapable-beating-the-man-with-diy-fuel-injection-from-megasquirt.php
they have some amazing projects on their forums, including traction control, transmission shift, etc. etc. amazing what happens with a little corroboration!
thank you much for posting this, gonna have to go to the electronics store now, pick up some parts!!