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I have a 2007 Audi A4 and a 2013 VW Beetle. I'm planning to plug in some Veepeak BLE OBD II scanners and hook them up to my home automation server. I want to track a few statistics about our cars and build some dashboards. I only want to collect a few stats when the cars are turned on and before leaving the garage, and just after they arrive home and before getting turned off. Mainly just interested in tracking some simple stuff like fuel tank levels, tyre pressure, total kilometers, etc.

So I want to completely turn off the ODB II scanner when the car isn't running, so it doesn't draw any power and drain the battery. Apparently many cars will provide permanent battery power to the connector, so the ODB II scanner might drain the battery over time even if it's not doing anything.

Are there any simple fixes for this problem? Is there an ODB II scanner that can automatically turn itself off, or is there some easy way to rewire the connector (without causing any problems for mechanics in the future.) Thanks!

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  • Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair! I'm not sure if it would make any difference, but cutting the wire which provides constant on power (pin 16 on the port) and then grafting in a key-on replacement power source wouldn't be hard at all. I'm not sure how that would affect a mechanic's abilities in the future.
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Aug 28 at 11:44
  • Thanks @Paulster2! I might be able to build an intermediate adapter that takes care of changing the power source. I definitely don't want to be cutting wires inside my car, but I could probably make something that omits pin 16 and plugs into the replacement power source. Thanks for the tip, I wasn't sure how hard that would be, but it sounds like it should be possible.
    – ndbroadbent
    Aug 28 at 11:58

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I'm not sure if it would make any difference, but cutting the wire which provides constant on power (pin 16 on the port) and then grafting in a key-on replacement power source wouldn't be hard at all. I'm not sure how that would affect a mechanic's abilities in the future.

If you can get plugs for both sides, one male to plug into the dash and one female to plug the device into, both with pigtails, I think you could easily accomplish this. You'd just need to run the "new" pin 16 to your keyed on power source. Connect all of your pigtails between the two so it is a passthrough, then attach the new power source to your device side pigtail. I think the hardest part would be sorucing the new connectors.

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