Compatability with all manufacturers.

[Blair]

I'm just curious what hardware from the openxc site is compatible with all US manufacturers? I purchased the Ford VI and got it to worked with a ford focus, but not with a Mercedes-Benz or a Nissan? Is this because of the .bin file?

The file i'm using on the hardware is the obd2-translated file.

If I purchased the CrossChasm BT or BLE would I have better luck with other manufacturers?

Thanks in advance.

[Eric Marsman]

The OpenXC VIs use OBD-II pins 6,14 & 3,11 which should be compatible with other vehicles. OpenXC only supports CAN data for Ford vehicles with our released firmware on developer.ford.com. You can build your own firmware if you have CAN information for the other manufactures.

OBD-II Diagnostics should be the same across manufacturers for standard PIDS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBD-II_PIDs). The translated-obd2 firmware sends just a few automatically. You can send your own from any of the OpenXC apps.

You shouldn't see a difference between the Reference VI or C5s across manufacturers. It is likely a bus speed or configuration if you are not seeing any data on the other vehicles. 

[Peter Riis Hansen]

Hi all,

I'm looking deep into this now.
I have received my OpenXC VI dongle i Fridays.
I works without any problem on my Ford C-Max

But if I attach it to my FIAT 500 I just get a red light in the dongle. On the Ford C-Max I get a blue light when I attach it to the OBD port.

Should it not be possible to use this on the Fiat as well?

What is the difference on the "red" and "blue" light in the dongle when you attach it to the ODB plug

Best regards,

Peter Riis Hansen

[Pete Treman]

Hey,

Most modern vehicles talk using CAN however different manufactures use different messages over CAN, even different vehicle programs vary in the messages.  The Ford specific firmware's available at developer.ford.com use the Ford  internal messages for those vehicle programs and that is why those firmware only work on Ford vehicles.

However there is a federally mandated standard OBD-II that has a lot of the same data available just not at the same rate and requires active communication on the network and we have a firmware that can pull most of the same data via OBD-II.  You can find a zip of all non Ford specific firmware on the releases page https://github.com/openxc/vi-firmware/releases or you can build it your self http://vi-firmware.openxcplatform.com/en/master/compile/example-builds.html?highlight=obd#automatic-recurring-obd-ii-requests-build.

Hopefully this both answers your question as to why the Ford specific firmware doesn't work on the Fiat, as well as provides a solution so you can use OpenXC with your Fiat.

[Peter Riis Hansen]

Hi Pete,

First thanks for your answer.

I have been working with vehicles in many years so I know about the ODB-II and so on.
Yesterday I downloaded https://github.com/openxc/vi-firmware/releases.

Then I tried to load the: vi-obd2-firmware-FORDBOARD-ctv8.2.1.bin in my OpenXC VI dongle and also tried with the: vi-translated_obd2-firmware-FORDBOARD-ctv8.2.1.bin

But If I use them I just get a red light on the VI dongle. If I attach it in my Ford C-Max I get a blue light in the dongle.
In the FIAT I can read from the ODB port to other very cheap dongles and see the data on my phone in as App
Or else I'm not totally understand this.

Should one of the "bin's" not be working on the Fiat?

Best regards

Peter

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[Peter Riis Hansen]

Is there realy not a person here in this group that can help with this question:

Hi Pete,

First thanks for your answer.

I have been working with vehicles in many years so I know about the ODB-II and so on.
Yesterday I downloaded https://github.com/openxc/vi-firmware/releases.

Then I tried to load the: vi-obd2-firmware-FORDBOARD-ctv8.2.1.bin in my OpenXC VI dongle and also tried with the: vi-translated_obd2-firmware-FORDBOARD-ctv8.2.1.bin

But If I use them I just get a red light on the VI dongle. If I attach it in my Ford C-Max I get a blue light in the dongle.
In the FIAT I can read from the ODB port to other very cheap dongles and see the data on my phone in as App
Or else I'm not totally understand this.

Should one of the "bin's" not be working on the Fiat?

Best regards

Peter

[Pete Treman]

Hi Peter,

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you as it took some time to diagnose the issue,

There was an issue with the build scripts for generating releases not setting the correct flags on builds, Specifically the OBD-II firmware did not have the write to bus flag set.

If you check the releases page the binary zip has been re uploaded with the correct flags set.
However, In case that does not solve your problem, That likely means that you will have to build a custom firmware for that vehicle, OBD-II firmware by default try's to request the ignition on message over OBD-II and sets its power state from that, the most likely causes for it to not be working are bus speed (Our default is 500k) or the ignition on signal not being available on that pin set.

