car maintainence & Service schedule

**ramy_zohair** · 12-17-2004, 04:32 AM

Hi everybody,
i was thinking of having a software that would be connected to:
1) the system clock
2) the odometer
that would remind you of service times according to preset times or mileage.
(eg: oil and filter change, tyre pressure check, brake pads check.....and so many others). some kind of an alarm, what do you think, how can it be done, anyone has any ideas.
Sorry if y'all have discussed this before. I don't think i saw it on the forum.

**DarquePervert** · 12-17-2004, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by ramy_zohair

Hi everybody,
i was thinking of having a software that would be connected to:
1) the system clock
2) the odometer
that would remind you of service times according to preset times or mileage.
(eg: oil and filter change, tyre pressure check, brake pads check.....and so many others). some kind of an alarm, what do you think, how can it be done, anyone has any ideas.
Sorry if y'all have discussed this before. I don't think i saw it on the forum.

The clock part is easy. Use Scheduled tasks within Windows. There are other scheduling apps out there as well. The odometer part would require an OBD interface. That would NOT work with the Scheduled tasks, I don't think, so you'd have to write something customer. Realistically, I don't think it would be too difficult.

Although, I can't really say that I'd like to be driving and talking ont he phone and all of a sudden my truck tells me that I need an oil change, especially since I'm on a long roadtrip (which I do relatively often). PErhaps if it told you only upon bootup or something. Just my opinion.

You also realize that this would only work if the user/driver inputs the service into the software when it's done, so the alarm will be shut off... Sort of an automotive snooze button.

**god_of_cpu** · 12-17-2004, 09:44 AM

Originally Posted by DarquePervert

The clock part is easy. Use Scheduled tasks within Windows. There are other scheduling apps out there as well. The odometer part would require an OBD interface. That would NOT work with the Scheduled tasks, I don't think, so you'd have to write something customer. Realistically, I don't think it would be too difficult.

You can't read miles travelled or anything like an odometer from the OBD II interface. The only way to do it is to keep track of the speed every time the car is on and calculate miles travelled by integrating the distance travelled from the speed every second or so.

**wi77iam** · 12-17-2004, 12:03 PM

You can use your GPS to accumulate miles travelled.

**ramy_zohair** · 12-18-2004, 01:57 PM

Originally Posted by DarquePervert

The clock part is easy. Use Scheduled tasks within Windows. There are other scheduling apps out there as well. The odometer part would require an OBD interface. That would NOT work with the Scheduled tasks, I don't think, so you'd have to write something customer. Realistically, I don't think it would be too difficult.

Although, I can't really say that I'd like to be driving and talking ont he phone and all of a sudden my truck tells me that I need an oil change, especially since I'm on a long roadtrip (which I do relatively often). PErhaps if it told you only upon bootup or something. Just my opinion.

You also realize that this would only work if the user/driver inputs the service into the software when it's done, so the alarm will be shut off... Sort of an automotive snooze button.

Your truck won't stop if you have to change the oil. Since there are a lot of things you need to maintain and service in the car, it is difficult to keep track of all of them, and when you last did this or that service. That's why the preset times and odometer readings will be compared with the current values. If something needs to be serviced it will show in a different color for example. This is not your morning alarm. You can have them showing in a different color if you want, and just call the program whenever you want to. maybe a system diagram of the car with the all parts shown in green, and the parts that need servicing will be shown in red. something like that would be cool. I'm sure the code for such a program isn't that difficult.

Originally Posted by god_of_cpu

You can't read miles travelled or anything like an odometer from the OBD II interface. The only way to do it is to keep track of the speed every time the car is on and calculate miles travelled by integrating the distance travelled from the speed every second or so.

I don't think that would be an efficient way as this will require more processing power.

Originally Posted by wi77iam

You can use your GPS to accumulate miles travelled.

This is a good idea. Maybe, make the GPS software write the total distance travelled to a txt file everytime when exitting, and make the service program read that value when starting.

Is there anybody willing to work on such a thing ????

**chuckctv** · 12-19-2004, 09:34 AM

May i offer a simpler suggestion, might not be as cool, nor have the bells and whistles, but just write a tiny dbase program, enter all the milege info on the next couple of years for different service jobs, and have it just pop up everytime you start your car-pc with the next service job and milege point, then just compare it to your milege, when you get the job done just click a DONE button and it time stamps it for history records, and apon next system startup it will show next service time/odometer request.

my 2 cents...

chuck