yaris-obd/readme.md

yaris-obd

A Raspberry Pi 3-based OBD-II, GPS, and dashcam system for a 2013 Toyota Yaris. Reads live vehicle data over USB, tracks position with a SIM868 GNSS/GSM HAT, logs everything locally, and serves a web UI over the car's own WiFi hotspot. The dashboard and pre-cached map work fully offline, while trip data and dashcam footage sync to a self-hosted remote server whenever an internet uplink is available.

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Screenshots

Dashboard — mobile (390 px) and desktop (1280 px):

Features

• Live OBD-II data over a cheap USB ELM327-compatible adapter: speed, RPM, coolant temperature, fuel level, throttle position, MIL status, stored DTCs, and odometer when the ECU supports it. Includes automatic background reconnects, serialized queries, and clear adapter/ELM327/ECU diagnostics
• Real GPS tracking via a Waveshare SIM868 GNSS/GSM/Bluetooth HAT, plotted live on an offline Leaflet map (pre-cached map tiles — no internet needed in the car). The module powers itself on through the HAT's GPIO PWRKEY wiring after a Pi power cycle
• Self-hosted WiFi hotspot so you can load the web UI on your phone from inside the car, with automatic switching back to home WiFi when it is available (http://yaris.local — no port number)
• Dashcam file retrieval — detects a USB dashcam automatically (any brand/folder layout, no hardcoded device path), mounts it read-only, and safely copies footage locally. Verified against a real 28GB/87-file import. The web UI can also browse, sort, and delete individual or all videos directly from the connected dashcam with confirmed, temporary read-write operations, plus import one file or any checkbox selection instead of always importing the whole card
• Local video library — browse imported clips with cached thumbnails and upload status, play H.264 footage inline with seeking, and delete only the local Pi copy. Optional retention can automatically remove older local copies after their exact content is confirmed uploaded
• Remote upload — a self-hosted server (Flask + Postgres, server/) receives trip/GPS logs and dashcam footage over the internet (via Cloudflare Tunnel or a plain port-forward). Dashcam videos upload in resumable 40MB chunks (works around tunnel body-size limits and keeps the Pi's memory footprint flat regardless of file size); a UI toggle can pause dashcam uploads independently while trip logs keep syncing
• Remote web portal — a login-protected browser portal at the same server URL: trip history with OSM/CARTO live map and route replay, dashcam archive browsing with inline video player and Range-request seeking, overview stats dashboard, delete buttons for trips and clips, and a device-settings page for editing the synced owner/car/avatar values that the Pi pulls from the server. The portal can register/delete multiple devices, reveal a one-time API key at creation/rotation time, and request a sync for a selected device. When the Pi has Sync with server enabled, those identity changes hot-reload into the running local UI on the next successful sync instead of waiting for a manual restart. Shared history.js code runs on both the Pi and the server — tile source and zoom limits are configured per-deployment via HTML data attributes
• Optional cellular fallback through the SIM868 for small trip-log uploads when normal WiFi/Ethernet is unavailable (dashcam video stays off cellular)
• Dedicated local status page with live Pi health, service states, uplink/server/GPS/OBD diagnostics, plus quick actions for server test, sync-now, uplink reconnect, and app restart
• Motion-aware local-first SQLite logging — five-second motion checks without five-second parked writes, plus retry-safe remote sync and automatic backoff
• Pi health + diagnostics — a dedicated local Status page shows temperature, RAM, disk, uptime, undervoltage/throttling warnings, service state, uplink/server reachability, GPS state, OBD presence, and safe quick actions
• Offline-first alerts — a notification bell on every page reports check-engine state, storage pressure, upload backlog, temperature/power faults, and GPS loss while moving. Optional ntfy delivery is available but remains disabled until configured
• Trip history and route replay — detects motion from OBD wheel speed with sustained GPS displacement as a fallback, summarizes distance and speed in metric units (km / km/h), and replays each route as a line on the offline map with a timestamped play/pause timeline, moving marker, and live reverse-geocoded location name during scrubbing. Tap any trip row on mobile to load the route
• Offline reverse geocoding — a /api/geocode route on the Pi uses the reverse_geocoder library (20 MB world dataset, no internet needed) for city/region, and upgrades to Nominatim street-level when an internet uplink is available. Results are LRU-cached in-process. The browser never calls any external geocoding service
• Offline web UI built with Flask, Jinja, Bootstrap 5, Socket.IO, Chart.js, and Leaflet, all served locally with a shared responsive page shell
• Headless Pi deployment as a self-restarting systemd service with a 10-second BCM2835 hardware watchdog, verified across a real reboot

