A Study on Remote On-Line Diagnostic System

for Vehicles by Integrating the Technology of

OBD, GPS, and 3G
Jyong Lin, Shih-Chang Chen, Yu-Tsen Shih, and Shi-Huang Chen

AbstractThis paper presents a remote on-line diagnostic system

for vehicles via use of On-Board Diagnostic (OBD), GPS, and 3G
techniques. The main parts of the proposed system are on-board
computer, vehicle monitor server, and vehicle status browser. First,
the on-board computer can obtain the location of user and vehicle
status from GPS receiver and OBD interface, respectively. Then
on-board computer will connect with vehicle monitor server through
3G network to transmit the real time vehicle system status. Finally,
vehicle status browser could show the remote vehicle status including
speed, engine rpm, battery voltage, engine coolant temperature, and
diagnostic trouble codes. According to the experimental results, the
proposed system can help fleet managers and car knockers to
understand the remote vehicle status. Therefore this system can
decrease the time of fleet management and vehicle repair due to the
fleet managers and car knockers who find the diagnostic trouble
messages in time.

KeywordsDiagnostic Trouble Code (DTC), Electronic Control

Unit (ECU), Global Position System (GPS), On-Board Diagnostic
(OBD).
I. INTRODUCTION

N-BOARD Diagnostic (OBD) regulations require

passenger cars to report diagnostic information and
standardized fault codes for malfunctions detected by the OBD
system [1], [2]. As early as in 1985, the California Air
Resources Board (CARB) enacted an ordinance that demands
the vehicles outfitted with the OBD system; and the European
Union followed to legislate for a compulsory installation of
OBD system in vehicles. The R.O.C. Environmental Protection
Administration also implemented a mandatory regulation in
January 2008 for its Phase 4 Emission Standards against all the
gasoline vehicles in Taiwan that all the vehicles must be
outfitted an OBD system from then on as an effort to put the
Jyong Lin is with the R&D Division, Automotive Research and Testing
Center, Lugang, Changhua County, Taiwan (R.O.C.) (phone: 886-4-7811222;
fax: 886-4-7811333; e-mail: jlin@artc.org.tw).
Shih-Chang Chen is with the R&D Division, Automotive Research and
Testing Center, Lugang, Changhua County, Taiwan (R.O.C.) (e-mail:
atson@artc.org.tw).
Yu-Tsen Shih is with the Technical & Service Division, Automotive
Research and Testing Center, Lugang, Changhua County, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
(e-mail: kimshih @artc.org.tw).
Shi-Huang Chen is with the Department of Computer Science & Information
Engineering, Shu-Te University, Yanchao, Kaohsiung County, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
(e-mail: shchen@mail.stu.edu.tw).

pollution from vehicles into surveillance; so any vehicles

without this device mounted shall not be issued the license plate
to hit the road. Thus it can be seen that OBD system will be the
standard outfit to all of the gasoline/diesel vehicles in the
future.
The OBD system can always monitor the running condition
of engine. Once there is a malfunctioning element that controls
the emission of exhaust, the OBD system will turn on the
Malfunction Indicator Lamp or the Check Engine Indicator
Lamp (as shown in the Fig. 1) in the in-car dashboard to urge
the driver to fix it immediately so that the element for emission
control of exhaust gas can resume its normal operation as soon
as possible in order to avoid driving a malfunctioned vehicle
continuously that leads to a higher fuel consumption and
pollution emission. When the OBD system detects a
malfunction, OBD regulations require the Electronic Control
Unit (ECU) of the vehicle to save a standardized Diagnostic
Trouble Code (DTC) about the information of malfunction in
the memory. An OBD Scan Tool for the servicemen can access
the DTC from the ECU to quickly and accurately confirm the
malfunctioning characteristics and location in accordance with
the prompts of DTC that shortens the service time largely.
Moreover, currently the number of item for the real-time
driving status that OBD can monitor is as high as up to 80 items
and more including the vehicle speed, engine rpm, engine
coolant temperature, battery voltage, etc.

