Notices

Odd... Mine had the code in a text file on the CD. I got the large blue one, ELM 378, maybe the smaller one has a different firmware? Either way, just something to look for if the 0000 code doesn't work for you! So don't toss that CD too quickly!

Can someone please give a current step-by-step install guide for carman for n900. I have read the entire thread and still cannot get it to install. My n900 has a clean install of pr 1.3.

Thank You!

Update:
So somehow I managed to get it to install but have no utter clue on how.

SUMMARY
The best I could reconstruct from the thread is:

1. At this time, OBD2 connection is not assured. It is more likely for the DealExtreme adapters, and less likely for some adapters sold as "Elm327" on ebay.
2. A portion of Carman (the carmand daemon) continues running at high CPU use even when Carman is closed.
3. Carman's .conf file must be changed to use the N900's GPS, & in that configuration will not turn off the GPS after Carman is closed.


Installation of Carman:
1. Open Application Manager, enable extras-devel in Application Catalogs, close Application Manager
2. Open XTerminal, and enter the following commands (waiting for each to finish):
3. sudo gainroot
4. apt-get update
5. apt-get install libeet1=1.2.2+svn41533-maemo1
6. apt-get install carman

If Carman presents the message "No Plugins found" on first run, close Carman & reboot the phone.

Carman debug log is written to:
/home/user/carmand_logYYMMDD_HHMMSS.txt
(YYMMDD and HHMMSS are date and time when the log file was created)

Bluetooth pairing:
Make a note of the bluetooth passkey code with the OBD2 dongle's documentation. Attach the OBD2 dongle to the car & start the car. On the N900, open the Bluetooth manager, set Bluetooth to "On", go to "Devices", then "New", then in "Select a device" choose the device (typically will be listed as "OBDII" or similar in the N900) and enter its passkey code.

OBD2 connection:
After Bluetooth pairing, start Carman & confirm that the OBD2 connection between Carman and the OBD2 bluetooth dongle has been established. There seems to have been more success establishing OBD2 connection with the generic OBD2 bluetooth dongle from Dealextreme.com, & less success with many OBD2 bluetooth dongles labeled "Elm327" from ebay.

A possible culprit is that even though labeled Elm327, the chips in these dongles are counterfeit, as some report in the Carman log as being v1.4, a version Elm has never made. Elm has made versions 1.3a & 1.4b
http://www.elmelectronics.com/obdic.html

Another issue may be a fault in libobd. A discussion of this issue begins at post #225 at
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=37259&page=23
A modified and recompiled libobd available from Just4pleisure seemed to yield improved likelihood of OBD2 connection.


Presently, Carman does not turn off GPS after the program closes, & the GPS is difficult to shut down short of re-starting the phone. For this reason, setting Carman's GPS to "internal" is impractical for daily use. However for reference:
To have Carman use the internal GPS:
1. Install Leafpad (if you don't already have it)
2. Open XTerminal and run these commands:
→a. sudo gainroot
→b. leafpad /home/user/.carman/carmand.conf
3. When Leafpad opens the carmand.conf file, edit the gps_device=whatever line to gps_device=internal
4. Save the file carmand.conf, and close Leafpad then XTerminal
5. If it is later desired to disable Carman's GPS from "internal", follow the above steps to modify the line in carmand.conf to "gps=none"

Serious issues even when Carman loads and reads OBD2 data from the car:
1. After closing Carman, GPS and bluetooth remain on and connected. GPS remains difficult to disconnect short of restarting the phone. Note: ssjtoma reports that if you go back to Carman and disconnect from the GPS it will actually stop the GPS so no restart is required.
2. A component of Carman, the carmand daemon, continues running even after closing Carman. CPU use remains high, and the daemon continues to write to the log file with no limit on its size except available storage.
To disable log files (although carmand will continue running):
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...&postcount=261

3. After closing Carman, still-running carmand will sometimes restart Carman.

Additional gui themes for Carman:
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...&postcount=221

The Carman garage page is located at
https://garage.maemo.org/projects/carman/

Tarballs for the source files of its parts are at
http://repository.maemo.org/extras-d...urce/c/carman/
http://repository.maemo.org/extras-d...ation-wrapper/
http://repository.maemo.org/extras-d...-theme-tuning/
http://repository.maemo.org/extras-d...an-themes-dev/
http://repository.maemo.org/extras-d...e/c/carman-ui/
http://repository.maemo.org/extras-d...rce/c/carmand/

shouldn't step 4 be:
apt-get update
???

to do an apt-get upgrade when extras-devel is active seems dangerous to me...

Yes, you're correct.
I've edited the post to prevent accidents.

where can i find source files of this version carman for N900?

or , how can i change existing tunning theme so i can add sensors which i need?

EDIT: i just found them, but how to compile it after change?

where i can find edje_cc for madde?

EDIT: i got it to work on my N900

Hi all,
I've had a few pm's from people asking for my version of libobd because they haven't been able to connect Carman to their Bluetooth ELM327.

HINT if you send me a pm and actually want a reply you really should do something to prevent this:when I try to reply to you!

Back to the subject, in some cases the error reported in Carman's log file has been:

Which is a Bluetooth error of some sort and not related to libobd (though it is something to do with the way some other part of the Carman software uses Bluetooth). The error message is saying that it is not possible to make a Bluetooth connection of the type needed by Carman between your N900 and your ELM327. The Bluetooth connection must be made before libobd can send or receive OBD messages. Unfortunately my version of libobd cannot do anything about this problem since the problem and I haven't been able to help in this situation.

If anyone knows how to fix this problem I'm sure those who have not been able to use Carman because of it would be grateful, as would the community at large.

I'm attaching my libobd version to this message as well since I haven't made the time to learn how to release things properly through the repository system. In order to install it you must have rootsh installed on your N900. Copy libobd_0.7_armel_unopt.deb somewhere convenient e.g. your N900's SD. Then from X-Terminal do:

sudo gainroot (you need root privileges to be able to install things, Google for N900 gainroot if you don't have this setup yet...)
cd /media/mmc1 (go to your SD card)
dpkg -i libobd_0.7_armel_unopt.deb

Hope this is helpful,
Sophie x

Is there any update about the Carman project on the N900?

Thanks for the install instructions rotoflex, however, I'm having a problem. After I type in
apt-get update

I get the following message:
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (
13 Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the list directory

I'm not sure how to get around this, I've followed all the other steps up to this point, but then it doesn't work...

I'm really keen to get Carman on my N900.
---------
Edit: I was so keen, I forgot to install rootsh, and this was the cause of my 'problem'...