OBD II Based Vehicle Management System
All modern vehicles today include an Engine Control Unit (ECU). This unit is responsible for the co-ordination of all sub systems of the vehicle such as the Anti-Locking Braking system (ABS) and the fuel ignition system etc. The ECU reads sensor values from various parts of the engine and depending
2025-06-28 16:34:17 - Adil Khan
OBD II Based Vehicle Management System
Project Area of Specialization Electrical/Electronic EngineeringProject SummaryAll modern vehicles today include an Engine Control Unit (ECU). This unit is responsible for the co-ordination of all sub systems of the vehicle such as the Anti-Locking Braking system (ABS) and the fuel ignition system etc. The ECU reads sensor values from various parts of the engine and depending on these values it performs the appropriate actions. If errors occur in the engine management system, such as a miss-fire in the engine, the ECU must log this error and if serious enough, illuminate the Malfunction Indicator Lamp (MIL) on the dashboard to notify the driver. All this information is made available to scan tools and fault code readers using the Onboard Diagnostics (OBD) protocol. We intended to develop an OBD compliant device capable of communicating with OBD enabled cars and perform basic performance testing and diagnostics in real time along with additional features by developing a low cost OBD complaint data analyzer and logger that would work on cars of different brands. Additional features include maintaining event logs onboard besides enabling local technicians/mechanics with a low-cost indigenous solution for quick diagnosis and other data analytics for future applications.
This system is supposed to provide a measure of real-time diagnostic information, since the OBD system monitors vehicle performance while the vehicle is being operated. The system also stores engine operating conditions and parameters upon the detection of a malfunction. These performance measurements, and the reporting of performance via stored codes, provides a repair technician with on-road engine parameter data that may not be available via tests conducted at a repair facility. The purpose of this project is to make a low-cost module that can ensure that real time as well as logged/stored information is freely available to drivers and mechanics. This can give the driver more insight into what is occurring in their car in real time. The driving behaviors that are monitored are ones that influence the likelihood of the driver crashing or the severity of the crash and for mechanics useful information is about vehicles health. The objective of this project is to design a low cost On Board Diagnostic device indigenously for all major manufacturers. The solution will be acquired using modern technology by interfacing microcontrollers and other devices within a given period of time.The futuristic projection is towards development of an IoT enabled platform for Big-data analytics that may ensure safe and smart transportation.
Project ObjectivesWe intend to design and develop an OBD data-logging system to monitor a wide range of engine parameters. Microcontroller’s will be used to tap into the CAN Bus, decode its signals and store/display the extracted parameters according to users’ instructions. Overall goal is to provide a flexible indigenous solution that will keep track of vital engine parameters throughout its lifetime, which is crucial for vehicle’s security, performance, fault diagnosis in advance analyzing driver's behavior and enabling local technicians/mechanics with a low-cost solution for quick fault identification for cars presumably from most common vendors. This prototype will be the enabler platform for IoT multi-node communications and may act as a crucial development towards safer and smarter transportation by integration of Big data analytics.
The main objectives of this Final Year Project are:
- Study and understand existing standards and devices from different manufacturers.
- Develop our own OBD data reader and logger system possibly for most common vendors.
- Storing the data and keep lifetime record of vital engine parameters according to user choice.
- On-demand display of runtime data and previous logs on LCD.
- Support local technicians with a quick and right fault diagnosis.
- Create a platform for future applications related to fleet management, IoT and Big data.
- Relatively inexpensive & continuous measurement of driving behavior & vehicle use, which is otherwise difficult to observe.
- A tool for employers to monitor and assess their staff who drive for work, improve safety, reduce crash rate and operational costs, meet their local obligations & reduce the risk of prosecution or civil action.
- Away to help young, novice drivers, parents, and licensing authorities to monitor and improve the driving of young and novice drivers.
- A method for insurance companies to differentiate between drivers based on their risk rather than their age and to tailor their insurance premiums accordingly.
The systematic breakdown in developing our solution includes:
- Studying and developing proper understanding on the ECU processes, instructions, and codes
- Developing hardware interconnection tap for reading data from ECU
- Reading codes from ECU and proper identification and decoding for data analysis with proper time stamp prior to storage
- On-Board data storage and display along with previous logs for a variety of future applications
The solution consists of three major subsystems as depicted in the following functional block diagram of our project.
