Common Questions About OBD Software, Odomatic™, 
& Vehicle Data Licensing.

On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) is a way of communicating with the Electronic Control Units (ECUs) on a vehicle. OBD II (SAE Standard J1979) is an international standard of communication that has been mandatory in North America since 1996 and in Europe since 2001 (2004 for diesel cars). One of the key advantages of OBD II is standardization. All vehicles use the same 16-pin diagnostic port (J1962 connector) and a common set of commands, allowing scan tools to work across different makes and models. You can use OBD II to read information from the vehicle like speed, RPM, VIN, and any DTCs from any compliant car – which is most cars on the road today. In short, OBD II is a universal standard that allows technicians and diagnostic tools to communicate with a vehicle’s internal computer systems. 

OBDonUDS (SAE Standard number J1979-2) is the diagnostic standard that will replace J1979 (commonly known as OBD II). 2024 to 2027 is the transition period when vehicles can support either standard. In 2027 all cars will only support J1979-2. Once a car supports J1979-2 it will no longer be allowed to support the older OBD II standard.

One of the most fundamental differences between OBD II (J1979) and OBDonUDS (J1979-2) is that OBDonUDS has considerably more parameters so that vehicles can report more data. For example, OBDonUDS uses two-byte addressing for parameters, creating space for over 65,000 parameter addresses (PIDs), compared to the limited one-byte addressing on OBD II that supports 256 parameter addresses.

OBDonUDS has also expanded to support three-byte Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs) which means a vehicle can now support over 16 million unique trouble codes each of which describes a specific fault on the vehicle.

OBDonZEV (SAE Standard number J1979-3) is a brand new diagnostic standard that is designed to work on Zero Emission Vehicles (aka electric vehicles) and will become mandatory in 2027.

You can read some very useful information using OBD II/OBDonUDS. Standard parameters which are widely supported include speed, RPM, engine coolant temperature, and VIN (the unique Vehicle Identification Number). Fuel level is supported in about 85% of vehicles and most vehicles after 2020 support the odometer as an OBD II/OBDonUDS parameter.

Most vehicles prior to 2020 do not support odometer and about 15% do not support fuel level. Other useful parameters not available using OBD II/OBDonUDS are tire pressure, ignition status, seatbelt status, vehicle gear, door status, and door locks. In order to read this information you need an additional data library like Odomatic.

Data read using the OBD II/OBDonUDS standards is the same regardless of year, make, or model. Non-standard data like tire pressure, ignition status, etc. is different for every individual type of car. For example, the tire pressure on a 2015 Ford Focus is not read in the same way as the tire pressure on a 2019 Toyota Corolla.

The CAN bus is the electrical system that carries OBD II/OBDonUDS messages around the car. Before 2008 OBD II could transmit and receive signals on 5 separate electrical buses (including CAN bus) within the vehicle but as of 2008 in the USA (and from about 2013 elsewhere) all OBD II communication is on the CAN bus.

Yes, OBD is ideal for fleet tracking and telematics applications. Most commercial fleet trackers and telematics equipment suppliers connect to the standard OBD connector (J1962) in the vehicle where they can not only read OBD II/OBDonUDS data but can also power their device. You can use this same connection to go beyond the OBD II/OBDonUDS standard to read OEM data like odometer, tire pressure, seat belts and more.

Sometimes. Electric cars are not required to support any OBD standard since OBD II/OBDonUDS is mandated to control vehicle emissions. However, traditional car manufacturers, like Ford, GM, Stellantis, Toyota, Nissan, etc. do equip their electric vehicles with OBD II/OBDonUDS communications. Starting from 2027 all electric vehicles will be required to communicate using the OBDonZEV standard (J1979-3).

Yes, OBD accesses real time parameters allowing you to read the speed of the vehicle at that moment and ditto for the RPM, tire pressure, seatbelt status etc.

All of the information that you get from the vehicle is diagnostic data. OEM data is data that is not available using the standard OBD II/OBDonUDS requests.

Yes, OBD is indispensable for remote diagnostics and predictive maintenance. Using OBD II/OBDonUDS parameters, you can monitor idle time, engine health, trip distance, over-revving, hard-braking, speeding, and calculate fuel efficiency.

OBD lets you monitor the health of a vehicle by reading DTCs (Diagnostic Trouble Codes). Using OBD you will be immediately notified if a vehicle has an engine problem. This allows you to fix only vehicles in need of repair instead wasting time adhering to rigid maintenance schedules. In many cases, OBD can even tell you the specific nature of the problem. This means that you can send out a service technician with the correct parts and equipment to fix the problem right away. UPS found that by using remote diagnostics it was able to avoid large unnecessary maintenance jobs, reducing the cost of individual maintenance jobs from $1000 to as low as $20 or $30.

Using OBD data, such as tire pressure, can improve a fleet’s fuel efficiency and contribute to safety. Monitoring seatbelt use and door status can also help emergency responders improve their response time and reduce the time it takes to access an emergency.

When you purchase the OBD Protocol Stack you will be required to sign an agreement stating you will not sell it to any 3rd party, however, you will be able to use it freely – including all modifications – in your company products.

When you purchase the complete OBD Protocol Stack you will receive the source code for all the OBD protocols. The source files are written in C and organised with a layer of abstraction to the hardware specific code so that porting of the code to alternative hardware platforms is kept simple.

All our licences come with off-site support. This is phone and email support for any question that your engineers may have about how the software works, porting, or even general questions about OBD II. During your support period you will be notified of bug-fixes if any operational bugs are reported in the software by any of our other clients.

The OBD protocol stack is licensed for a one-off perpetuity fee. A full licence includes one year off-site support. Contact us for more information.

Our software is undergoing constant testing and not just by us, but also due to the fact it is in daily use by our customers on hundreds of thousands of vehicles. Every week we test approximately 30 vehicles. We try to cover all Year/Make/Model/Engine combinations. With new model years coming all the time this is a continuous task.

The answer is all OBD II and OBDonUDS compliant cars. OBD II (J1979) and OBDonUDS are standards that all manufacturers of vehicles with emissions have to comply with. OBD Experts software works on all vehicles since 1996 in North America and in Europe then it’s all petrol cars since 2001 and all diesel cars since 2004. So it works on GM, Ford, Honda, Chrysler, Toyota, RAM, Jeep, Subaru, Kia, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Mercedes, Jaguar, Landrover, Volvo, Fiat, Peugeot, Renault, Citroen, Ferrari, BMW, VW etc. etc. Only cars with no emissions i.e. fully electric cars do not need to comply with the J1979 standard and so sometimes do not support OBD II or OBDonUDS, however, beginning in 2027 electric vehicles will need to support the mandated ONDonZEV standard.

Our OBD software determines the correct protocol for you so you don’t need to worry about protocol detection.

You cannot connect microprocessor outputs directly to the J1962 connector on a vehicle. You will require some simple external circuitry including:

• a CAN transceiver
• a voltage boost to 12V for the ISO/KWP lines (this must be weakly pulled up to 12V by a 510 ohm resistor)
• a variable voltage boost for J1850+ (5V for PWM, 7.5V for VPW)
• a boost to 5V for J1850- (this line should also be pulled up to 5V)

Yes! But not using basic OBD communications. Please click to our Odomatic page to read about this feature in the Odomatic library.

OBDonUDS (J1979-2) is the new standard that extends traditional OBD II (J1979). J1979-2 will be a replacement standard for OBD II in 2027. If you are interested in learning more about OBDonUDS register here for our free webinar and white paper series that begins in Q1 2024.