Quote Originally Posted by Xnke View Post
Can you use raw binary data instead of the AVT data interface? To be clearer, are you attempting to emulate the AVT852-E and are looking for less costly hardware, or are you willing to work with a direct serial translator instead?

If so, I'll have a 1x/4x capable hardware unit posted here shortly. It'll be atmel based so you can run your current VPW implementation if you'd like, I'm putting the old design through the wringer right now to make sure it'll do what you need it to do. Also, you could simply use the Harris or Fairchild bus interface chips to do the hardware, they're discontinued but available through second-source vendors. I have been pulling them from GM body control modules, they're surface mount so you need to be good with a hotplate.

Also the AVT interface is available directly from AVT, you can buy singles at 250ish dollars each. That's where mine came from.
Raw binary is fine, we're designing the next app(s) so that the raw binary payloads are totally separate from the details of the different interfaces. That should make it relatively easy to support different interfaces. Antus wrote the proof-of-concept and has an AVT, so that will probably be the first interface to work, but I'm not planning to buy one just yet. As a software developer I'd prefer the "direct serial translator" approach. But as someone who wants there to be an active community of people hacking 0411 PCMs, I really just want there to be an interface that is inexpensive and readily available. $250 could work, but that price point seems to leave a lot of room for improvement. DIY SMT isn't going to work for very many people though, so I'm not real excited about that approach.

What do you think about getting productizing your design through service like seeedstudio.com? Or PCBs through oshpark.com, a case through shapeways.com, OBD2 connector with pigtails from Amazon, etc, etc, so anybody with a soldering iron could build one?