Enter , founded by a man named Carlos . In 2003, they released the ELM327 . It wasn’t a scanner itself. It was a microcontroller —a single, programmable chip designed to be the perfect translator. It sat between a car’s OBD-II port (the standardized diagnostic link since 1996) and a PC’s serial port (or later, USB or Bluetooth).
For electronics hobbyists, it was a godsend. For a budding diagnostic software developer, it was a blank canvas. An ELM327 chip alone is useless. You need a program to talk to it—a user interface that turns 41 0C 1A F8 into "RPM: 1780." scanmaster elm327
By J. Hartley, Automotive Tech Correspondent Enter , founded by a man named Carlos