[mlnowak]

Check out OpenXC project lead by Ford http://openxcplatform.com/.

Also, check out OBDII protocol each car after 1996 implements it up to a certain weight. This is the data available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBD-II_PIDs.

Basically there is a way to gather fuel usage, fuel levels, speed, Mass Air Flow Rate, rpm, etc etc. Adding accelerometer and GPS to the mix pretty much gives you a decent start to the vehicle analytics platform.

On heavy vehicles or if you want more data on light duty, tapping into CAN is the only way, but that can get very manufacturer specific...

[patrickk]

There's smartphone apps that take advantage of OBD-II, e.g. -

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.prowl.torq...

https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/dashcommand-obd-ii-gauge-das...

http://www.devtoaster.com/products/rev/

Some of these are massively overpriced, but they are useful looking.

If I had a bit of cash I'd consider putting a 7" Android tablet into the dash (you'd need a double DIN slot) and install the torque app, with a custom moulded surround to make it look stock. Live engine data to satisfy your inner nerd!

[mlnowak]

Wow,the price is really steep, but I also could not find info on the hardware they use to interface with OBDII for Dashcommand. I think there is most likely additional cost for a wifi enable d device that plugs in to OBDII and forwards this data to the mobile app.

Another nerdier but cheaper route is to use Arduino with ELM interpreter: http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/millerrv/Ryan_Miller/Projects...

[patrickk]

Great link thanks.

[covalence]

I was actually working on a project based on OpenXC but the license[1] is pretty restrictive. License aside, it's really easy to use and implement.

[1] http://openxcplatform.com/agreement.html

[mlnowak]

Yes, I noticed this too. It really hard to invest time with such a restrictive license. Do you know by any chance if Odometer value is a real odometer or distance since MIL or something else. Odometer is not a standard PID and I was curious to see if Ford opened that up.

[covalence]

OpenXC had a really easy to way to get odometer readings, otherwise according to [1] "For a Ford vehicle, the odometer can be read via a mode $22 PID of $6180 for km clusters, and $6182 for mph clusters.". [2] Also talks a bit about reading Odometer. Shame there isn't a standard for reading it.

[1] http://www.mp3car.com/engine-management-obd-ii-engine-diagno...

[2] http://www.canbushack.com/blog/index.php?title=oh-no-odomete...