OBDII in Linux

**timekiller** · 12-28-2006, 07:11 PM

Just got a elmscan5 usb and I want to hook it into my linux carpc. I downloaded the source code for scantool, patched and compiled it. Everything was going well, but I can not get the software to see the hardware.

Here's how far I got so far:

The kernel uses the ftdi usb-serial converter to create the serial interface /dev/ttyUSB0.

The scantool software seems to be written for windows, with linux as an afterthought. As such, the settings list serial interfaces as comm ports. I did an strace and confirmed that the comm#s are translating to the proper tty devices (comm1 = /dev/ttyS0,comm2 = /dev/ttyS1, etc)

I symlinked /dev/ttyUSB0 to /dev/ttyS4, and set scantool to use comm5 and made sure my user has read/write perms.

But for some reason I still get an error that scantool can not find the hardware.

Anyone get this to work ?

Followup question: what are people using for OBDII data in Linux ?

thanks for the feedback.

EDIT - Quick note: I just compiled freediag and noticed the binary it creates is called scantool too. My initial post is about Scantool.net's software :http://www.scantool.net/?mode=displa...y=ScanTool.net

**blk** · 12-29-2006, 01:15 AM

you could
cat /dev/ttyUSB0
to make sure that data's flowing but beware it might (temporarily) screw up your shell. if you get weird chars, just restart the term and it's fine again, or pipe it to less which displays them correctly. (or use nc / netcat if you have)

it's not a solution, but at least you can see if things are wrong on the hardware level.

i'd be interested on your progress on linux-odbII and what you're able to do with it.

**Zimans** · 12-29-2006, 08:59 AM

Your the same timekiller from timekiller.org yes? If not then ignore the rest of this post.

Are you trying to hook the elmscan5 up to your Mazda3? Or do you have a different vehicle now?

The Mazda3 is CAN bus, not OBDII. Looking at Scantool.net it doesn't seem to support CAN.

(I drive a Mazda6, also CAN bus)

Maybe that's why it is not responding?

--Zims

**timekiller** · 12-29-2006, 09:41 AM

blk and Zimans:

I am the same timekiller from timekiller.org. Yes I am hooking to my Mazda3. I should have mentioned that I used the elmscan with scantool in winblows (to test) and it works fine. So I know the hardware works, and the software can talk to the ecu...

**chunkyks** · 11-16-2009, 04:06 PM

Heh. Googling for "obdii linux" shows this thread right near the top, so I thought I'd add a link to obdgpslogger, which has a forum on this site

... just in case anyone in this thread is still interested, three years on.

Gary (-;

**unsungboxer** · 12-06-2009, 08:19 PM

so I might be chasing my tail right now. From my research:

1. Evoscan program (or your favorite win-based OBD2 program) is able to be installed by using wine, winetricks, and dotnet 2.0.
2. USB 'should' work with my evoscan cable (which I think is an FTDI cable)
3. I can create a symbolic link between ttyUSB1 and com1

General rule of thumb is "if the driver works in ubuntu, then it will work with wine"

Problem: Ubuntu 9.10 has broken FTDI drivers. I am hoping once these are fixed with 9.10 then WINE might automatically detect the cable? <fingers crossed and waiting..>

check out the pretty pictures to see why I am so anxious to get it workin!