[Macfreak7]

Is there a way i can connect my PB to a normal production car, that has no extra chipsets or anything of the sort already. i dont mind adding the required.

basically to check the engine every now and then, maybe tweak it up or something.

is that possible with any car? or does the engine have to be specially designed? adding some chipsets would help right?
meanwhile is there any software avaible for that?

[denim]

I'm not sure what you mean. You can get a power adapter to run your PB from the power outlet in the car's cabin, if that's what you're asking, and there are brackets you can attach to your car and to the PB to keep the one stable in the other...

[Don Pickett]

He's asking (I think) if he can use his PowerBook to check his car's engine managament chips.

I don't know if you can or not.

Don

[tooki]

Well, assuming you were able to figure out what the port is (it would not surprise me if it was RS-232, or some parallel standard), you'd still need special software, which you are definitely not gonna be able to get for a mac (and probably not for Windows, either -- the on-board computers are typically connected to special computers).

That and the fact that, as I understand it, tuning your car like that is illegal (that tuning is why police officers can get 30MPH more out of the same model, and they want to keep it that way).

tooki

[denim]

Mechanics and such do this kind of thing. As I understand it, the parameters set in the car computers are for general use. If you know what you're doing and have the appropriate equipment, you can burn replacement EPROMs and change stuff.

I don't think it's illegal, just obscure.

[SillyPooh]

Well, technically you could, but that would be too much of a hassle to be worth it. I presume the car manufacturer won't send you information about the car's central "computer", so the only way I see would be to probe each and every control one by one... you'll spend your life time on it.

But actually, this is a very nice idea. Manufacturers should include a usb port or something like that - well, technically, a usb connection will not match the purpose... food for thought - so that we could plug a computer to the car's central control box. This should be coming in the future I guess, when cars will sport a much more complete onboard computer and when a greater number of consumers will show interest in this.

This is nothing impossible to do right now. There are a lot of 3rd party GPS-based onboard systems that integrate the already existing electronics very well. The only problem is that you are a particular and the necessary information will for sure not be available to you.

[This message has been edited by SillyPooh (edited 01-03-2001).]

[poocat]

i don't know about you, but my car works fine, and when it doesn't i take it to someone who knows cars...

remember that old saying about 'if your car crashed as often as your computer'? seems like that's what you're working towards once you start messing with your car's computer.

$0.02

poocat.

[Sprockets]

What kind of car do you have Macfreak7?

My friends and I do what you're looking to do with our VWs. Let me know what you've got and I'll see what info I can provide.

[Macfreak7]

I dont know why that would be called illegal, cause its my car, and i can do anything i want to it. at least in my country there would be no such problem, if i wanted to tweak my car or anything.

i thought there would be some software for macs that could do such a thing. i guess this has more to do with the car itself.
the kind of tweaks i'd expect would be changing gear ratios, for example. even if no tweaks were possible, just something that would let me monitor the performance of my engine using some software on the PB connected to some kind of chipset built into the car. these things are used in formula 1 racing, but then thats the highest level of motorsport. still, i dont see a reason why that cannot be implemented into production cars.

Sporockets : i have a mitsubishi, lancer. not the evo model.

that car is used alot in rally sports, so i guess it should be possible to add chipsets.

[Yuri1419]

Sounds like a job for "ain't broke, don't fix it", IMHO

The closest I know of are replacement aftermarket replacement engine chips, that can alter the timing, fuel injection volume, ect and tweak a few extra HP out of the engine. I looked into one for my VW once, but found some other ways to part with cash- such as home ownership.

[tmophoto]

This is probably your best bet:
http://www.maccentral.com/news/0101/05.forwardkit.shtml

didnt bother to look through the article, but there is probably something there for ya.

tmo