Fig. 1 Variety of icons for Engine Malfunction Indicator Lamps and

Check Engine Indicator Lamps

Although OBD can shorten the service time of vehicles;

however, a demand for the immediateness and mobility
relevant to the vehicular diagnostics is growing increasingly;
therefore, if it is possible that the DTC can be delivered to the
server in the network through the aid of mobile communication
so that not only the OBD Scan Tool can read the message, but
the servicemen also can inquire the real-time malfunction

message from a remote vehicle; thus the deficiency of

immediateness and the mobility can be made up consequently
[3][5].
In addition to the need concerning the immediateness and the
mobility of vehicular diagnostics, currently the logistic industry,
bus transportation service providers, taxi service providers, etc.
have an uneasy task for their commercial fleet management.
For this reason, this study constructed a remote on-line
diagnostic system comprised of an on-board computer, a
vehicle monitor server and a vehicle status browser. The remote
on-line diagnostic system is for the fleet manager to understand
the real-time driving status and the OBD DTC of each car on a
real-time basis via 3G network. Accordingly, the fleet manager
can inform the driver how to take care of the situation in a
telecommunication manner. In the future, the fleet manager can
not only know the driving locations of thereof fleet, but also
acquire the real-time driving status of each car. Hence, in
addition to mend the deficiency in immediateness and mobility,
the system benefits the commercial fleet largely as well.
II. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
The remote on-line diagnostic system proposed by this paper
includes three major modules, namely the on-board computer,
vehicle monitor server, and vehicle status browser. Fig. 2
shows the integrated configuration of these three modules;
wherein, on-board computer is responsible for collecting the
information of driving: vehicle speed, engine rpm, battery
voltage, engine coolant temperature, OBD DTC, and location
of vehicle, etc.; these information will be processed with digital
encoding and transmitted back through a 3G network to the
vehicle monitor server where the driving information will be
recorded for users immediate or future retrieval; and the
vehicle status browser for driving real-time information is
exclusively developed for the remote on-line diagnostic system
to allow the user to synchronously browse the real-time
information: vehicle speed, engine rpm, battery voltage, engine
coolant temperature, OBD DTC, and location of vehicle, etc.
The following three sections describe these three modules
separately, that is, the on-board computer, vehicle monitor
server, and vehicle status browser.

Fig. 2 Configuration of remote on-line diagnostic system

III. ON-BOARD COMPUTER

On-board computer is the most important key module
brought up in this paper while its function is to acquire the
information of vehicle speed, engine rpm, battery voltage,
engine coolant temperature, OBD DTC, and GPS signal. And,
on-board computer transmits these digital bit-streams back to
the vehicle monitor server through the 3G network. Fig. 3 is a
block diagram of the on-board computer mentioned in this
paper; wherein, the system is mainly comprised of OBD-II to
RS232 adapter, GPS receiver, encoder, 3G module, etc.; and
the operating commands of user includes the start, run, network
setup, etc. Since the majority of 3G modules support the
Windows Operating System only, in order to let the system
have a smooth operation, the on-board computer mentioned in
this paper is practically implemented by a notebook computer
in possession of Windows operating platform.

Fig. 3 Block diagram of system for on-board computer

A. OBD-II
In the very beginning of 1980s in 20th century, every leading
car manufacturer in Europe, USA and Japan had incepted
producing their injection-engine cars with the OBD system
equipped in a bid to monitor the running status of engine. OBD
by then had a serious problem: these leading car makers made
thereof OBD system incompatible with one another. As an
effort to rid off this defect of an incompatible OBD system, the
CARB undertook to devise a new OBD system; and for the
purpose of differentiating it from the used system at early stage,
this newly formulated system is called the OBD-II (The second

generation of On-Board Diagnostic system).

The biggest betterment of OBD-II is its standardization; that
is, just one set of instrument is able to perform the diagnosis
and scan against variety of vehicles. In addition to the diagnosis
against a totally failed element for pollution control of emission,
OBD-II is able to further carry out a diagnostic against the
TABLE I
VEHICLE CONNECTOR CONTACT ALLOCATION OF OBD-II
Contact
1#

