CL2000: CAN Bus Logger & USB Interface (+RTC)

As outlined, we generally do not recommend the CLX000 for new projects. Instead, we recommend the CANedge for pure CAN bus data logging/telematics use cases - and the CANsub for pure real-time streaming use cases. The CANedge and CANsub are effectively our 'next generation' alternatives to the CLX000 and both are superior in their domains. For details see the comparison overviews on this product page, or see the product pages for the CANedge/CANsub. If you have questions, contact us.

The 8GB SD card provides an enormeous capacity for the CL2000 CAN bus data logger. While space consumption varies depending on your application, 8 GB will provide many weeks worth of continuously logged data. As most vehicles are not running continuously, this typically corresponds to months of data.

If you need to log data for very long durations, you can either upgrade to a 32 GB SD card - or pre-sample your data to a lower frequency (e.g. logging only every 10th or 100th message). Finally, you can add filtering to restrict your logging to certain CAN IDs or J1939 PGNs. For more details on this, see the product manual.

The CL2000 CAN bus analyzers can record data from any high speed CAN bus application (ISO 11898-2). In practice, this includes raw data from almost all vehicles (cars, trucks, tractors, forklifts, buses, motorcycles, ...) - as well as various production machinery, EV batteries and more. Most planes and boats also use CAN bus. In terms of protocols, this encompasses e.g. J1939, CANopen, NMEA, FMS, OBD2 and more.

For the specific case of OBD2 vehicle data, the CL2000 can transmit up to 20 custom CAN messages periodically, which means it can be used as an OBD2 data logger. Note, however, that you need to verify that your car uses CAN as basis for the OBD2 communication (this is the case for all US cars produced after 2008 e.g.). Also, note that all cars differ in the amount of OBD2 parameters they support - and the CLX000 is of course only able to record the supported data.

The CL2000 CAN logger can be powered via the DB9 connector. In cars, you'll typically need a DB9-OBD2 adaptor, while for e.g. trucks you may use a DB9-J1939 adaptor.

Once connected, the CLX000 will start recording data - and due to the extremely low power consumption, you can simply leave it in your vehicle. In most vehicles, the CLX000 will power off when the vehicle is powered off. If this is not the case, the power draw of the logger itself is still not an issue in regards to battery drain. However, if you're requesting e.g. OBD2 data in this scenario, the polling may wake up the car's ECUs. In this case, you should avoid leaving the CLX000 powered on in an unused car for more than a few days.

Note that the CLX000 can also be powered via USB when it enters 'mass storage device mode' - this lets you configure the logger on your PC without a separate power source.

The CL2000 CAN bus analyzer includes a real-time clock with battery backup. This means that your CAN bus data will be "timestamped" - i.e. every CAN frame logged on the vehicle network will get a timestamp so that you can link the observed CAN data patterns vs. real-time events.

This is vital in applications where you're comparing your CAN bus data vs. physical events (e.g. weather conditions, time of day, physical interaction with the vehicle, ...). Also, as soon as you're logging data across multiple days, it can be a mess keeping track of your data if you don't have the date and time recorded. In practice, we therefore always recommend to go for a CL2000/CANedge CAN logger if your aim is to primarily log vehicle/machine data, rather than stream it in real-time.