Valarm can monitor, record and broadcast alerts based on vehicle parameters with OBDII. This capability is built-in to both Valarm Classic and Valarm Pro. Compatible with a wide variety of Bluetooth-compatible adapters, Valarm’s OBD2 support allows you to monitor and configure alerts based on vehicle speed as reported directly by the vehicle’s ECU (besides the speed calculated by GPS), as well as throttle position, engine RPMs, and coolant temperature.  Valarm also allows you to combine OBD2 sensors with built-in sensors (e.g., GPS for geofencing) and other external sensors via USB.  This tutorial shows you step-by-step how to set up Valarm with OBD2 Vehicle Sensors.

 

1.  First, in Valarm’s Settings Menu go to OBD2 Vehicle Sensors.

 

2.  Next we see the Valarm settings menu where we can enable OBD2 and individual vehicle sensors like velocity, RPMs, and coolant temperature.

 

3.  When you enable OBD2 Valarm will check if your device has Bluetooth currently turned on, if not it will ask for your permission to turn on Bluetooth.

 

4.  If you haven’t already connected and paired your device to your OBD2 adapter, make sure your OBD2 device is properly inserted in the vehicle then go to Android Settings –> Wireless and network –> Bluetooth settings.

 

5.  Once Bluetooth is on and enabled you can search for devices and find your OBDII device then click it to pair and connect it.

 

6.  Now go back to the Valarm app.  Since our OBD2 bluetooth adapter has been paired we can select our OBD2 adapter when we enable OBD2 in Valarm.

 

7. After selecting an OBD2 adapter we can customize and turn on the thresholds for sensors such as maximum RPMs and velocity.  Now if the vehicle exceeds these thresholds your custom Valarm response will be activated (e.g., post an alert to tools.valarm.net, send a text message or SMS, email an alert).

 

8.  Here I’ve turned on 3 OBD2 sensors: max speed, coolant temperature, and throttle position.  Now I’ll literally know if someone’s putting the pedal to the metal, i.e., throttle at 100%!

 

9.  After you are happy with your all of your Valarm settings, sensor thresholds, and responses go back to the home screen and arm.

 

10.  Now that Valarm is armed we get alerts based on OBD2 sensor data values, here’s an example where someone exceeded the maximum speed.

 

11. In Valarm’s Alert Log I see each of the values that triggered an alert.

 

12.  If you want to collect all your OBD2 vehicle data even when a sensor alert is not triggered, use Valarm’s Interval Timer for data logging.  Here is an Interval Timer set to gather all enabled sensor data every 15 seconds.

 

13.  This is an example of Valarm OBD2 data using the Interval Timer uploaded to Analytical Mapping on tools.valarm.net.  Note: all of the sensors that were turned on have their data values in the info box along with Street View capability!

 

14.  Here’s a graph of the sensors from Analytical Mapping. Download your data in CSV or KML to view it in 3D and let us know how it goes!