Which interface is suitable for us?

Hello,

For a research project, we would like to purchase an OBD interface.

It should be possible to read at least the speed, and especially the rotational rate (using yaw rate sensors/gyroscopes), lateral acceleration, and steering angle. It should also work with as many passenger cars as possible, and therefore be designed to be compatible with both types of connectors. The actual standard functions, such as clearing or reading error codes, are not particularly relevant in this case.

What software and interface do you recommend for this project? Does anyone have any suggestions or know of any sources or links to relevant websites/forums? And if such an interface doesn't exist, which option comes closest to meeting our requirements?

Ideally, this should be done under Linux, and the associated software should be open source. Alternatively, one should be able to obtain this data with reasonable effort using a custom-written program. And it shouldn't be too expensive either.

And what about the protocols? Are there different protocols for retrieving this seemingly 'trivial' information, depending on the manufacturer? If so, the interface should obviously support a wide range of them. Sorry if I'm asking a silly question, but so far I've only used OBD interfaces for their original purpose of diagnostics, without really thinking about anything else.

Thank you in advance.

Sven.

Well, a universal part like the one you're looking for is unlikely to exist. As far as I know, standard OBD (the system that most cars have had since around 2001) doesn't include lateral acceleration or steering angle data. These things are usually manufacturer-specific. The only system that comes to mind is the Bosch KST 5xx, but it's very expensive.

I don't really know anything about open source, except for a few small AVR programs, but those are mostly...
even hardcoded to specific motor controllers.

Best regards.
markus

The topic http://shop.dieselschrauber.de might not be as relevant anymore, but I can highly recommend it. That's where I got my USB-OBD adapter, which uses KKL (for certain Audi models from around 2003, but it also works with all other models), and I'm very satisfied with it.

If you want more [functionality/data], you'll probably have to read the CAN bus, and to do that, you'll likely have to look into the original Rosstech adapters that support CAN, but even those aren't very cheap and, as far as I know, aren't necessarily open-source compatible.

Best regards. Andreas.