CAN-Do: a CAN-message Analysis Tool

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

garygid

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 21, 2010
Messages
12,469
Location
Laguna Hills, Orange Co, CA
This thread is for discussing the use and features of my CAN-Do program.

---------- Problems ----------
Annoying Features Reported
1. With no Log loaded, "All Messages" (on Filters page) malfunctions.
2. Windows (like the Plot window) do not stay where you move them.
3. Make Slower/Faster work better before/during Dashboard "playback".

Significant Bugs Reported
1.

--------- Overview ----------
LEAFs CAN messages might occur on any of the LEAF's three major CAN buses: EV, Car, and AV. There is also a QC CAN bus, but it is not available at the LEAF's On Board Diagnostics (OBD) connector.

For example, a message-ID that appears to contain the "SOC" occurs on the EV-CAN bus about every 6 seconds while charging.

I have posted one 6-million EV-CAN-message example ".evc" file (a 6-hour charging session).

I have also posted a ".csv" file with a "recipe" for each of the various "decoded" values that have come to my attention.

These files can be read by my evolving "CAN-Do" program (also posted, for WinXP, Vista, and Win7). With these files you can use the program to look for yet "undiscovered" meanings in the 8 bytes of data that are part of each (most) messages.

See http://www.wwwsite.com/puzzles/cando/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
to download copies of these files if you want to "play" in this game, without any hardware or expense. No, no User Manual yet.

CAN-Do can capture data from 1 to 3 CAN buses, write (and read) CAN-log files, help with analysis of the message data, do data graphing, and even display a time-lapse or real-time "dashboard" with some of the "discovered" values.
 
I need to post a most-recent version of CAN-Do, and a recent "recipe" file.

I will also add some log files, so that ...

any inquiring mind (with a Windows computer) can work on (play with, participate in, watch others, etc.) decoding the CAN-buss data with NO $$$ investment.

Just Curiousity! :D
 
garygid said:
I need to post a most-recent version of CAN-Do, and a recent "recipe" file.

I will also add some log files, so that ...

any inquiring mind (with a Windows computer) can work on (play with, participate in, watch others, etc.) decoding the CAN-buss data with NO $$$ investment.

Just Curiousity! :D

Log files would be great, thanks!
 
I just posted the latest CAN-Do, version 141, and
a Recipe file (VarParmList.csv) to go with the
EV-CAN Log that has been there since I first uploaded CAN-Do.

Try it and see what you think.
No special hardware required.
Should work on Win XP, Vista, and Win7.

Yes, there is no User Manual, but maybe you can figure it out.
Besides, many would not read the User Manual i any case. :lol:
 
I got the same "MSComm32.ocx or asociated files" error on
my Acer Win7 64 bit laptop.

So, I installed a "Distribution" for my Puzzle (also VB6) application
(in Distribute_003.zip) and CAN-Do now works fine.

During the install, Win7 said two files already had later versions
installed so I said do not overwrite the newer ones.

Then, it complained of trouble registering two files,
the same first file, and probably the same 2nd file,
and I said "Skip" these two registrations.

So, install my "Puzzle" appliation using the Distribute_003.zip file
that you can download near the bottom of the CAN-Do web page.

Please let me know what happens.
 
The Distribute_003.zip file is now there, at
www.wwwsite.com/puzzles/cando/

Download, unzip, and run the setup.exe file there.

That fixed the "MSCOMM32.OCX" error I got when trying
to run CAN-Do for the first on my 64b Win7 system.
 
Hi Gary, it complained about 4 files being older, so I skipped those (sorry, forgot to write down the names), and then complained error while registering FM20.dll, MSHFLXGD.OCX. Nevertheless, it runs now!

Next, I used IO Control->Read Bin Log to load ChgLoBatt.evc, and it reported that it loaded 5997346 CAN-log records. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do next. I can't find any sort of playback button.

Thanks for your help!
-Sam
 
You bet, this is now getting to the fun part, rather than chasing OS/MS deficencies.

1. The Dashboard is meant to "run" while messages are being loaded, either
A. read from a Log file, or
B. read from the CAN busses in real time via the COMM Ports.

Since you do not have the hardware for 1B, we do 1A.

Re-read the Log file WITH the "Run Dashboard" checkbox CHECKED. :D

Since you do not want to sit there watching for 6 hours, the "playback" of the data to the dashboard is ... rather a lot faster.

