Fuelly Forums - odb protocol question (fe reading hardware)

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odb protocol question (fe reading hardware)

i recently bit the bullet and got another car, it's a 1995 opel vectra A GLS 16.i
got tipped they had this car coming in but i had to make a fast desision or otherwise it would be scrapped... silly regulations here, with the governement paying up to 1500? if you have you're old vehicle recycled when you buy a new one. new cars are supposed to be cleaner, but with only 27000km's on it, i'll recycle this vehicle myself.

i haven't driven it so i don't know what milage it will get, hopefully not to much worse than the kadett, but as it's an early injection model it's got more potential for feedback on FE than my carbed kadett. fe figgures on paper are about the same so i keep my finger crossed

it does however have some sort of odb port so i'm contemplating what i might hook up there. originally there was a primitive trip computer on the option list that could give instant feedback on FE, and trip fe etc... much like a scangauge does i believe.

so the car is capable of delivering some interesting information. question is what options do i have to tap into that?
findeing the original trip computer might be the easyest and cheapest way... but this was probably a rather rare and pricy option wich will be pretty difficult to stuble upon in working condition.

a scangauge seems a fine tool but a bit expensive and i'm not sure if it'll be fully compatible.

so how do i go about this? how could i find the protocol my car uses and what hardware could i buy/make to tap into this info?
any usefull links/tips?
i'm not affraight to try and build somehing myself, but i wouldn't like the airbag to go of on me or something like that :)

I believe the Scangauge requires a minimum of OBD II compatibility. There are however some software apps and adapter cables that work with devices such as Palm Pilots and Windows CE devices that can read info from earlier systems.

i did some research on the web and the car is most likely to be OBD 1.5

Quote:

"OBD 1.5" is a slang term referring to a partial implementation of OBD-II which GM used on some vehicles in 1994 and 1995 (GM did not use the term OBD 1.5 in the documentation for these vehicles - they simply have an OBD and an OBD-II section in the service manual.) ......

......Depending on the year and the vehicle, a car with the OBD 1.5 system may have either the older OBD-I connector, or the newer OBD-II connector, but they are electrically identical to each other.
source:wikipedia

i'll have to have a closer look at the car itself...i haven't spend much time in it... to bad the previous owner took some "souvenirs" like the cars manual, and the special key to unlock my alloy rims :( i should be able to find these things from a dead vectra though