Supports 2A and 2B CAN specifications (11 bit standard and 29 bit extended IDs) with 27 different CAN speeds available (see below).
Just connect CAN high and CAN low to the Green connector shown on photo 1 (there is also a blank pad to add a termination resister if needed).
Includes a genuine 16 GB SanDisk Ultra C10 card worth £15.00
Ideal for demonstrations/exhibitions if your hardware needs a sequence or repeated sequence of CAN messages to perform!
Customers have use this logger to make production line robots repeat their sequences in a maintenance workshop, others to demonstrate smart vehicle headlamp clusters, wake up development infotainment devices, numerous motorsport applications, and someone even used it as a square wave generator (see pin info below), etc. etc.
(If you think it just all sounds too good to be true - please search for logger feedback on m_holt_ltd and mholt999 -
mholt999 feedback now shown in photos above).
Just connect to a CAN Bus and:
1) Live View all received CAN messages (bit snooper option shown of photo 3 and described below).
2) Record all the live CAN messages to SD Card (with user button event markers available).
Four CAN modes available including LISTEN ONLY (where logger is invisible to other nodes).
3) Playback any previous CAN recording log file, up to 10,000 (or a recording you have modified).
4) Generate and send standard or extended ID CAN messages:
Sending message frequency option: 0.001 to 64 seconds (6 or more can be sent at 0.001 seconds).
Sending message quantity option: 1 to 65535 or unlimited.
Delay before start sending message option: 1 millisecond to 18 hours.
Power can be supplied via micro USB or 5v solder point on board.
A 10 page user manual is available forever from NVM by saving it to SD card. Menu: SETTINGS / SAVE MANUAL TO DISK
A red LED flashes when a CAN frame has been received and a yellow LED flashes when a frame is sent.
There are also Pins that change state when messages are sent/received and other pins that go high for 5ms.
It is possible to play (or repeatably play) a file from the SD card and log data to the SD card at the same time, so you only need one logger to input messages onto a CAN bus and simultaneously record the reaction.
All of the above from 32 grams of Credit Card sized hardware (and no expensive laptop with dongles)!
Additional features from customer requests:
1) Automatically log CAN data when pin 4 is grounded - even on power up if grounded (see photo 4).
2) Automatically stop logging and close log file when pin 4 is un-grounded.
3) If power is lost or SD card is removed during logging, the log file is recovered and saved during next power up.
4) 1 and 3 above enables auto logging for 10,000 files (CAN Bus "black box" facility).
RECORDING:
Genuine SanDisk C10 cards (or similar quality) formatted to FAT32 with the largest unit size (64k bytes) work best.
Largest supported disk size is 32GB (enough to record 1000 messages a second for 140 hours - almost a week).
Received and/or transmitted messages can be logged to the SD card at more than 6000 frames/second.
The log file names saved to the SD card automatically index from CANR0000.txt to CANR9999.txt.
All saved files are selectable for playback (and can be viewed/modified in a text editor such as MS Notepad).
This is a start of a CAN log file taken from a Ford Focus car:
______________________________________________________________
tx = transmitted standard frame. rx = received standard frame
TX = transmitted Extended frame. RX = received Extended frame
Hexadecimal values except Time Stamp (Sec) and # (0-99 Counts)
(In Notepad replace ; with ,0x to show hex values correctly.)
,CAN ID ,DL,D0,D1,D2,D3,D4,D5,D6,D7,T Stamp,#,But 1,But 2
rx, 0x080,7;27;10;75;30;01;30;B7;00,00222.95651,00;00;00
rx, 0x090,8;77;01;57;09;C7;E3;07;D0,00222.95672,01;00;00
rx, 0x200,8;27;10;27;10;27;10;80;28,00222.95690,02;00;00
rx, 0x20F,8;75;3C;27;10;40;7C;4C;B7,00222.95721,03;00;01
rx, 0x211,8;FF;FE;80;00;48;48;00;B7,00222.95749,04;00;01
rx, 0x280,8;00;08;00;00;00;00;00;00,00222.95773,05;00;01
rx, 0x4B0,8;27;10;27;10;27;10;27;10,00222.95790,06;00;02
rx, 0x205,8;02;00;02;00;02;00;01;D7,00222.95813,07;00;02
rx, 0x231,7;E1;7C;64;00;00;00;80;00,00222.95849,08;00;02
rx, 0x190,8;00;56;00;00;3C;09;00;3C,00222.95862,09;00;02
______________________________________________________________
Easily imported into MS Excel (or similar) using values separated by , ;
rx shows the frame type - see above.
The next value is CAN ID followed by data length (DL) and then then 8 bytes of data (D0 to 7) in hexadecimal.
Message time stamp is then shown in seconds to a resolution of 0.000,00 seconds (10us).
