Hi guys,

I've been doing some research about the new shnazzy iphone/android apps which use OBD2 protocols. There are blue tooth and wifi devices for monitoring. However, I haven't been able to find one which works with OBD1. The 1995 OBD2 style OBD1 ports seems like the most likely candidate to work with one of these scanners because of the ubiquitous design, but I haven't found any apps that could work with OBD1 protocol.

Has anyone out there seen this? There are a few forum posts around the next, but nothing concrete. It would be very cool to monitor stuff in the car without having a friggin' laptop to lug around. A tablet or phone would be great!

Here's one of the Wifi devices:

WiFi ELM327 Wireless OBD2 Auto Scanner Adapter Scan Tool Car Diagnostic Reader | eBay

 

That would be awesome, but out OBD1 is a dinosaur, sadly I doubt we will get anything cool like this. I'd love to have someone prove me wrong on that however. I'd definitely buy one!

 

All the apps that I have found have been for OBDII ....

 

The problem is with the OBD1 system itself, if you can call it a system. Being so non-standardized, it makes programming a nightmare of complexity. Whereas the OBD2 system is very standardized by design. In other words, If you learn OBD2, you know every car in a certain range regardless of manufacturer. The market is huge. Learning OBD1 requires you change the knowledge base for almost every year and even most models and sub-models within that year. That market is tiny given the same effort.
I have developed applications for both, and even though OBD1 hardware is inherently simpler to implement (Bluetooth serial port adapter for smart phone), it is a monumental task to provide all the software capability to even a narrow range of vehicles.