Automotive CAN

[muzzy]

Can anyone recommend any sites, books or possibly home courses that provide good information on CAN systems in cars/vans? I've been told to start learning about it :roll:

[Stuart]

+ rep for not making the homo mistake of calling it canbus

What do you do at work that means you need to learn about it?
As that will dictate how far in you need to care/go.

Do you just need to know what kind of stuff goes on it, how to diagnose problems, how to write softare to send messages etc?

[muzzy]

+ rep for not making the homo mistake of calling it canbus

What do you do at work that means you need to learn about it?
As that will dictate how far in you need to care/go.

Do you just need to know what kind of stuff goes on it, how to diagnose problems, how to write softare to send messages etc?

I am a "technician" (mechanic lol ).

Basically I need to start at the beginning, how it works, diagnostics etc. Just day to day garage repair type stuff.

[Sloth]

google is your friend....

[peester]

http://www.ncs-systems.com/introduction/35

[muzzy]

http://www.ncs-systems.com/introduction/35

Cheers for that. :thumb:

I did try Google but so many different things came up, I got fed up of clicking links that weren't really any use at all.

[Stuart]

basically its a comms system that lets you send messages down to other parts of the car. The messages are 'named' and just contain data relevant to that name.

eg something like name:FUEL_LEVEL data:50% and there will also be a quality factor message near that eg name:FUEL_QUAL data:3 (3 meaning good)

I could bore you with it being a differential voltage, time driven system with error checking and stuff, but thats not what you need to know or care about lol.

Basic repairs are make sure the twisted wires are in good nick, and if a unit isnt communicating then its most likely goosed as they will struggle on to the bitter end thesedays :)

[Stuart]

http://www.ncs-systems.com/introduction/35


CAN (Controller Area Network) Bus wiring, a


lol see just how WRONG that is/looks :)

[muzzy]

Thanks for that, I have a rough idea what you mean. Never really had any dealings with it at any point during my training or through work bar at Vauxhall but we had other people to specifically deal with electronics. Been told I now need to start looking at learning about it as obviously all cars & vans now run with CAN. Apparently I will be sent on a course at some point but there's no "entry level" to the course so it is pretty advanced considering I know nothing about it!

[Stuart]

technically you only 'need' 3 wires to the rear lights, radio (well that might need an aerial too lol), cluster, windows etc as you can send a message to do everything you want to say the rear lights, but they dont yet :( its a real shame.

I hope they get the fiber optic stuff up and running soon as that will strip so so so so sooo much weight from the cars :)

[muzzy]

I have so much to learn lol

I was hoping there would be a distance learning or home study type course on it but no luck it seems.

[Stuart]

it is odd how its such a fundamental part of the automotive (and many other industries now) world yet there is little to no training available regarding the various levels that you can work with it...

perhaps we should setup something and make a fortune lol

[muzzy]

it is odd how its such a fundamental part of the automotive (and many other industries now) world yet there is little to no training available regarding the various levels that you can work with it...

perhaps we should setup something and make a fortune lol

Well I thought that seeing as it is a central point to cars nowadays that there would be some form of training on it, even a basics course but nothing.

Apparently Bosch do a course on it but there site is worse than useless, it says that the course will be starting soon (July 2007) :roll:

There's a serious lack of books or anything like that as well from what I can see.

[Stuart]

megasquirt has some support for it on their ECU's. might be worth looking on a megasquirt site for infos.

Bosch are useless ****s in general lol. The least helpful company in the world (well actually they are tied with Boeing for that), and their training courses are a pain anyway :(
i'll see what I can extract from mates in the business still (I'm having a break and designing things that go bang deliberately)

[muzzy]

megasquirt has some support for it on their ECU's. might be worth looking on a megasquirt site for infos.

Bosch are useless ****s in general lol. The least helpful company in the world (well actually they are tied with Boeing for that), and their training courses are a pain anyway :(
i'll see what I can extract from mates in the business still (I'm having a break and designing things that go bang deliberately)

The Bosch site had such little information on the course's, from what I could see there wasn't even any way of contacting them to talk to them about it either. I know how useful a company they are to deal with having worked at a Bosch service centre, trying to speak to them was like pulling teeth.

Cheers for your help, any more information you can get is much appreciated :thumb:

I will have a look at the Megasquirt site to see if I can dig anything up.