Hardware

Part	Notes
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2	Web UI host, logger, uploader, and WiFi hotspot
Waveshare SIM868 HAT	GNSS (GPS) + optional GSM/GPRS uplink, unused Bluetooth
USB OBD-II adapter	PL2303-based, ELM327-compatible (originally Bluetooth, switched to USB)
TP-Link Archer T3U (RTL8812BU)	USB WiFi dongle — AC1300 dual-band, replaces onboard wlan0 for hotspot + uplink
USB dashcam	Any brand — detected as generic USB mass storage
2013 Toyota Yaris	The patient

See PLAN.md for full hardware bring-up notes (SIM868 jumper/UART setup, antenna gotchas, etc.) and the detailed project history.

Getting started

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python3 app.py

The app serves on http://<host>:5000. On the Pi it runs as a systemd service and is reachable with no port number at http://yaris.local after installing the mDNS and port-redirect setup. Deployment helpers for the app service, hotspot watcher, port redirect, and hardware watchdog are in deploy/. For a clean-install walkthrough on a fresh Pi, use deploy/readme.md. See PLAN.md for the full hardware/project history.

For the remote server (receives trip logs + dashcam uploads), see server/README.md.

Customizing device identity

The Pi displays an owner name, car model, device name, and avatar. You can manage those values in two ways:

• Locally on the Pi through the Settings page
• From the server portal when Sync with server is enabled on the Pi

The local fallback/default source remains config/device.json, so the car still boots with sensible identity values even when fully offline.

Edit device configuration

Edit config/device.json:

{
  "owner_name": "quoije",
  "car_model": "Yaris 2013",
  "device_name": "Yaris OBD",
  "avatar_path": "img/yaris.png"
}

Field	Location	Purpose
owner_name	Top-right of app topbar	Your name/username
car_model	Left sidebar (next to car icon)	Vehicle model/year
device_name	Local settings / remote portal	Device identity used by server sync/provisioning
avatar_path	Top-right avatar circle	Profile picture (relative to static/)

If you edit the JSON file directly, restart the app:

# If running as a systemd service:
sudo systemctl restart yaris-obd.service

# If running manually:
# Ctrl+C and python3 app.py

Changing the profile picture

Option 1: Replace the default image file:

cp /path/to/your/image.png static/img/yaris.png

Option 2: Add your image to static/img/ and update avatar_path:

{
  "avatar_path": "img/my-avatar.png"
}

Important: Username and database filename

The local SQLite database filename is based on owner_name: db/sql/<owner_name>_<car_model>.db (via modules/app_sql.py).

If you change owner_name and already have trip data:

• The app will create a new database with the new name
• Your old database remains at db/sql/quoije_Yaris2013.db (orphaned)

To preserve your data:

# Option 1: Rename the database file
mv db/sql/quoije_Yaris2013.db "db/sql/YourName_YourCar.db"

# Option 2: Start fresh
rm db/sql/quoije_Yaris2013.db

Project status

The Pi app, remote server, and device-management/sync are all implemented and verified on real hardware. Phase 25 (in-car road test) is complete; Phase 26 (bug fixes) is in progress with 6 of 8 resolved. Phase 27 (features) and Phase 28 (Android, low priority) follow.

Full phase history and verification notes live in PLAN.md. Open issues in BUGS.md. Feature requests in FEATURES.md.

Diagnostics & recovery

If something goes wrong in the car, SSH in and run:

bash ~/app/yaris-obd/scripts/diagnose.sh        # read-only health check
bash ~/app/yaris-obd/scripts/diagnose.sh --fix  # attempt auto-fix

Checks service state, OBD/UART hardware, disk/DB health, upload backlog, Pi throttling, and prints a cheatsheet of recovery commands. Exit code = number of critical issues found.

Hardware photo