Allocation
Discretionary

2#

Bus positive line of SAE J1850

3#

Discretionary

4#

Chassis ground

5#

Signal ground

6#

CAN_H line of ISO 15765-4

7#

K line of ISO 9141-2 and ISO 14230-4

8#

Discretionary

9#

Discretionary

10#

Bus negative line of SAE J1850

11#

Discretionary

12#

Discretionary

13#

Discretionary

14#

CAN_L line of ISO 15765-4

15#

L line of ISO 9141-2 and ISO 14230-4

16#

Permanent positive voltage

pollution of emission exhausted from those aged or partially

malfunctioned elements. When the signal from the circuit of
electronic control system appears an abnormality that is out of
the range of normal deviation while this abnormal phenomenon
has not disappeared within a specified amount of time duration,
the OBD-II will diagnose to determine if this is a malfunctioned
part; and at this moment, the malfunction indicator lamp will be
turned on. Meanwhile, the monitor will save this malfunction in
the memory inside ECU in a code form; thus the saved DTC
can be retrievable through an OBD-II Scan Tool.
The vehicle and OBD-II Scan Tool connectors each are
capable of accommodating 16 contacts. Nine contacts of the 16
contacts have thereof fixed function, and the function for the
rest of contacts is left to the discretion of the vehicle
manufacturer [6]. Table 1 tabulates the function of OBD-II
contacts in details.
There are five codes in total to represent the OBD-II
malfunction, the first code is an English alphabet to stand for
the established malfunction system. The remaining four codes
are digits; the second code indicates the meaning of
malfunction formulated by SAE/ISO or customized by the
vehicle manufacturer; the third code shows the area of vehicle
system; the remaining two codes represent the definition of the
subject malfunction (as shown in Fig. 4) [1].

Fig. 4 Definition of OBD-II Diagnostic Trouble Code

B. OBD-II to RS232 Adapter

Since the market-sold computer has not been equipped with
the OBD-II interface, in order for this paper to smoothly
authenticate the prototyping system, an OBD-II to RS232
adapter was fabricated to accommodate with the on-board
computer for a practical implementation to acquire the
real-time driving status.
OBD-II is international standardized to be applicable to the
following communication protocols: SAE J1850 PWM, SAE
J1850 VPW, ISO 9141-2, ISO 14230-4 KWP, and ISO
15765-4 CAN. The finished product of OBD-II to RS232
adapter that is practically implemented by this paper is shown
in Fig. 5. In Fig. 5, the port at left side is to connect the OBD-II
interface so that the OBD-II signals can be converted into
RS232 electrical signals via the conversion circuit of OBD-II to
RS232 adapter in the middle section and output from the port at
right side; now the computer is able to take the advantage of
this RS232 interface to communicate with the OBD-II.

Fig. 5 OBD-II to RS232 adapter

C. GPS receiver
GPS receiver can receive signals from 8-12 sets of GPS
satellite at the same time, and the satellite signals to be received

by the receiver include: Coordinated Universal Time,

ephemeris data, almanac data, Coarse/Acquisition code, etc.
GPS receiver can receive, process, and transform these
information into time, latitude, longitude, velocity, orientation,
altitude, Estimated Position Error etc.
For example, a sentence amongst the GPS information
sentences is as follow: $GPGGA, 055730.367, 2238.2122, N,
12017.7504, E, 1, 06, 7.0, 133.9, M, 10.0, M, 0.0, 0000*74;
therein, the denotations of respective data are explained below
[7]:
GGA (Global Positioning System Fix Data): Time, position,
and fix related data for a GPS receiver.
055730.367: UTC time format, fix was taken at 05:57:30
UTC.
2238.2122, N: Latitude format, it is 22 degree 38.2122 of
north latitude.
12017.7504, E: Longitude format, it is 120 degree 17.7504
of east longitude.
1: Fix quality, the measured indicator 1 indicates that the
information has made a fix using GPS.
06: The number of satellites was tracked.
7.0: Horizontal dilution of position: 0.5 m to 99.9 m, the
measured value is 7.0 m.
133.9, M: Altitude above mean sea level, the measured
altitude is 133.9 m.
10.0, M: Height of geoid above World Geodetic System
1984 (WGS 84) ellipsoid , the measured height is 10.0 m.
0.0: Time in seconds since last Differential GPS (DGPS)
update, the measured value 0.0 shows that this GPS receiver
did not use DGPS fix.
0000: DGPS station ID number.
*74: Checksum.
Then, these data will be transmitted to a Geographical
Information System, such as the PAPAGO software of
Maction Technologies, Inc., for it to pinpoint and display the
position. Since the SiRF Star III chips are capable of promptly
and accurately receiving the GPS signals, therefore this paper
used the GPS receiver with the SiRF Star III chipset mounted to
collect the positioning signals.
D. Encoder
The function of encoder is: to encode & integrate the GPS
signals and OBD data in accordance with the preset
transmission format, transmit them to the vehicle monitor
server via 3G so that the vehicle monitor server can decode the
transmitted data in accordance with the predefined transmission
format to acquire the subject vehicles speed, engine rpm,
battery voltage, engine coolant temperature, OBD DTC, and
the GPS coordinates for the position of vehicle.
In order to cope with the updating frequency for GPS to
receive the signals once per second, this paper also set the
frequency at once per second to acquire the OBD DTC and the
real-time driving status. Meanwhile, this paper defined a
transmission format as follows:
On-board computer ID number| GPS data | OBD DTC |
vehicle speed, engine rpm, battery voltage, engine coolant

