Gadget Notes - Automatic OBD-II Adapter

Date:  Feb 6, 2016

Your car will give you a dashboard of info in front of you.

You will know what is the speed you are driving.

You will know your mileage.

Would it be nice if you can have more information displayed to you or more information or statistics collected for you so that you can know what is your driving habits, etc.

This is the toy I bought from Amazon.  You can buy from their website too.

It is basically a car adapter, connecting to the ODB-II port of your car and poll the statistics.

It also connect to your mobile phone, I.e. IPhone via Bluetooth.  The good thing about it is that it will collect the data and then, upload it to your account @ Automatic web site.  So that you can know all the driving statistics in your finger tips.

This is how the ODB-II car adapter looks like.  Now, it might be a challenge to find where is the matching ODB-II port located in your car.

One of my friend still up till today could not locate the ODB-II port.  This is usually used by the mechanics who wants to run diagnostics on your car.  So, sometimes it is hidden in the secret location.  Mine just located just in front of my gears.  And it is hidden inside a compartment.

Unfortunately, this product is created for the US market.  So, there are a lot of features that is US centric.  For example, if you crash your car, it will know, and it will automatically dial the emergency number that you pre-store on your phone.  Remember, it always connect to your phone via Bluetooth and you usually have 4G data on your iPhone.

If you felt something is not right with your engine, usually all the error codes will be presented here.

Take note.  Works in US only.

This adapter connects to your car and phone automatically when you start your engine.

It will keep for you trip reports for all your driving.  I.e. How far is the journey travelled.  And how much petrol it costs you.  Unfortunately, it is designed for US market, therefore, some of these info might not be useful to me.

If you plan to buy this, take note.  It works in US only.

When you configuring the adapter, it asked you to enter your car VIN number, (Chassis no). 

This is where they knew your car is not bought in US.

So, what do you do?  If you want to take the risk to use this adapter with your car, and although you might not get to use the full capability of the device (since it is designed for US cars).

1.  Write to the Customer Service.

2.  Tell them that you are from which country, what car you own, give them the year, model and the VIN number.

3.  Ask them to add your VIN "manually" into their database.

4.  Tell them that you are aware of this product works in US only.

5.  Tell them that you wish to take the risk to use it.

6.  Tell them that you understand some of the features cannot be used because it is used outside Singapore.

Then, they will add you.  I also found out that There is going to be a new beta testing for International use.  I think they will launch a few countries instead.  Might not included Singapore though...

This is the Automatic App running on iPhone.   The useful info is the distant travelled, equal to how much money spent.  They still use the US units and I have not found a way to change the unit yet.  The other piece of info is the "Hard Break" you have used in every trip.  They also tell you where you travel to and from.  Which is quite useful.

Another screen shots.  The features are quite limited on this iPhone App.

There are quite a number of App supports the use of Automatic ODB-II adapter.

Like this one, cost US$9.99, it's called Dash Command.

It provides more info.

They even estimates the CO2 emission of your car.

OK.  It also tell you the speed you are traveling.  Hmmmmmm.... Interesting...

 

More screen shots.

I have not really analyze the capability of this Adapter fully yet.  But I know it is very useful whenever there are data involved.

Data is important.  But sometimes can be a double edge sword too.  Hahahahaha

Have fun!