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Author: Bob Fisch

By Posted on Posted in Geek talk 2 Comments

We got contacted by Scott Heim, reporting how well CanZE can be used with a Chromebook. Here is what he wrote on RZOC:

Haven’t heard talk about using a Chromebook with CanZE. As I’m a computer geek & experimented with a cloud version of chrome. It gave me the idea a Chromebook would be perfect if it works. So local shop had a sale & Chromebook was at the price point. Took a punt, found CanZE was available for install. Did a little happy dance! Then the real test out in the car. At first had some issues, all turned out to be my stupidity. Chromebook turns out to be an excellent partner with CanZE & Zoe. Actually way more stable connection then I got using my mobile. Seeing Melbourne has had 200 days of lockdown, most with curfew & 5km distance. I been keen to see how my 12 volt battery was copping. It’s been quite a cold winter. The motorcycle required a new battery. As you can see my main battery has great health! Eventually I’ll get to enjoy Zoe, she is about to have her first birthday with 3050 km on the odometer.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RZOC.CLUB/permalink/2550694458407407/

By Posted on Posted in Hardware 7 Comments

Although the last picture of Raplh’s Zoe Plugin has a make-like flair, he didn’t stop there and even installed some led indicators using a NeoPixel strip.

a perfectly fitting cover
a look above the cover
the NeoPixel’s are shining through the cover
easy to plug out
Start it up 😉

By Posted on Posted in Hardware 5 Comments

Thanks to Ralph for sending me pictures of his Zoe plugin, which is basically a CanSee dongle that exactly fit’s into the car. But take a look at the pictures yourself.

the bottom layer
the solder side
ESP32 installed
gluing the ODB connector
all connections in place
the installed plugin

By Posted on Posted in Hardware 16 Comments

The second print (blue) is finally usable, but I refined it to make it fit more neatly. The third print (orange) is the last one I did today and the components of my previous prototype fit perfectly.

The print may not look perfect, but hey, is quite a step above the “duck tape version”, isn’t it?

By Posted on Posted in Hardware 16 Comments

Today I’ve been building two more CanSee dongles. As the case is slightly different than the one of my development build, the screws don’t fit, so I needed to tape the cases, but the dongles do work, despite of the tape 😉

These two babies are definitely test builds, meaning that I experimented a lot on how to put the different elements together, putting them in the wrong order, placed them upside-down and all that kind of stuff that occurs while experimenting.

But they are operational 😉

Anyone interested in getting one?

Just be warned: I’m not a professional and doing this just for fun, so the risk is fully yours! Although I’ve tested them in my car (which did not blew up … uff) I give no warranty and will not be responsible of whatever you do with the dongle.

By Posted on Posted in Geek talk 9 Comments

While looking for some stretched screen, I came up with one of these new dash camera devices (1280×400 pixels). OK, the camera in itself doesn’t really interest me, because I only want to use it to make CanZE run on it, which is actually quite easy to do.

The only thing on that device that I do not like at all, is that the USB connector seams to be used only for power, so I can’t use it as development device out of the box but need to compile and transfer the app package in order to be able to install and run CanZE. 🙁

But at least the PlayStore is available out of the box and all underlying Android settings can be reached easily …

By Posted on Posted in Hardware No Comments

Too impatient to wait for the ODB2 cases to arrive, I reused my ELM732 WiFi dongle I didn’t use anyway, to build a second CanSee dongle.

LED’s have been put into a new order and the interior is somewhat cleaner. There is no second transceiver in yet, but a placeholder is present.

So stay tuned 😉