LIN Bus Diagnostics with LDF Decoding in asammdf

What problem did you solve?

During a vehicle production process, a part flagged a fault that was not logged once production was complete and reset. We needed a device to log the LIN bus, while ensuring minimal intrusion towards the manufacturing team working on the vehicle. The goal was to determine when the error occurred and what root causes were triggering it.

How did you solve it?

At the start of production, the CANedge1 was connected to the vehicle harness, which enabled a complete production environment log. Then, using the asammdf GUI, the raw log files were decoded using the LIN Description File (LDF) in the asammdf GUI. This allowed us to extract specific signals of interest as well as plot the data, which helped us understand which inputs were causing the error.

What benefit has this led to?

Two main benefits: First, the CANedge solved a automative production concern and secondly, it has in general allowed us to capture valuable network information due to easy of connection when testing on a vehicle.

Using the CANedge, we identified the root cause of our issue, which was caused by an error related to the LIN input signals. Without this device I would have been unable to determine the specific error in a non-intrusive manner. Physically sitting in a vehicle with a laptop and live LIN-USB device was not an option.

Since then, I have used the CANedge multiple times to record different drive situations and input situations during vehicle testing, enabled by the ease of connecting the device with minimal effort. In turn, this helps us log additional historical data that would othervise not have been available.

Why did you choose the CANedge?

The CAnedge looked robustly designed and the companion SW seemed well-suited to my needs. I could have selected other products, though they would have been much more complicated to set up or require a significantly higher investment.

   — Josh Close, Intl Engineering Manager