CANCapture & ECOM Cable Tutorials

The following tutorials and examples are provided to Enovation Controls customers to assist in using these tools to analyze CAN data for both troubleshooting and development work. With CANCapture you are able to monitor,data log, play back, and analyze all the CAN messages on a CAN data bus.

Please note CANCapture is a product of EControls, for support please visit their website.

ECOM Cable

There are two models of ECOM cable as follows:

• Blue Unlocked cable - This is the license key for CANcapture software and is only available with the purchase of the software. This allows you to run the software.
• Green Locked cable - This a general purpose CAN to USB converter used to reprogram some of our displays, controllers, and I/O Modules over CAN  however you can create a standalone executable in CANcapture that will run on this cable. Several have been created for data logging purposes and are available for download below. Since this is the less expensive cable it is the preferred choice to send out into the field, for example logging engine CAN data at a customer site. Some of the CANcapture examples below will demonstrate how to do this.

Important: If you are having difficulties connecting to the E-COM cable install the latest DRIVER HERE.

CANcapture - Overview

This video tutorial covers all the major functions of CANcapture. Since it is quite lengthy you can skip ahead if desired, the topic being discussed is shown on the banner across the bottom.

CANcapture  - Raw Capture Screen

The Raw Capture screen is the most important tool you will use in analyzing CAN data on a network. It enables you to view all the data on the CAN bus in its raw form. Each message is broken down into its individual components like packet ID, PGN, source address, and its data values  enabling you to perform a complete analysis of the message contents.

CANcapture - Data Logging

Data logging is essential to capture data on a CAN bus for further analysis at a later time. A good example of this is if there is an issue occurring on a piece of equipment out in the field, you can send the customer the green ECOM cable and the data logging executable to log CAN data that can then be emailed back for analysis. A tutorial and example workspace and executable are provided below.

• Data Logger Workspace 
• Data Logger Executable for 250K baud rate
• Data Logger Executable for 500K baud rate
• Simple Monitor Executable - Use this to verify the E-Com cable is functioning before running your data log 

Instructions for Customer Field Data Logging

1. Download the Data Logger and Simple Monitor Executables to your computers desktop 
2. Download and install the E-Com cable Driver.
3. Connect the E-Com cable CAN data signals to the equipment CAN data bus.
4. Double click on the Simple Monitor then select the green arrow icon to run it and verify you are receiving CAN data. This only displays a few standard J1939 engine parameters, if this is not a J1939 engine application skip this step. To stop the program select the blue square icon.
5. Run the Data Logger for the length of time needed. When complete press the stop button and verify the file size is several kbits, this will verify you have captured data. The file is encrypted so is not viewable.
6. Email the file to engineering for analysis using the full version of CANcapture.

CANcapture - Data Log Replay

This tutorial and examples will demonstrate how to play back a previously recorder CAN data log file for analysis and how to convert it to a .CSV text file that can then be viewed in Excel.

When sending the data logger to a customer to capture field data send them the replay file as well so they can play back the log file and verify they had a successful data capture.

• Logger Replay Workspace
• Logger Replay Executable

CANcapture - Workspace Examples

• DM1 BAM Message Transmitter - This example will transmit multiple DM1 messages in a BAM multipack message using a script routine. The transmitter block has the same messages structured to be sent manually by pressing hot keys in sequence.
• Multipack Message Transmitter  - This example uses the Multipack transmitter script routine to send NMEA engine data.
• Dynamic Message Transmitter - This example uses script routines to send messages with dynamic engine data (RPM, Oil Press, Coolant Temp, Eng Hrs). A request message (RQST) handler will respond to request for engine hrs and aux analog data from a display. Any of these scripts can be copy pasted to add extra functionality or modified as needed. To use this workspace to send messages with dynamic data go to the Command Transmitter tab and select which messages you want to send. Make sure the same messages are turned off in the Packet Transmitter tab. To send messages with static data simply select the desired messages in the Packet Transmitter tab.