Third from last column is a repeated count from 0 to 99 as proof of data continuity.
Last two columns are user event markers from buttons 1 and 2 (or earthing pins 4 and 5) that increment on pressing and release.
(Last column shows button 2 was pressed before 4th message and released before 7th.)
PLAYING BACK RECORDINGS:
Any recorded file can be selected and played back at the same rate it was recorded.
However, there are 8 different repeat options from continuous to replay on button press.
There are 16 different playback rates from twice/half recorded, fixed times between messages, and send 2 or a single message on button press.
As mentioned, it is possible to edit a record file, deleting, repeating or adding sections to generate a custom playback of CAN messages.
Changing time stamp values will alter the payback rate (if none of the above 16 selectable are suitable or different playback rates are needed).
LIVE VIEW ALL RECEIVED MESSAGES:
All incoming messages are sorted into CAN ID order and listed from 1 to 100 (lowest ID to highest).
If more than 99 different CAN IDs are being received, each ID exceeding position 99 will appear in list position 100 until another ID that exceeds position 99 replaces it.
There are two ways of live viewing the 1 to 100 list:
1) THREE FRAME VIEW where 3 messages are displayed above each other. See Photo 2.
Displayed is message ID, standard or extended frame type, data length count, and values of each of the frame bytes (relating to the data length count).
Next to each message are 3 vertical bar graphs, for 0-10, 0-100 and 0-1000 messages a second.
Pressing button 2 will advance the list until it returns to the start (and button 1 the opposite).
2) ONE FRAME BIT SNOOPER where a single frame is displayed. See Photo 3.
As above, displayed is message ID, standard or extended frame type, data length count, and values of each of the frame bytes (relating to the data length count).
The photograph shows a live bar graph (ranging from 0 to 15) displayed above each hexadecimal digit of the CAN frame data.
Each bar has a white max slider to record how high this value has ever been and often a dark minimum slider.
These sliders show the range the hexadecimal digit has been through (but the minimum slider only appears when logically required).
Bottom row of column represents 0, and the row (just below the ceiling) represents 15.
Below each hexadecimal digit are up to 4 bit markers (showing which bits are currently set).
(To help identification, bit markers for binary 2 and 4 have hooks and binary 8 touches the bottom line.)
Above each bit marker is a pixel which remains in place if this bit has ever been set (magnifying glass may help).
The four bit markers make it easy to spot single bit changes and typical examples are:
vehicle hand brake applied, door opened, seat belt applied, brake/clutch pedals etc.
The digit columns quickly highlight values cycling between ranges such as throttle pedal position and brake pressure etc.
It is also easy to spot running counters i.e. where one column cycles from min to max and the adjacent do so but at a slower rate.
Messages per second is listed in the left box with a (previously described) 3 bar vertical graph below it.
SENDING MESSAGES:
All of the message parameters mentioned in RECORDING (above) can be set quite quickly.
Alternatively, button 2 can be held down for 8 seconds to quickly send new frames (when in the send menu).
Messages you generate can be saved/remembered to EEPROM so they get sent on power up.
As you can set a start delay (1 ms to 18 Hours), rate, limit and also specify the same ID more than once, so a complex series of messages can be generated for power up (with changing frame data).
(And as someone asked if they could send 0x7E0;8;01;04;00;00;00;00;00;00 to automatically clear fault codes at ignition on - yes it should work, but it would be much better for everyone if you repaired the fault instead.)
There are also 2 pins that change state (0 - 3 volt) when a message is received/sent and another two that go high (3 volt) for 5 ms. These pins can be used as a sync trigger for oscilloscopes etc. See Photo 4.
(And if you ever need a square wave generator, you could just send a message (without CAN bus) at the required square wave frequency, and connect to the pin that changes state on send.)
Supported CAN k bit rates are:
15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 75, 80, 100, 120, 125, 150, 160, 200, 240, 250, 300, 320, 375, 400, 480, 500, 600, 750, 800, 1000.
Values in bold are supported by a CAN speed detection option.
PLEASE NOTE:
As the board is credit card size, the screen is quite small.
If you use reading glasses, you will probably need them.
The USB, Either net and phone sockets are not software supported.
The micro USB is a convenient method of powering the board but a 5 volt solder point is also available.
And over rough terrain 32 grams of credit card sized technology is a lot easier to hold on to than 20 kg of laptop and inverter.
DISCLAIMER:
In many installations, safety critical systems depend upon reliable CAN bus network communication.
A vehicle's CAN bus is an example of a network used by safety critical systems.
If used badly, the item for sale could easily take down or compromises a CAN bus network causing serious or fatal injury and damage.
For this and other reasons, there is a disclaimer statement that appears on power up.
Do not use the item for sale if there is any risk of damage or injury.
And finally, thanks for your interest and time!