Article: How To... ...develop CAN systems using a PC

Many modern vehicles use the CAN bus in place of discrete wiring to communicate vehicle parameters such as road speed and engine output between the on-vehicle systems. DASYLab, the control and measurement software for Windows, has a unique ability to monitor values from a CAN bus alongside analogue data from 'traditional' data acquisition hardware, eliminating the need to interface additional analogue inputs to CAN.

There are plenty of boxes on the market that allow analogue inputs to be interfaced to CAN but you’ll want to avoid the complexity and expense of interfacing measurement parameters only needed during development to the existing CAN network.

A far better approach is to use PC based data acquisition hardware to monitor the analogue inputs (strain, displacement, accelerometers etc) and to use the CAN interface to read those parameters which are available from the existing CAN based control system.

So if you are developing systems for, say, agricultural or utility vehicles where there is an existing CAN network, you can easily monitor parameters like engine revs or ground speed alongside the analogue signals from the equipment under development.

This approach can be extended right up to using DASYLab to create test stands for automotive components such as gear-boxes to allow them to be tested independently of the vehicle. DASYLab can provide the signals that the gearbox expects from the engine etc whilst monitoring speeds and torques.