Recieve data and put it up on the Drivers Information Center?
You know, where I'm going with this.

BTW: The DIC on my SSR has 20 characters.

OBDII could retrieve data- it couldn't it "put" it anywhere though. The empeg (or laptop whatever) that is accessing the OBD-II interface would have to be responsible for that. So if the lcd your showing is something built into your car it's doubtful you could do anything custom with it without tearing it out and reverse engineering the connections or replacing it with a Nortake VFD or something.

I know that someone has figured out how to display arbitrary information on Audi displays like that. It's probably CANBUS and not OBD2, I'd bet.

Yeah, the Audi's use CAN for that... i would bet that most new cars do the same.

This would seem to make it easy to connect empeg to canbus. Now to find out if my that display is addressable via same.

I've been doing a lot of searching since the last post. Canbus is still in the future for GM.

It seems that Chevy is still using something referred to loosely as the, OBD-II, Class 2, or J1850, network. The OBD-II terminal is a connector on that network. Many new Chevys have radios (particularly rds radios) that play a role on that network. Warning chimes play thru the FL speaker. Bose head units output a fixed level line output, and send volume commands to the amp. Steering wheel controls likewise talk over the net, I assume directly to the amp. Onstar uses it to control with the headunit (don't have onstar). XM radios can be controlled by the headunit, and cause the diasplay of text on it.

There are devices that will read and write to this network via a Serial connection. About $85.

An odd fact. The packets sent on the network are very small, just a few bytes of data. I guess this is so no one device can saturate the net.

I'll post some of the links I found later.

links:

1 Short discription of Class 2 network
2 Multiplex Engineering, serial to J1850. ~$85 interface. No software.
3 Card Labs, some J1850 related specs available here.
4 Adv. Vehicle Tech. listing of J1850 devices. Chips listed here. Complete products are very expensive $800-1500
5 ScanTool.net $85 interface
6 ScanTool.net Free software & source code.
7 more links to specs and data sheets.

Serious prices, but snoops everything.
8 Vehicle Spy software. $1995
9 NeoVI vehicle interface for above. $1995

10 Freediag on sourceforge.

Has there been any progress on this? I'm about to buy a BMW 335 XI (2008) and my heart is breaking that I cannot install my empeg.

I'm thinking I can mount just the display of the empeg somewhere and use the steering wheel buttons to control it. Has anyone else installed an empeg in the 2008 BMW? I don't think it has the DIN format. I'm thinking that the customization will have to be dramatic.

Remember that if you want to remote-mount the display, you need to use a display extender kit, you can't just lengthen the cable.

LOL! I just finished reading that entire thread and responeded. Are they still available?

I found out about it because of your delicious FAQ. It's good to see that you are keeping it so informative, Mr. Fabris .