Subsystem 1: Includes power scaling circuit Functional Unit (FU) 2.5 to provide power from OBD data link connector. This unit will take 12V supply from car’s battery and translate it to 5V supply to the entire module.
Subsystem 2: Includes an OBD data reader FU 2.1 supporting OBD 1.5 and OBD 2.0 protocols to directly interface with the CAN Bus for fetching the engine parameters for data logging and fault codes for runtime diagnostics as desired by the user. Functional units 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 represent the decoding, processing and directing the fetched data towards display LCD and onboard storage. These processes are to be accomplished using an AVR Microcontroller by defining proper architecture in coding.
Subsystem 3: This subsystem includes onboard storage module (a micro SD card) for data logging and an LCD along with keypad/joystick for visually inspecting data in the runtime for displaying previous event logs and navigation through the software defined menus.
Benefits of the ProjectThis indigenous invention will benefit users from various avenues starting from empowering local electronics manufacturing industry to supporting our country’s economics by reducing imports for other countries, as no such device is being manufactured locally in Pakistan. Devices that are being used currently do not offer such features in the first place and are expensive and put burden on the GDP as we are bound to import them. This system may provide an opportunity for a motorist to have emissions problems (or potential problems) corrected before or soon after they occur by monitoring logs, which may lead to an ecofriendly solution.
The service and repair industry may benefit from diagnosis of all major makes and models that is provided by OBD compliant vehicles by significant reduction in the complexity and cost of instrumentation hardware for repair facilities. For areas that employ Inspection and Maintenance programs as a tool for reducing excess emissions from in-use vehicles.So, this device can provide benefits for both the motorist and the repair industry. Other application areas that may benefit broadly from this device includes:
- Fleet Management System
- Driver’s Habits Analysis
- Vehicle Health Monitoring
- Automotive IoT Telematics
- Platform for Building Smarter Vehicles
- Big Data In Automobile Analytic
Final deliverable will be a configurable electronic prototype module capable of performing all the desired tasks and routines. For proper coordination among all the devices as mentioned in implementation methods, AVR microcontroller (ATMEGA 32) will be programmed in such a way to display menus on the LCD and keypad/joystick shall be used for navigation though different menus. At engine startup the module will be enabled and shall start logging the parameters and events in the onboard storage element, using SPI protocol, with proper timestamp from the real time clock circuit, using I2C protocol, till the end of vehicle’s trip. Later these files can be accessed by the owner for data analytics for judging driver’s behavior during the trip. Similarly, another menu can be selected for extracting and displaying the desired ECU data in the runtime for diagnosing any faults in the engine or other sensors. The overall architecture of this project is shown below.
A general-purpose reconfigurable prototype developed so far for this purpose is shown below:
| Item Name | Type | No. of Units | Per Unit Cost (in Rs) | Total (in Rs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total in (Rs) | 11536 | |||
| DS1307 DS1307N DIP8 RTC SERIAL 512K I2C Real-Time Clock | Equipment | 4 | 35 | 140 |
| 8pin Micro SD card slot connectors, SMD 4 Fixed feet TF card deck | Equipment | 4 | 45 | 180 |
