[ale] OT: cool gadget

[jasonday at worldnet.att.net (Jason Day)]

On Sat, May 27, 2006 at 07:45:34AM -0400, Jim Philips wrote:
> A fellow geek at work turned me on to this. If you go to a mechanic to see why 
> your "check engine light" is on, they'll charge you a hundred bucks just to 
> plug it in and see what message the onboard computer is sending. Now, you can 
> plug in this gadget and read the messages yourself. You may or may not know 
> what a big deal this is. Some mechanics will lead you round and round for 
> weeks trying to find the reason for that little light. Check it out here:
> 
> http://www.actron.com/

You used to be able to short two of the pins on the connector and get
the check engine light to blink the codes to you.  I remember buying a
book at an auto parts store that documented the procedure and what all
the codes were for the car model.  It might have been Chiltons, but I
don't remember.

I don't know if this still works though.  Obviously, you don't want to
go shorting random pins together on the computer interface...
-- 
Jason Day                                       jasonday at
http://jasonday.home.att.net                    worldnet dot att dot net
 
"Of course I'm paranoid, everyone is trying to kill me."
    -- Weyoun-6, Star Trek: Deep Space 9