Hi all,

I have a problem... with my car. I'd like to find it with a pic and picbasic pro. My car runs great... and then it dies. Just dies. But... alas... it starts right back up! Every time. And runs great again! Until... it dies again. About 15 times a day. It has been doing this for YEARS folks. Sometimes it only dies once. Sometimes 20 times. You never know when you get in the car. But it always re-starts (sometimes it grumbles but most times it re-starts right away).

I can't afford to have a garage shotgun this problem. I know the expense of doing that.

Without a long explanation... I think the computer is the culprit. Either, it's being reset or one of the I/O lines is sending bogus information and the computer is shutting the engine down. Most likely one of the wires is shorting out or I have a dirty connection on a cable somewhere. SOMEWHERE.

Ok... thank you for letting me get that out.

So my thought is this. I'd like to connect a pic to one of the pins of the processor of the computer and observe the data while I am driving. But I need to do this simply. So how about outputting a sound. I know this sounds crazy. Stay with me a min.

If an input should suddenly change states, or vary drastically, maybe I could output a tone that would track the change during the event plus a few seconds (and then go silent again). This would be an audible signal (a warble) that I could listen for while driving. If the audible signal preceeds a stall or happens during a stall, I would jot it down as a possible culprit of the problem. Each day, I would try another input. (I think I'd start with the power pin to the car's processor). Call it the "poor-man's data-warbler".

After doing this for a period of time I might at least have a direction to go in... trouble-shooting this problem.

Ok... bash it. I'm ready! I'm also desperate. After the last few weeks of rain, it has really gotten bad. I'll be sitting at a stop light and the engine will just die. Invariably as the light turns green. People trhing to get in to Walmart really hate that!

I bow to the guroos of picbasic pro! I have it... use it... ain't good at it... but love it!

Ross