ISOBUS Telematics via J1939 WiFi Logger & Dashboards
Case Studies / Kverneland
Kverneland Group
About: Kverneland Group is an international agriculture equipment manufacturer focusing on soil preparation, seeding, forage, balers, wrappers, fertilisers, spreaders and more
What problem did you solve?
As Kverneland Group Nieuw-Vennep B.V we needed a reliable standalone solution to gather all CAN data coming from our R&D test fleet to better understand if our machines are used as we expect (i.e. customer profiling). Occasionally, we also need data logging for software debugging/testing.
We needed to track both CAN bus connections on our machines (J1939, ISOBUS) - and collection should be done remotely without any loss of data. In addition, everything had to be done in a very harsh agricultural environment, as it is not always possible to mount the logger inside the tractor cabin.
How did you solve it?
We created a housing with 3D printed parts accommodating both the CANedge2 CAN bus data logger and a 4G WiFi router [RUT240] - nicely protected from the harsh environment. Using J1939 adapters it's a plug & play solution.
The data is uploaded to an S3 MinIO server which runs as docker application in a Microsoft Azure webapp (with the aim to move to a Flexify S3 gateway soon). The Azure webapp is coupled with an Azure blob storage account, where the log files are automatically stored. A Python script (based on the CSS Electronics dashboard integration) processes/decodes the raw CAN bus data and stores it in our self-hosted InfluxDB database. With this, we are able to visualize all our data using a self-hosted Grafana dashboard application, with everything running on a Linux server.
The guys from CSS Electronics gave us very fast and accurate support in helping us set up the system.
"The CANedge2 is a high quality product, but the support from CSS makes it an absolutely unbeatable solution!"
Products used in this case study
- CANedge2
- J1939-DB9 adapter
- 3G/4G WiFi router (RUT240)
What benefit has this led to?
The CANedge2 gives us the opportunity to get an enormous amount of data directly from the field, without physically getting down there - thus saving us a lot of time/costs. And with the automated script running on our linux server we are able to visualize and analyze the data directly without any effort.
Why did you choose the CANedge2?
We needed a high reliable solution (with absolutely no missing CAN frames) and the CANedge2 has more than proven itself. Being able to store/manage the data on our own database is a crucial requirement and using open-source software to process the data is just perfect (no vendor lock-in).
The documentation that CSS Electronics provides is of a very high level and always up to date. Our sister-company also had very good experience using CSS equipment. Overall, it's high quality electronics at fair pricing.
— Bart van der Vlugt, Engineer R&D, Kverneland Group
Comments by CSS Electronics
As per Kverneland's requirements, the CANedge2 is designed for lossless logging - meaning you can record 4000+ CAN frames per CAN channel, without any data loss - critical for OEMs. Of course, you can fully customize filters/prescalers to record only the data you need.
This case is also a good example of how the CANedge2 can be integrated with any system. Bart's team already had an Azure server running with self-hosted InfluxDB and Grafana systems. By using MinIO/Flexify S3 as a gateway, they get the CANedge2 data directly into Azure blop storage - and using Azure trigger functions they automatically run the Python API script to send DBC decoded data into their InfluxDB database for Grafana dashboard visualization. The data from the CANedge will also be analyzed in detail via MATLAB through the support for MF4 log files.
For more details, see our intro to J1939 telematics.
The CANedge2 - 2 x CAN bus data logger with WiFi
The CANedge2 is a professional-grade 2 x CAN/LIN data logger with WiFi - learn more below:
Ready to log your J1939/ISOBUS data?
Get your CAN logger today!