If you are interested in compiling your own OBD-II firmware the following pages will be of use to you.
http://vi-firmware.openxcplatform.com/en/master/compile/example-builds.html#automatic-recurring-obd-ii-requests-build
http://vi-firmware.openxcplatform.com/en/master/config/diagnostic.html

[Peter Riis Hansen]

Thanks Pete,

I didn't help me with the new build.
I still just get a red lamp on the VI dongle. Not blue as on my Ford.
And I do also not get any reading out.

But I don't understand this when all cheap dongles can get reading out on all the cars I test on, and the VI dongle ONLY works on a Ford.
But what does it mean when I get a red lamp on VI dongle on all other vehicles than a FORD. There I get a blue lamp before it can connect to bluetooth

Peter

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/openxc/da4a88d9-31b1-4f9a-8e56-2e2fe4385f3en%40googlegroups.com.

[Pete Treman]

Hi Peter,

The red led in this case would signify that the ignition on message did not respond, This likely means that either the bus speed is wrong, the message is not available on pins 6 and 14, or your vehicle does not support CAN.

Reference VI LED Guide

• LED 1
  • RED / ORANGE - No CAN activity detected or for OBD-II firmware, Vehicle ignition not detected
  • BLUE - CAN activity detected
  • OFF - No power
• LED 2
  • GREEN - Usb connection
  • BLUE - Bluetooth connected
  • OFF - No connection

If both LEDs show a dim orange then there is bad firmware and or device is in boot loader mode

As for why cheap ones work, most use the popular elm327 chip which scans on multiple pins, at multiple speeds and using multiple protocols, unfortunately this chip-set is to limiting for pulling all of the data OpenXC can pull when compared to the processor the reference vi uses.

As stated before OpenXC is an open source project developed by Ford Motor Company, It does have compatibility for other manufactures and vehicles but our primary target is Ford vehicle compatibility, unfortunately we do not have the time or resources to research, develop firmware for and test for all vehicles by all manufactures.

However this does not mean you cant use Open XC with other vehicles it just means you may need to take some additional steps which includes compiling your own firmware, again if you are interested in compiling your own OBD-II firmware for your vehicle the following pages will be of use to you.
http://vi-firmware.openxcplatform.com/en/master/compile/example-builds.html#automatic-recurring-obd-ii-requests-build

http://vi-firmware.openxcplatform.com/en/master/config/diagnostic.html

[Joan Barros]

Hi,

New to the project and very interested. Is there any reason other than time and resources that we couldn't have one firmware that would allow communication with all makes and models?

Regards.

[Pete Treman]

Hi Joan,

Unfortunately different makes and models of vehicles use different vehicle architectures, this means that they usually have the standard dataset in different messages with different encoding that can even be on a different bus. The closest we have is the obd2 translated firmware but that only has the signals specified by the federal government OBD-II spec.

We have in the past made experimental firmwares that try to do multiple architectures and have been met with a few issues:

 1. Memory issues, the reference vi is designed with low end hardware (64 kB of ram) the more message definitions it's looking for the more memory it takes up which causes a drop in overall message throughput and causes message dropping.

2. CAN Bus speeds: different architectures can have different bus speeds on the second CAN network, If you have ever tried to initialize device on a CAN network at the wrong speed you already know what im talking about but for those who haven't this is equivalent to jamming the network and your car gets very unhappy (lots of lights on the dash with scary messages) as the modules cannot communicate properly.  We have experimented with architecture detection on the first bus then initializing the second bus based on our best guess but this was determined to be too unreliable to release.

Thanks for your question and I hope this helps you understand why we have not released a single firmware, theoretically these issues are solvable but we do not currently have the resources available for this project to do so.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/openxc/c02e32a0-e6af-4196-8e96-5502abc448e5n%40googlegroups.com.

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Pete Treman

[Joan Barros]

Hi Pete,

Thanks for your response. Makes sense.

Good to know the issues are solvable. I figured it was some kind of technical issue. I've seen ScanTools handle this so, it can't be an impossible task (Although I come clean, I know next to nothing about hardware, I'm a software guy).

I would love to help out where possible. I've been looking for an "OpenSource ScanTool" and I think this project is the closest thing to it (that I've been able to find anyways). It seems that the project is a bit quiet, but if it's still running I would love to dedicate some time here and there to develop stuff and actively participate in it.

I'll start familiarizing myself with the project, the code and maybe try to get a VI to test things out fully.