Export OBD-II Logs Into Excel for Graphing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Only applies to Alex Peppers' software from
http://www.obd-2.com.
The advantage of exporting the data to Excel once your back home on your PC, is that you can use Excels' graphing capabilities to plot RPM vs. TPS, RPM vs. Spark Advance, etc.. or ANY two variables for that matter. There are ENDLESS possibilities to what you can do with this information. It may take some time to figure out what's useful and what's not, but I think this can be a HUGE help on tuning a car to it's maximum potential withOUT the use of a dyno.
The information is available, we just need to figure out how to use it!
Notes:
*You MUST already have a *.log file from a scan to do this.
*I recommend you perform this in a "Top-Down" order or else you might not end up with the same results.
Part 1(Converting your *.log file to a comma delimited *.prn file):
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1)Start the OBD Scanner.(obd2.exe)
2)Choose File->Open from the drop down menu.
3)Choose Your_File_Name.log that you want to export to Excel to graph.
4)Once the player opens, press "Play".(Sometimes it says "No vehicle info here try again", but press "Play" anyways)
5)Once it's finished, choose File->Export from the drop down menu.
6)Select your file and change the drop down window "Save file as type:" to ","delimited",data *.prn".
7)Change the "Folders:" window to where you want Your_File_Name.prn file to be saved.(just put it on your desktop)
8)Choose "OK".
9)On the "data export" pop-up window click on the "scale" arrows and choose your desired time stamp units, an example I choose is "h:m:s"(hours:minutes:seconds). However, if you choose a large amount of data to graph, it gets too crowded to read, so you might use just “s”(seconds) or “m”(minutes), etc..
10)Choose "OK" and check that Your_File_Name.prn is located on your desktop.
11)Close the OBD Scanner(obd2.exe).
Part 2(Importing the comma delimited *.prn file into an Excel spreadsheet):
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1)Open Excel(I’m using Excel from Office 2000, so yours might be slightly different)
2)Open Your_File_Name.prn from your desktop.
3)Choose "Delimited" from the "Text Import Wizard" Pop Up Window.("Start import at row:" = 1 and "File origin" = Windows by default)
4)Choose "Next".
5)Only check the "Comma" box under the "Delimiters" section.(Nothing else should be checked!)
6)Choose "Finished".(Don't worry about the next step, just choose "Finished")
Your data is now sorted in an open Excel spreadsheet. The first 2-columns and some of the rows are usually empty. Now it depends on what you want to graph and how good you are with Excel. Excel does NOT like me, so don't expect me to give you too many pointers. Just mess around with it till you get something useful.
Part 3(One of MANY different ways to graphically view log data):
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
First, there are two columns for each variable(RPM, TPS, IAT, etc..). The LEFT column is the time stamp, ET(h:m:s), and the RIGHT is the variables name such as, RPM(rpm).
Second, you should delete ANY holes(blank spots) in the columns your about to graph. For example, if I choose RPM, I have to scroll down the RPM column and delete the blank cells in both the ET and RPM column(DELETE as pairs or you'll change the data!). You don't want these blank cells, because they will end up as zeros(invalid points) in your graph. Just highlight both empty cells, right click, select delete, and choose ok. Do this for any columns you plan on graphing.
Example(CRUDE!) to show how to graph 2-variables, RPM and SPKAD, on the SAME chart(RPM = Revolutions Per Minute and SPKAD = Spark Advance in degrees):
-----------------------------------------------------------------
RPM
1)Choose Insert->Chart from the drop down menus.
2)Choose the "Custom Types" Tab from the Pop-Up Window.
3)Choose "Lines on 2 Axis" actually Microdork spelled it Axes.
4)Choose the "Series" Tab from the Pop-Up Window.
5)There should NOT be anything listed in the "Series" window, if there is, select it and chose "Remove". Otherwise, it will screw your graph up.
6)Now choose "Add" to add your first series(column).
7)Click in the "Name" field and type RPM.
8)Click on the mini Excel Icon next to the "Values" field.
A "Source Data - Values:" window appears and now your at your spreadsheet.
9)Click on the first RPM numerical value(NOT the column header) in the RPM column and drag the stretchy box to include all the RPM values listed.
10)Click on the mini Excel Icon of the "Source Data - Values:" window and your back to your "Soure Data" window.
11)Click on the mini Excel Icon next to the "Category (X) axis labels:" field.
A "Source Data - Category (X) axis labels:" window appears and now your at your spreadsheet.
12)Click on the first ET numerical value(NOT the column header) in the ET column to the LEFT of the RPM column and drag the stretchy box to include all the ET values listed.
13)Click on the mini Excel Icon of the "Source Data - Category (X) axis labels:" window and your back to your "Soure Data" window.
SPKAD
14)Repeat Steps 6) - 10) for SPKAD .
15)Click on the mini Excel Icon next to the "Second category (X) axis labels:" field.
A "Source Data – Second Category (X) axis labels:" window appears and now your at your spreadsheet.
16)Click on the first ET numerical value(NOT the column header) in the ET column to the LEFT of the SPKAD column and drag the stretchy box to include all the ET values listed.
17)Click on the mini Excel Icon of the "Source Data – Secondary Category (X) axis labels:" window and your back to your "Soure Data" window.
Optional Steps(Helps to clarify data)
1)Click “Next”.
2)Add RPM vs. SPKAD in the “Chart title:” field.
3)Add Elapsed Time(h:m:s) in the “Category (X) axis:” field.
4)Add RPM(rpm) in the “Value (Y) axis:” field.
5)Leave “Second category (X) axis:” field blank.
6)Add SPKAD(degrees) in the “Second value (Y) axis:” field.
Cont’d
-------------
18)Click “Next”.
19)Choose “As new sheet”.
20)Click “Finish”.
Questions&Answers
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?threadid=129911http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?threadid=129912