There is No playback speed control yet, or slider to re-position yourself in the Log's CAN-message stream, but I will probably add those later.

While you play with that, see if you can tell what each field/value is (or might be). Moving the cursor over many/most displays a "tip" about the source or origin of the data.
 
Since you are interested enough to try, I will upload 3 Log files (EV, Car, and AV) from a "drive".

Also, after loading a log, the next step is to use the "Filters" to try and look at the content of CAN-message sequences to discover the meaning of the message's data bytes.

Click "See Filters", and select (click) "EV: State of Charge" and click "Graph Function".

What do you see?

Hide the Graph window, and note the graphing Max and Min values, and the data's max and min values on the Filters page.

Change the graph's Max or Min a bit and Graph Function again.

In the Filters window click "Get Addrs" and then select (click) the "5BC" line in the left-side list of Message Addresses (also called Message IDs). There are only about 3000 of these from the 6-hour log, and data bytes D1 and D2 are of interest.

The selected "EV: State of Charge" recipe says take (mask FF) all 8 bits from D1 and shift them left two bits. Then take the top 2 bits (mask C0) of D2, shift them right (negative) 6 bit positions and combine them with the D1-derived bits ... to form a 10-bit value.

Then, with a graphing a 0-value at the Graph-Window bottom, and 300 at the top ...

With a good Recipe, we start to see meaningful data.

Play, and see if you can discover the meaning of some data.

Try the other recipies.
More later.

Now, I will go "zip" and upload the "driving" logs.
 
Three short Driving Logs are now uploaded in the one GgTest1.zip file.

I see that I need to change the dashboard's 271 = 100% SOC to
the more probably 100% raw value, of 281.

Enjoy, Later, Gary
 
Very cool! Thanks! A lot to play with. OK, now I also have to get up to speed on the CAN bus. Lots of reading to do in your other threads. Are the log files just a binary dump of what you're reading on the bus, or do you have a special format?
 
Each CAN-message has an ID, like a name. That message has up to 8 bytes of data, apparently used by Nissan as a series of (up to) 8 x 8 = 64 bits.

For a selected message on a selected CAN-buss, the information content is probably fairly fixed, though some bits can be "flags" that change the meaning of other bits in the message data.

This is most easily seen by looking at the recipe for "EV: Charging Bars" and the recipe for "EV: Capacity Bars". (Do I have those recipe names almost correct? I will check tomorrow.) The same data field has a different meaning depending upon another field's value (see the "D#, mask, equals" part of the recipe).

More info later.
 
Free, Free, Free - Investigate the LEAF's CAN message Data

Just posted CAN-Do version 1.4.4 on-line at www.wwwsite.com/puzzles/cando/
This version adds Date/Time Stamps as message data is collected from the COM port.

Please try to run this VB6 program on your Windows system.
Please let me know the details if your OS cannot run it directly as is.

Once it runs, please download a CAN-Log file, and the latest "Recipe" file.
Then, load the Log, find the SOC "recipe" on the "Filters" page, and see the graph.

Thanks for trying this, Gary
 
CAN-Do v148 has been posted at
http://www.wwwsite.com/puzzles/cando/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This versions displays Battery Pack Output (Volts and Amps) on
the CAN-Do Dashboard. It also has a way to speed up the
Dashboard display by processing only 1 of every N messages.

However, you can see (what appears to be) the DC L2 charging amps
almost "steady" at about 8 amps in (for example -8.2), and
the voltage climbing from about 350 to near 400 volts
as the "6-hour" charging Log is read in.

Also, one can plot (graph) just a subset of the messages,
to examine interesting events in more detail. Double-click and "drag"
on the Plot to select a horizontal region to display as the next "function" is graphed.

Become a LEAF-CAN detective with a Windows PC and some time.
It takes only minutes to download, run (*), and see your first plots.

(*) On many systems, no installation is required.
 
CAN-Do version 1.49 is on-line at:
http://www.wwwsite.com/puzzles/cando/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In this version of CAN-Do, I added:
1. reading a 4th comm port for Logging the QC-CAN bus message data.
2. many tool-tips.

I hope my addition of QC Logging did not "break" the Logging process.
I have yet to try that out.
 
Back
Top