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Recommend a good ODB reader?

  • 24-11-2016 4:23pm
    #1
    rat_race
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 990 ✭✭✭


    Hey, as the title suggests, can someone recommend a "good" ODB reader, or school me a bit on the standards one needs for bikes?

    There's such a variety...I guess you get what you pay for, but if someone has already done their homework here, I'd love to hear suggestions.

    Under 100e, as it'd get very little use!


    Cheers!


Comments

  • #2
    jimgoose
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,195 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    The problem with motorbikes is that while many of them do use CANBus these days, they can also use some weird proprietary connector. There is no legal mandate for bikes to support open-standard core powertrain OBD like there is in cars. It will happen, but not yet.


  • #3
    rat_race
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 990 ✭✭✭rat_race


    jimgoose wrote: »
    The problem with motorbikes is that while many of them do use CANBus these days, they can also use some weird proprietary connector. There is no legal mandate for bikes to support open-standard core powertrain OBD like there is in cars. It will happen, but not yet.

    Ok, so let me see if I'm clear on this. An OBD reader, understands CANBus-compatible ECUs; so the vehicle must support it for the reader to work.

    In cars, the connections in, are all the same (mostly), so a single OBD reader would handle most modern cars, I'm guessing.

    But for bikes, there's two problems: if it does support CANBus, even the cable might be different, and it might not support CANBus at all; requiring its own custom software/reader and cable.

    Have I got it right?


  • #4
    jimgoose
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,195 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    rat_race wrote: »
    Ok, so let me see if I'm clear on this. An OBD reader, understands CANBus-compatible ECUs; so the vehicle must support it for the reader to work.

    In cars, the connections in, are all the same (mostly), so a single OBD reader would handle most modern cars, I'm guessing.

    But for bikes, there's two problems: if it does support CANBus, even the cable might be different, and it might not support CANBus at all; requiring its own custom software/reader and cable.

    Have I got it right?

    Pretty much. I'd just add that an OBD-II compliant device, like the little Memoscan U480 I got for a tenner on the Bay of Gee a few yearss back, "speaks" several hardware bus protocols such as CAN, PWM and KWP2000 and can detect and select automatically. CANbus is getting pretty common nowadays, but it's not always used.


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