OBD-2. Diagnosis of OBD-2. OBD-2 Diagnostic Software

Any modern car, even in the minimum configuration, has its own on-board computer, as well as a number of specialized sensors that carefully monitor the condition of the vehicle at the moment, how different devices work. And in the event that there are all sorts of problems, it all appears as an error message on the dashboard.

What to do?

After such a notice appears, the owner of the car can send his own car to the car service in order to conduct computer diagnostics there. In the service center, an error code is read from the on-board computer, after which it will be determined by him for what particular reason he issued the error. However, very few people know that in fact there is a variant of self-conducting computer diagnostics, and it is carried out with the help of specialized diagnostic devices such as OBD-2.

What it is?

To date, such devices are installed in almost every modern car. OBD-2 are connected directly to the on-board control system of the machine, after which they are interfaced with a number of components, including all kinds of smartphones, tablets, laptops and other gadgets, using Bluetooth, USB or Wi-Fi connection.

At the same time, few people understand that it is not enough simply to have such a device to conduct a full electronic diagnosis of a car. You will also need to install a specialized program that can work with devices like OBD-2 and will allow you to diagnose the electronics of your vehicle at any time. Such utilities today can easily be found on the Internet freely available, while the majority of manufacturers can also independently provide their own programs. However, as practice shows, they are often extremely inconvenient for the average user, because they differ in the complexity of mastering, confusion and lack of support for the Russian language.

It is for this reason that often modern users begin to search intensively for the program, which is the most convenient for diagnosing equipment on the car. To date, you can find almost any utility that allows you to work with every modern operating system. And in order to easily understand the innumerable offers, as well as choose the best option, you need to know the advantages and features of each separate utility.

IPhone Application

The undisputed leader among all existing programs today is the utility OBD-2 iPhone Application, which, if necessary, can be used on devices such as iPad or iPhone. The program operates exclusively with equipment such as ELM327 or directly OBD-2. Programs belong to the category of professional applications designed to maximize the qualitative diagnosis of a vehicle, in connection with which their functionality is similar to that found on standard computers.

What are the advantages?

If we talk about the advantages of these utilities, it is worth noting primarily mobility, since the diagnosis can be carried out at any time and in any place. In addition to engine diagnostics, this utility provides a thorough scan of the gearbox, and can also automatically check the airbag system, but the latter function may not be available depending on which model and brand of car you are using.

Particular attention should be given to the ability to track in real time the temperature characteristics of the cooling system, oil used, as well as a number of other liquids, as this is one of the most important features of this program for ELM327 and OBD-2. Programs allow you to turn your smartphone into a universal control center for your own car.

DashCommand

Also a powerful enough program that provides diagnostics of the machine through the iPad or iPhone. It should be noted that the diagnostics of OBD-2 with this utility has no disadvantages compared to the previous utility, but it should be noted that this program works exclusively with ELM327 devices that have Wi-Fi connection support.

What are the advantages?

The utility is quite a nice interface, and also allows you to completely clear the list of errors of the on-board computer. There is also support for controlling the fuel consumption in real time, and if necessary, you can even find out the cost of the trip, if the cost of fuel for each liter is preliminarily introduced into the program. Another interesting feature, which distinguishes these programs for OBD-2 diagnostics, is that they reflect the load that the car experiences during braking, acceleration, or cornering in much the same way as it is implemented in F1. Among other things, there is a utility that can be used in devices running the Android operating system.

Both programs can easily be downloaded and installed on the iPad or iPhone via a dedicated iTunes application, which is available for any hardware from Apple. The only drawback of each of the aforementioned utilities is that they do not have a version in Russian.

Torque

The leading utility to date, which tracks OBD-2 errors through the Android operating system. Installing the program on your own smartphone or tablet, which is controlled by this OS, you can completely independently diagnose your car if it has an ELM327 device that supports Bluetooth data transmission technology. It should be noted that in this utility there is almost full functionality that only a modern motorist may need.

What are the advantages?

Speaking of the capabilities of this application, they allow you not only to scan your own car, that is, to find out how many sensors and electronic systems are used in your vehicle, and how they work. You can use your gadget as a tachometer or a speedometer, or you can even make a device out of it that will show you the torque of the engine in real time. Excellent execution of the interface of this program, as well as the choice of a huge number of indicators necessarily like any user who decides to use it.

This program allows you not only to carefully read all OBD-2 codes from the on-board computer, but also provide the user with a brief information about the error, which can be easily learned the details of the problem via the Internet. Among other things, it also provides a function to completely clear the log file. In addition, this program implements the built-in GPS tracker function, which allows you to determine where and at what particular moment your car was in the process of activating this function, and if the machine is currently on the move, then even Information about the speed at which the car moved on each individual section of the road.

With the help of this program you not only make your gadget really powerful and versatile, but also completely turn it into a kind of on-board computer. In this case, the really significant advantage of this application is that it provides the possibility of working in Russian, so that any user can diagnose his car and adjust it in the right way.

Utilities for Windows

It should be noted immediately that, over time, the interpretation of errors OBD-2 using programs that can be used solely on the basis of the operating system Windows, is constantly becoming less and less popular. The only advantage of such utilities before mobile programs is that both the device inside the car and the entire system of the car are extremely protected from the possibility of an unauthorized connection, since the OBD-2 adapter interfaces with such utilities via USB.

Wi-Fi or Bluetooth programs, in principle, can be used in almost any gadget that uses the operating system iOS or Android and at the same time are at a distance of several meters from the computer. In other words, any person who is not far from you and at the same time has a corresponding utility on his gadget, can easily "get into" the electronic system of your car. USB connection provides direct contact of the device with the computer by means of a cable, therefore it is possible to get into the electronic system of the car only if the operator sits on the driver's seat with a laptop in hand.

ScanTool

To date, this program is probably the most common among all existing utilities that are designed to work in the Windows operating system. It rightly deserves the title of the most common, as it has an intuitive interface, as well as a sufficiently large number of different possibilities. The most important among them is the existence of a huge database of errors, each of which has a detailed description. Among other things, do not forget that the utility provides a version in Russian, which greatly simplifies the decoding of errors and diagnosis of the car for most domestic users.

MyTester

This program OBD-2 (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi it is also absent), which is ideal for modern owners of domestic cars, since it was originally written under UAZ, VAZ and GAZ. Accordingly, it differs in an intuitive interface in Russian, and at the same time can work with ELM237. Among the distinguishing features of this utility it is worth highlighting the fact that it scans the car in the shortest possible time, allows you to determine the temperature of the cooling systems, the fuel consumption, and also the diagnostics of the oxygen sensor. A unique feature of this program is the diagnosis of such a parameter as the pollution of the atmosphere by exhaust gases.

Knowing what devices for diagnostics of OBD-2 or ELM237 devices are used today, you can choose the program that is optimal for you, then you can diagnose the car yourself at any time convenient for you. But do not forget that before deleting the error log from the on-board computer, you should make sure that these errors do not represent serious failures, as ignoring such notifications can cause serious problems.