| LE33 Positive Voltage Regulator | Equipment | 8 | 20 | 160 |
| 2.2microFarad capacitor | Equipment | 5 | 3 | 15 |
| 330microFarad Capacitor | Equipment | 5 | 4 | 20 |
| 560 Ohms Resistors | Equipment | 20 | 1 | 20 |
| 330 Ohms Resistors | Equipment | 20 | 1 | 20 |
| Resistor Pack | Equipment | 6 | 13 | 78 |
| 2.7K ohms Resistors | Equipment | 20 | 1 | 20 |
| PCB Standoff 18mm | Equipment | 45 | 2 | 90 |
| 74HC125 Quad Buffer/Line Driver (3-State) | Equipment | 4 | 25 | 100 |
| Dupont 40-Wire 30cm Cable Line color Male to Male Pin Connector | Equipment | 1 | 270 | 270 |
| 40 Wire Multicoloured AWG26 Ribbon Cable (Per Foot) | Equipment | 2 | 85 | 170 |
| BLOCK Connector L-Type 2POS 5.08MM 300V 15A | Equipment | 5 | 12 | 60 |
| 16 MHz Crystal Oscillators | Equipment | 4 | 15 | 60 |
| 10K ohms Potentiometer | Equipment | 3 | 15 | 45 |
| 22pF capacitor | Equipment | 6 | 1 | 6 |
| L7805CV Positive Voltage Regulator TO-220 | Equipment | 5 | 16 | 80 |
| 1K ohms resistors | Equipment | 24 | 1 | 24 |
| 4.7K ohms resistors | Equipment | 20 | 1 | 20 |
| 1K ohms potentiometer | Equipment | 4 | 15 | 60 |
| 33pF capacitors | Equipment | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| 220 micro Farad capacitor | Equipment | 5 | 4 | 20 |
| 470 micro Farad capacitor | Equipment | 5 | 6 | 30 |
| Female Header | Equipment | 2 | 12 | 24 |
| 20 Pin Flat Base | Equipment | 26 | 7 | 182 |
| diode 1N4007 | Equipment | 6 | 2 | 12 |
| 10uF 35V Polar Radial Electrolytic Capacitor | Equipment | 10 | 3 | 30 |
| 0.1uF 50V Polar Radial Electrolytic Capacitor | Equipment | 12 | 2 | 24 |
| push lock button | Equipment | 6 | 10 | 60 |
| push on | Equipment | 10 | 10 | 100 |
| DC Socket | Equipment | 2 | 16 | 32 |
| 40 Pin Zif Socket Universal SH C0E8 | Equipment | 3 | 125 | 375 |
| 0.1 microFarad Multilayed Capacitor | Equipment | 6 | 5 | 30 |
| ATMEGA32A-PU Atmel 16MHz 8-bit 32KB MCU | Equipment | 2 | 400 | 800 |
| double row female header | Equipment | 4 | 22 | 88 |
| 3 Way Plug with Lead JST-XH | Equipment | 7 | 8 | 56 |
| 74HC541 Octal Buffer/Line Driver (3-State) | Equipment | 12 | 40 | 480 |
| Power male jack adopter | Equipment | 2 | 35 | 70 |
| 2 way straight header | Equipment | 2 | 12 | 24 |
| 10 SEG Red | Equipment | 3 | 28 | 84 |
| 32.768 KHz Crystal Oscillators | Equipment | 4 | 13 | 52 |
| 2 pin female cable | Equipment | 4 | 10 | 40 |
| LED Red Green (Centre Ground) DIP-3 | Equipment | 12 | 5 | 60 |
| 40 Pin Single Row Male Header 11mm (2.54mm Pitch) | Equipment | 4 | 10 | 40 |
| Mini Shorting Jumper with Handle for 2.54mm Header | Equipment | 10 | 6 | 60 |
| 2Pin Female XH-Style Cable 2.5mm | Equipment | 2 | 6 | 12 |
| Tact 2 Pin 6x6x5mm long | Equipment | 10 | 4 | 40 |
| 80 Pin Double Row Male Header 11mm (2.54mm Pitch) | Equipment | 2 | 16 | 32 |
| 100 Ohm 1/4W 5% Resistor | Equipment | 20 | 1 | 20 |
| 8 Pin Flat Base IC Socket DIP-8 | Equipment | 4 | 5 | 20 |
| 14 Pin Flat Base | Equipment | 4 | 5 | 20 |
| 200 Ohm 3386 Potentiometer Variable | Equipment | 4 | 15 | 60 |
| CR-2032 Cell | Equipment | 5 | 12 | 60 |
| 2GB Memory Card | Equipment | 1 | 300 | 300 |
| LED Bar Graph | Equipment | 8 | 40 | 320 |
| Resistor Pack | Equipment | 6 | 13 | 78 |
| Female Header | Equipment | 9 | 10 | 90 |
| 100pF capacitor | Equipment | 6 | 3 | 18 |
| LCD 20x4 | Equipment | 1 | 650 | 650 |
| Soldering Iron | Equipment | 2 | 350 | 700 |
| Soldering paste | Equipment | 3 | 20 | 60 |
| Soldering wire | Equipment | 1 | 160 | 160 |
| Soldering iron tips | Equipment | 2 | 100 | 200 |
| Soldering iron element | Equipment | 1 | 100 | 100 |
| Male to Female wire connectors | Equipment | 12 | 4 | 48 |
| Wire crimp shell connector | Equipment | 20 | 6 | 120 |
| OBD-II to DB9 Cable | Equipment | 1 | 1807 | 1807 |
| CAN Bus Shield | Equipment | 1 | 2200 | 2200 |