When the electrical harness is out of the car, wipe down all the components and cables with a small amount of a mild soap and water to reduce the risk of illness. Important Note: When working in an old and dirty car or environment (such as a vehicle in a junkyard), WEAR A DUST MASK! Removing an electrical harness can expose you to heavy amounts of dust and bacteria. Voltmeter (a cheap basic model is fine).Safety equipment (gloves, goggles, light-weight face mask).
Electronic workbench free plus#
Basic set of standard and metric socket wrenches, plus extension bits.Phillips and flathead screwdrivers in assorted sizes.This is not a complete list, but here are some tools that you may want to have on hand: This project is going to take more than just a simple screwdriver and a pair of clippers. You may also find that newer hybrid vehicles have different power voltages that you need to be aware of while constructing your bench. For example, If you are working with a heavier class of vehicle, it may interface with the CAN Bus through a J1939 diagnostics port instead of an OBD-II connector. Find information, such as wiring diagrams and parts, that are specific to your vehicle. Note: Some vehicle manufacturers do not share standards between production lines, or even between builds of the same make or model that are a year apart. By reassembling the electrical components, we can connect to the vehicle's “brain” through the OBD-II port, and experiment with traffic on the CAN Bus.
This vehicle has a Controller Area Network (CAN) Bus interface accessible through the On-board Diagnostics (OBD-II) port. We chose a 2006 Dodge Stratus, 2.7L, four-door sedan. You can adapt the following steps to any vehicle. This is like a neurosurgeon operating on a heart, brain, and spinal cord outside of the human body, except more accessible to the squeamish.
Electronic workbench free how to#
Part two will discuss how to read wiring diagrams and serve as the primer to part three, where we will re-engineer common circuitry.Ī car hacking workbench consists of the critical electronics that control the vehicle, plus bits and pieces of the electrical harness. Part one covers how to build the physical bench. This the first part of a three-part series. Even if you have never worked on a car before, or you do not feel like your Electronics-Fu skills are strong, there are dozens of blogs, training videos, and reference guides on the internet that can supplement the information in this guide. This is a perfect project for people of a wide range of ages and skill levels. Whether you are an auto enthusiast, developer, hobbyist, security researcher, or just curious about vehicles, building a development bench can be an exciting project to facilitate understanding and experimentation without risking possible damage to your vehicle. There is a vast body of knowledge hiding inside your car.