Right, it's time for me to put my geek/sad head on, but bare with me.

 

Is it possible to get an OBD reader, that can record and save data so that you can record data while drving, and then look at it once you are home?

 

I suppose it would be used for intermittent faults, I don't have any fault lights but I was wondering if I could record things like instantaneous MPG as I drive.

 

I'm not too fussed if the device records to an internal memory that then is downloaded to my computer, or if it connects to my (android) phone and records to that.

 

Any ideas or thoughts?

 

Regards,

 

Matt

VCDS does this very nicely.     Not aware of any other "cheap" machine which has the same datalogging capabilities.

Raspberry Pi????

 

There are lots of solutions out there, depends how much you want to spend.

 

I spent ages 'tuning' an LPG conversion by having a laptop recording fuel trims, lambda sensors, throttle input, engine load etc. using software from Gendan, but that was 6 years ago and things have moved on .........

http://www.gendan.co.uk/product_ENG327W.html

I believe there are various OBD kits out there with Bluetooth to connect to a smartphone.

 

Google OBD smartphone.

 

Good luck

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I had forgotten about VCDS, but I hadn't really done much research when I posted. I have been having a look into things now and it looks like a minefield! Some more research needed I think.

 

Just a quick question, with VCDS is the software in German? Having had a look on your adaptions thread Andy, the pages do all look in German.

Nope, that is the label file for the new controllers that is in German. More and more is getting translated on each release.

I would have thought VCDS was a bit OTT for a bit of data logging..........

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

Ahh I see.

 

I agree that it may be a little extreme I was just curious, nothing more.

Don't get me wrong, worth every penny, but for live data logging there are better options

I can see where you are coming from
 

I haven't got much interest in doing VCDS adaptions so I am looking at other data loggers currently

Maybe BT ELM 327 and Tourqe app on Android phone? Though this is not ''black-box'' solution, so you have to start it every time, etc.

Generic obd software and dongles will log only the generic PIDs. So MAF, MAP, RPM, short term fuel trim, long term, coolant temp, intake temp, timing. I use a wifi elm327 and dashcommand on my iphone. Works well.

VCDS/VCDS lite allows you to log all the VAG PIDs. So EGR, fuel duration, start of injection, requested boost, n75, voltages blah blah.

When logging don't get carried away and log all at once as the sample rate will be so slow the data will be pointless. Stick with one group at a time. If using generic obd stick to 2 or 3 PIDs.

I've had a brief look in to this and I am really liking some of the Raspberry Pi stuff out there

 

http://www.cowfishstudios.com/blog/obd-pi-raspberry-pi-displaying-car-diagnostics-obd-ii-data-on-an-aftermarket-head-unit

 

for example.

 

Shouldn't be too hard to make a VAG specific version??? (But I'm not that clever and far too old, so I need to get my 10 year old son to do it in Python!)

 

Evil Myagi - this looks right up your street!

Get something like this https://www.mavericktechnology.co.uk/products/obd-log

 

Cheaper ones can be bought, this was just the first example I thought of.

 

Basically plug it in, it records data. We have one at work that can record for 6 hours or something silly. Just plug it in to get the data, unplug it and connect to PC and view it. Very good tools for finding intermittent faults