I believe in the open source methods too. I'm just finishing an OBD2 interface based on Excel/VBA, that uses any generic device with the ELM327 protocol (doesn't necessarily need to be the ELM327). The good thing about Excel you have complete flexibility in expanding or modifying the app. Any one with basic skills (programmers or not) can modify and enhance it. I am planning to post it here when I'm able to, and see if there's any interest. I'm not a big fan of Windows for real time processing, but it basically works well enough, and it is such a widely used app that most everyone already has installed on the PC. As to the mode 6, I was wondering about the "secrets" of this too, and thanks to everyone's comments above, I added a page to the obd2VBA app that displays the mode 6 results. Thanks!