OBDII For Car Racing

I’m looking for an experienced embedded hardware/firmware engineer to design and build a **high-end, fully programmable OBD-II vehicle telemetry platform**. This is not just an OBD scanner. The goal is to build a device capable of reading as much vehicle telemetry as technically possible, including data that may exist on **powertrain, chassis, body, safety, and other CAN networks**, depending on the vehicle. The prototype must actually work before I send the PCB design to PCBWay for production. ### Vehicle Data / CAN Requirements The device should be capable of accessing and passively reading multiple vehicle networks, not only the standard emissions OBD-II CAN bus. I want to capture data such as: * Vehicle speed * Individual wheel speeds * Engine RPM * Throttle position * Accelerator pedal position * Brake pedal/brake switch * Steering wheel angle * Steering direction * Transmission gear * Engine load * Engine temperatures * Coolant temperature * Oil temperature/pressure when available * Fuel level * Battery voltage * Charging voltage * ABS information * Traction control activity * Stability control activity * Yaw rate * Vehicle acceleration * Lateral acceleration * Longitudinal acceleration * Tire pressure data when available * Door status * Hood/trunk status * Ignition state * Seat belt status * Parking brake * Headlight/turn signal status * Wiper status * Airbag/SRS status * Crash/event information exposed by vehicle networks * Diagnostic trouble codes * Module identification * VIN * Odometer when available * Manufacturer-specific telemetry * Raw CAN frames for data that has not yet been decoded The hardware should support **multiple independent CAN buses simultaneously** so it can monitor different vehicle networks. Support should be considered for: * CAN 2.0A/B * CAN FD * ISO-TP * UDS * OBD-II * Manufacturer-specific CAN messages * Low-speed/fault-tolerant CAN when required * LIN where useful * Additional automotive networks such as FlexRay or Automotive Ethernet if practical for the architecture I understand that every manufacturer exposes different information and that some data will require reverse engineering or vehicle-specific DBC definitions. The important part is that the hardware does not prevent us from expanding support later. For safety-critical systems such as airbags, ABS, steering, and stability control, the initial design should focus on **passive monitoring/read-only access**. I do not want the prototype accidentally transmitting commands onto a safety-critical vehicle network. ### Sensors Built Into the Device The device should also have its own independent sensors so we are not dependent entirely on vehicle CAN data. I want: * High-quality accelerometer * Gyroscope * Magnetometer/compass * High-G accelerometer for crash detection * GPS/GNSS * Vehicle heading * Speed * Altitude * Accurate timestamp * Roll * Pitch * Yaw * Hard acceleration detection * Harsh braking detection * Hard cornering detection * Impact/crash detection * Rollover detection if possible * Tow/movement detection while parked CAN data and onboard sensor data should be timestamped so events can be synchronized accurately. ### Communications The device should have: * High-speed Bluetooth * BLE * Wi-Fi * Wi-Fi internet connectivity * Wi-Fi access point mode * LoRa * GPS/GNSS * Optional LTE/4G/5G expansion * USB-C * Possible Ethernet support * External antenna support where necessary Bluetooth needs to be fast enough to stream substantial amounts of telemetry to a phone, tablet, or computer in real time. ### Cameras I also want the system designed to support **multiple cameras**. I understand this may require a second processor such as a Raspberry Pi Compute Module or another high-performance Linux processor. A possible architecture would be: **Real-time automotive controller** ESP32, STM32, NXP, or similar controller handling CAN, vehicle power, sensors, GPS, crash detection, LoRa, and real-time telemetry. **High-performance processor** Raspberry Pi Compute Module or similar platform handling cameras, storage, Wi-Fi, networking, AI/computer vision, and higher-level processing. Camera capabilities should eventually include: * Front camera * Rear camera * Interior camera * Additional camera inputs * Continuous recording * Circular recording buffer * Pre-crash video * Post-crash video * GPS synchronized video * CAN telemetry synchronized with video * Speed/vehicle data overlay * Wi-Fi video transfer * Local SSD or microSD storage * Future computer vision capability ### Fully Reprogrammable Firmware This is extremely important. **The device cannot be a locked black box.** I need to be able to continue programming it and adding features after the prototype is delivered. Requirements: * Full firmware source code * Full project/source files * No locked firmware * No encrypted vendor-only development environment * USB-C programming * SWD/JTAG/UART programming/debug access where appropriate * Bootloader * OTA firmware updates * Recovery mode if an update fails * Ability to flash the device myself * Documented build process * Documented flashing process * Documented CAN architecture * Documented communication protocol between processors * Modular firmware The firmware should make it possible to later add: * New vehicles * New CAN IDs * New DBC files * Manufacturer-specific decoding * New OBD PIDs * UDS functionality * New sensors * New communication protocols * New telemetry * New algorithms * Additional hardware Please leave reasonable hardware expansion capability such as spare: * GPIO * UART * SPI * I2C * CAN * USB ### Data Logging The platform should be capable of recording large amounts of raw data for later analysis. Examples: * Raw CAN logging * Multiple CAN buses simultaneously * GPS * IMU * Crash sensor * Vehicle speed * Wheel speed * Steering angle * Brake activity * Accelerator position * Engine data * ABS/traction/stability data * SRS/airbag information when available * Timestamped events * Camera synchronization I want to be able to record an unknown vehicle, analyze the CAN traffic later, determine what different CAN IDs represent, and then add that decoding to the firmware. ### Automotive Power The device must be designed properly for a vehicle electrical environment. It should include: * OBD-II power * Automatic startup with vehicle * Ignition/wake detection * Sleep when vehicle is off * Very low parked current draw * Optional backup battery * Optional supercapacitor * Reverse polarity protection * Automotive transient protection * Load dump protection * ESD protection * Proper voltage regulation * Watchdog * Brownout handling * Safe shutdown for the Linux processor/storage ### Manufacturing The final design should be ready to manufacture through PCBWay. Deliverables should include: * Working prototype * Complete schematic * PCB layout * BOM with actual purchasable parts * Gerbers * Pick-and-place files * Assembly files * PCBWay-ready project * Full firmware source * Linux/software source if a secondary processor is used * Programming instructions * Documentation * Pinouts * Test points * Debug interfaces I will handle designing/printing the enclosure. ### Prototype Testing I am not interested in receiving an AI-generated PCB design that has never actually been built. AI can absolutely be used during development, but the engineer needs to understand the design and actually test it. I expect testing of: * Vehicle power * Sleep/wake behavior * CAN communication * Multiple CAN buses * Raw CAN logging * Bluetooth throughput * Wi-Fi * GPS * LoRa * IMU * Crash detection * Storage * Firmware updating * Bootloader/recovery * Camera system if included in the first prototype The engineer should be comfortable using an oscilloscope, logic analyzer, CAN analyzer, debugger, and other proper development equipment. ### Goal The long-term goal is to build an extremely capable **vehicle telemetry, diagnostics, data logging, crash/event recording, GPS, communications, and camera platform**. I want the hardware designed with enough performance and expansion capability that we are not replacing the entire board every time we want to add another feature. When applying, please show me hardware you have actually built involving automotive CAN, OBD-II, CAN FD, STM32/ESP32/NXP, Raspberry Pi/Compute Modules, GPS, IMUs, LoRa, automotive power systems, cameras, or vehicle telemetry. **Working prototypes and production boards matter more to me than a long resume. **