Patent ID: 7984225

Claim:
A system for providing data communications between a motor vehicle electronic control module network and an RS-232 serial ASCII-text capable device, said motor vehicle electronic control module network using one or more of a plurality of different protocols, the system comprising: a microprocessor-based hardware having vehicle communications network bus circuitry for interfacing with said motor vehicle electronic control module network, said microprocessor-based hardware also having at least one port, at least connector used with said at least one port for connecting said microprocessor-based hardware with said RS-232 serial ASCII-text capable device, and programmed with software to translate communications between the vehicle communications network bus circuitry and at the at least one port, the system connected to an RS-232 serial ASCII-text capable device, said RS-232 serial ASCII-text capable device capable of transmitting ASCII-text to said microprocessor-based hardware and receiving ASCII-text from said microprocessor-based hardware; wherein said microprocessor-based hardware is operable to monitor and translate messages between said plurality of protocols at the same time.