Using CAN Communication Equipment to Diagnose and Simulate Vehicle Signals

Author(s):
Eudald Bellmunt Rey - Mapro Sistemas de Ensayo S.A.

Industry:
Automotive

Products:
CAN, LabWindows/CVI, LabVIEW

The Challenge:
Developing a flexible system that allows automobile manufacturers to easily program a diagnositcs environment and simulate the signals that a vehicle generates.

The Solution:
Using NI-CAN software along with LabVIEW and LabWindows/CVI to create a system that simultaneously performs vehicle simulation and provides a communication block for diagnostics.

New Technology, New Adaptation Needs
The automobile industry increasingly incorporates new technology into the equipment of its vehicles. Given this growth, new adaptation needs arise in the connection of this new equipment. Until now, all the manufacturers have used their own solutions to connect and program the equipment incorporated in their vehicles. Recently, car manufacturers and suppliers established industry standards for these integration procedures. This system uses the CAN (Control Area Networks) standard developed under the CCP (CAN Control Protocol) protocol.

A Flexible Solution
The equipment we have developed meets these requirements through a flexible solution to address the needs of all manufacturers. Because of flexible design of our solution, manufacturers can customize the equipment to meet their application needs. The application is based on two blocks -- one is a vehicle simulator, where we adapt the CAN read and write objects that simulate the signals that a vehicle generates. The other is a communication block used for diagnostics based on the CCP protocol. These two blocks work simultaneously inside the application to simulate the vehicle. At the same time, we can develop the diagnosis of multiple products with CAN communications. Using CAN hardware from NI, the application reads CAN Vector databases, which automobile manufacturers use to program a diagnostics environment in a quick and easy manner. By using a PC platform with CAN cards from NI, we can easily adapt to any CAN configuration, and are quick and easy to program with LabVIEW or LabWindows/CVI. This provides a great deal of flexibility when programming the vehicle messages for each case. Additionally, we can program different protocols between these CCP without reconfiguring the entire CAN system.

For more information, contact:
Eudald Bellmunt Rey,
c/La Corna, 29A -- Polígon Industrial
Pla De Santa, Anna Sant Fruitós de Bages
(Barcelona) Spain 08272 Spain
Tel: + 34 93 8789760
Fax: + 34 93 87 89521
E-mail: eudald.bellmunt@maprotest.com

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