Dataheads rejoice! Get your car’s diagnostics online,
BSR have just put together a new product that you car junkies and control freaks will just love. It’s called the Riiport and like most of BSR’s gear, it’s a plug and play masterpiece in the making.
Riiport consists of a fully automatic driver’s log that sends data in real time from the car’s various control systems wirelessly via GPRS to www.riiport.com. Riiport is also able to read all diagnostic trouble codes that inform you if something is wrong with the car, providing both the code and a describing text.
It seems like the Riiport is purchased as a three-year subscription. There’s no installation fee for the unit itself, but your data will cease downloading after three years. That period might be a little to do with leasing, as it’s expected businesses might take this up as a fleet control measure.
Reading all the diagnostic stuff will be of interest to many private buyers as well, though, especially those who’ve purchased some of BSR’s other products 
The Riiport device is currently only available for VAG vehicles, but Saab and Volvo are coming soon.
-
More from this category
- Even more custom Saab badges!
- Saab UK gets Saab in Motion
- One for the gadget guys: Dynolicious
- Freebie picnic set for 10 UK Saabers
More from this author
- IntSaab 2009 schedule posted
- Tuesday Snippets
- Does Automotive News still have an editor?
- TS moves to Russia?
Subscribe to this author
Recent Comments
- ctm on TS moves to Russia?
- Snotfjold on Tuesday Snippets
- Markac on A single EnG snippet that just won’t wait
- 1985 Gripen on Tuesday Snippets
- kdsaab on Tuesday Snippets
- Rogan on A single EnG snippet that just won’t wait
- Burbs on Monday Snippets
- Troll96 on Tuesday Snippets
- MarkS on A single EnG snippet that just won’t wait
- Alex on A single EnG snippet that just won’t wait
Hey Swade, Eurovision Song Contest going on right now in Serbia.
We’ll get an edited version of it tonight on TV. I’ll try and stay away from the news until then…..
I wish that auto manufacturers just gave us direct access to ODBC data.
I know you can buy a reader (which may or may not be familiar with brand-specific codes), but why doesn’t the SID just tell me that I have missfire in cylinder #2, or an out-of-range signal from the right rear ABS sensor, or what my long-term fuel trim is?
I figure that if I buy the car, I own the data as well, and I shouldn’t have to pay a third party hundreds of dollars to access it.
First, bernard’s right — I’d like more info available through a standard interface.
Secondly, I wonder if this has been tested in the US. Our sole GPRS carrier, AT&T (formerly Cingular) has had a few compatibility issues with data devices in the last several months.
Bernard and Egg’s: Interesting – Up until 1996 Cadillac used to provide all powertrain data information and output controls through the climate control head which was part of the driver information center. Anyone who knew the right combination of keys to hold down could access this information. It was simple stuff – about 25 parameters but it had value.
The SID would have to be a fairly complex piece of hardware to perform the same functions on a new Saab. There are now no fewer than at least 15 modules chatting with each other on either the powertrain or instrument data busses and ‘requesting’ the information from a specific module is where it gets tricky. The SID is not on the powertrain bus and is actually on the ‘slower’ instrument bus. The column integration (on a 9-3 for example) module serves as a gateway module between the two busses (powertrain and instrument), so at the very least it would need the ability to communicate and transfer data from the high speed controller area network. This would require the column integration module to request a select set of data parameters from the powertrain controllers and organize and update them accordingly and then the SID would have to digest them.
Whew!
I read about the Riiport and I have some experience with similar devices. I would assume the Riiport is communicating with a ‘generic’ OBD II data stream which is required on all United States sold vehicles. You can view basic powertrain information, emission control device status as well as DTC information, but that is the proverbial icing on the cake. Output controls and more advanced diagnostic information would not be available and that information is what separates a factory scan tool (Tech 2) from the generic interface.
A navigation radio might be better suited to this task given its large display however I doubt Saab or any other manufacturer is going to make that kind of information available to a customer given that it would most likely open a huge can of worms due to misinterpretation of data etc. There is so much information available now compared to the Cadillac system (probably at least 200 data parameters in powertrain alone) I mentioned earlier you would need an accompanying service (workshop) manual to understand how everything works.
I am by no means implying that someone could not read and interpret information, but there is a lot more there to digest and understand than you might think. Now that my semester is over hopefully I can assemble some more of this over the summer and pass it along to Swade as I have a lighter summer schedule.
Hello people, and especially Tejds..
Just wanted to clarify that as I have some understanding to how the Riiport works, it will not only work with the simple generic datastreams that are generally known.
The Riiport also interprets the more complex manufacturer-specific protocols, and through that will show you parameters that ordinarily would be read with an expensive Tech 2, or similar.
Yours truly.
/Julian