temperature
With the aim of saving the transmission of bits, this study
acquired only the GGA contents amongst the GPS signals as
the positioning data and transmitted the DTC, speed, rpm,
voltage, and temperature in a decimal system after processing
the analytics. For instance:
On-board computer ID number: 1043
GGA data from GPS: $GPGGA, 055730.367, 2238.2122, N,
12017.7504, E, 1, 06, 7.0, 133.9, M, 10.0, M, 0.0, 0000*74
DTC: P0123
Vehicle speed: 57km/hr
Engine rpm: 1649 rpm
Battery voltage: 13.375V
Engine coolant temperature: 95
The data for transmission after being encoded by the encoder
are: 1043 | $GPGGA, 055730.367, 2238.2122, N, 12017.7504,
E, 1, 06, 7.0, 133.9, M, 10.0, M, 0.0, 0000*74 | P0123 | 57,
1649, 13.375, 95
IV. VEHICLE MONITOR SERVER
The driving information acquired by the on-board computer,
including the vehicle speed, engine rpm, battery voltage,
engine coolant temperature, OBD DTC, and GPS coordinates
will be processed through digital encoding and transmitted to
the vehicle monitor server via a 3G network as a provision for
the user to retrieve the driving real-time information or to
retrieve the information in the future. The vehicle monitor
server will save the driving information from the on-board
computer into the Access 2003 database. When received an
inquiry sent from the vehicle status browser; besides of the
report in return transfer relevant to the speed, rpm, voltage,
temperature, OBD DTC, and location of vehicle; the vehicle
monitor server will take the advantage of Geographical
Information System to send out a map file produced according
to the GPS coordinates in return transfer?.
A. Access 2003 database
Microsoft Access 2003 is a relational database; its user
interface is simple, ease of operation and compatible to ANSI
SQL-92 standard. Since this system is a prototyping system
developed only for authenticating the feasibility of system
configuration; therefore, the Access 2003 database is adequate
for storing the information of this system.
This paper established a data table with the
DiagnosticData titled to cover the vehicle-driving
information, while the field name, data type, and description
are shown in the Fig. 6. Therein, the field names of primary key
are OnBoardComputerID and RecordTime that cannot be
repeated; the longitude and latitude in the data table are adopted
a format of WGS84 with an accuracy up to the sixth digit after
the decimal point; that is, the accuracy can be within 10 cm
approximately when converted into distance. Besides the
foregoing field, the data table has more fields to further cover
the OBD DTC, vehicle speed, engine rpm, battery voltage, and
engine coolant temperature.

Fig. 6 Data table details relevant to the driving information

B. Geographical Information System

Geographical Information System is a science that integrates
the geography, mathematics, land surveying, and computer
science and serves as a computer system that can be used for
input, storage, inquiry, analysis, and display of geographic data.
The Geographical Information System is comprised of the
following elements: maps, spatial information, database engine,
analytical tools, graphic display techniques, operators, and
decision-makers involved, etc. Its scope of application includes
the visible objects above and below the surface of earth; such as
the traffic transportation, land utilization, exploration of
geology etc.
Since the PaPaGO! SDK that is a software development kit
of Geographical Information System from the Maction
Technologies is executable in server, desk computer and PDA.
With the future expandability taken into consideration, the
evaluation version of PaPaGO! SDK was adopted to undertake
an implementation. This paper used the PaPaGO! SDK search
engine to locate the driving location with red-star pinpointed
and displayed (as shown in Fig. 7), transformed it into a map
file and sent it to the vehicle status browser.

rpm, battery voltage, engine coolant temperature, and driving

location, etc. The basic operation in this regard is to log on the
vehicle monitor server, choose the vehicle to be monitored,
choose to browse the real-time information or historical record,
then receive the driving information from the vehicle monitor
server with the driving date/time, OBD DTC, vehicle speed,
engine rpm, battery voltage, engine coolant temperature shown
in text form and the driving location displayed in map form in
the screen (as shown in Fig. 8).
Fig. 8 demonstrates a schematic operation of vehicle status
browser. In the figure, the Car ID and driving date/time are
shown in the left upper block, the vehicle speed, engine rpm,
battery voltage, and engine coolant temperature are shown in
the upper middle block, the OBD DTC and corresponding
malfunction message are shown in the upper right block, and
the driving location at the time is pinpointed with a red star in
the major block of the figure.

