AutoPi - Vehicle Smart IoT Platform

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Chevauxza

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In a bit of an impulse buy I bought an AutoPi device (link) which connects to the OBD2 port on your car and allows you to do car based automations, feature adding, customisation etc. It has GPS, wifi and LTE connectivity and a web based platform which allows you to record your daily trips, vehicle statistics during those trips and even read any codes that come from the vehicle without the need for another OBD2 reader. Also no monthly subscription.

I became quite hooked on using Home Assistant and all of the little tweaks to daily life which it offers - this little gadget seems like I could extend this kind of thing to the car too, which would be fun. And of course will come with a bunch of new risks like security flaws and doing the wrong sort of command through the OBD2 port, but eh why not. I'll do what I can to limit the security surface area, and be careful with commands run on the car.

This thread is for those who might be tempted to walk the same path of discovery and so that I might not be alone in ownership of the little thing!

Will post back here when/if it arrives.
 
Looks interesting but rather large. It would bump against my shoe/leg every time I get into or out of any of my cars
 
gbyleveldt said:
Looks interesting but rather large. It would bump against my shoe/leg every time I get into or out of any of my cars
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Yeah I thought the same but they also sell extension cables, so my plan is to use the cable and then mount it out of the way using velcro.
 
Chevauxza said:
Yeah I thought the same but they also sell extension cables, so my plan is to use the cable and then mount it out of the way using velcro.
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Where do you stay? I drive an Alfa Romeo, so OBD compatibility is an issue and would love to test your unit on my car.
 
This is overly expensive for what it is.

To give you an idea, an obd tracking unit will cost you less than $50. A tracking unit that will connect to an elm obd unit via Bluetooth will be even cheaper, and will have digital and anolog inputs and outputs. An elm32 unit will cost you less than $20. The units nowadays tend to have some sort of flow control /automation so is not the single purpose units of yesteryear.

Don't get me wrong, this is great for a hobby / custom development purpose, but it's a hella expensive for what you would be using it for.
 
Would this not void a warranty though?
Or are we only talking old cars?
 
killerbyte said:
There is an extension cable that allows you to reposition the unit.
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You can but those locally at a price cheaper than what Is shown on that website. So do research before buying. The same with panic buttons, relays and the like.
 
|tera| said:
Would this not void a warranty though?
Or are we only talking old cars?
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I dunno. Have always used this kindof stuff. Pin 6 and 14 (I think) are the Canbus pins and where are the interesting stuff comes through.

Each vehicle tends to have its own protocols/ids, which tend not to be published, so theres a lot of guesswork involved
 
Ok so this is very interesting but I am unsure of what to really do with it. Sure there some telematics and thats cool and so on, but kinda wonder what I would do with it.
 
Hamish McPanji said:
This is overly expensive for what it is.

To give you an idea, an obd tracking unit will cost you less than $50. A tracking unit that will connect to an elm obd unit via Bluetooth will be even cheaper, and will have digital and anolog inputs and outputs. An elm32 unit will cost you less than $20. The units nowadays tend to have some sort of flow control /automation so is not the single purpose units of yesteryear.

Don't get me wrong, this is great for a hobby / custom development purpose, but it's a hella expensive for what you would be using it for.
Click to expand...

You're probably right, I started out by trying to answer the question "Can I use a Raspberry PI to connect to an OBD2 port?" This seemed nicely put together and can also benefit from others in the community in apps the create etc.

Tinuva said:
Ok so this is very interesting but I am unsure of what to really do with it. Sure there some telematics and thats cool and so on, but kinda wonder what I would do with it.
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This is also exactly what I said about Home Assistant when I first started :laugh:
Tinuva said:
Wait does this connect to mqtt or does the events just kinda look like mqtt topics?

Vehicle :: AutoPi.io Documentation

docs.autopi.io docs.autopi.io
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Not built in AFAIK but it can be added. These look like mqtt though,
 
...so an update on this. After a few weeks of the device not having shipped, I cancelled the order.

They were easy to deal with and the refund was no sweat.

I think they have a good idea, but it perhaps needs to mature a bit more.
 
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