Fig. 8 Schematic operation of vehicle status browser

VI. RESULTS OF EXPERIMENT

Fig. 7 Mapping display of driving location

V. VEHICLE STATUS BROWSER

Vehicle status browser is exclusively used for the remote
on-line diagnostic system so that the user can synchronously
browse the driving date/time, OBD DTC, vehicle speed, engine

This paper used a notebook computer configured with Intel

Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, Window XP
Professional SP3 operating system as the on-board computer; a
BU-353 (USB interface, SiRF Star III chips) from Globalsat
Technology Corporation as the GPS receiver; a network
interface card of Huawei E220 HSDPA USB from Chunghwa
Telecom as the 3G network module; and fabricated an OBD-II
to RS232 adapter and took the C# language to implement the
on-board computer system.
Regard for the vehicle monitor server, an IBM server
configured with Intel Xeon E5335 2.00GHz CPU, 2GB RAM,
Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 operating system is used

together with the use of a Microsoft Access 2003 to store the

driving information, a PaPaGO! SDK software from Maction
Technologies Inc. to generate the map, a 6M/6M FTTB optical
network from Chunghwa Telecom for networking, an IP-fixed
receiving on-board computer to link with the vehicle status
browser, and a C# language to program the functions of vehicle
monitor server.
The vehicle status browser is likewise programmed by C#
language, so the computer is able to execute this browser once
installed the Microsoft .NET Framework V2.0. This paper used
a desk computer configured with Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz
CPU1GB RAMWindow XP Professional SP3 operating
system to perform the vehicle status browser.
This study took a Ford Focus 1.8 vehicle as the test subject;
wherein, the OBD-II port was located at the left lower part of
the steering wheel (the left part as shown in the Fig. 9) to
connect the OBD-II to RS232 adapter (the right part as shown
in the Fig. 9). Thus, when obtained the OBD DTC, etc.
real-time driving status and GPS coordinates, the on-board
computer sent the received information to the vehicle monitor
server via 3G network.

Fig. 10 Vehicle status browser

VII. CONCLUSION

Fig. 9 OBD port (left part), OBD-II to RS232 adapter (right part)

In order to authenticate the feasibility of this study, this study

undertook an offline testing against an experimental car parked
along the roadside for thereof intake air temperature sensor
inside the engine chamber. After disconnecting the line of the
said intake air temperature sensor, for the safety concern, the
car was left at a still status (vehicle speed is 0). Then, the
vehicle status browser was taken to check up the information of
car; a DTC P0113 appeared to indicate that the Intake Air
Temperature Sensor 1 Circuit High; meanwhile, some
information relevant to the car were shown as well: driving
date/time, vehicle speed, engine rpm, battery voltage, engine
coolant temperature, and driving location (as shown in the Fig.
10)
Through the aid of Remote On-Line Diagnostic System, the
management personnel of an automotive maintenance/repair
shop or commercial fleet is able to remotely learn the current
driving information and whether there is a malfunction
message or not via network instead of going to the field,
waiting for the scheduled maintenance date or being informed
by the driver.

This paper has successfully integrated the 3G mobile

network, GPS and OBD system to develop a remote on-line
diagnostic system while the complete system is comprised of
three major elements: on-board computer, vehicle monitor
server, and vehicle status browser. According to the results of
experiments, the remote on-line diagnostic system proposed by
this paper is able to allow the user to know the real-time driving
status, malfunction message and location of a moving car at a
remote place. The remote on-line diagnostic system proposed
by this paper offers a highly applicable value in the fleet
management, remotely automotive diagnosis or the initiative
service notification of a maintenance/repair shop.
In the future, the linking between the vehicle status browser
and vehicle monitor server in the system will use the
HTTP(Hypertext Transfer Protocol) protocol. Thus, without
mounting the vehicle status browser, the user can execute the
Web Browser from a computer, mobile phone or handheld
device to inquire about the real-time information of a car in
moving; consequently, the convenience of using the remote
on-line diagnostic system is further upgraded.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was funded by the Department of Industrial
Technology of MOEA (Ministry of Economic Affairs), Taiwan,
R.O.C.
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