CAN BUS demonstration panel and its visualization using modular instrumentation

Signals in modern cars from sensors, control units, and signals for actuators are transmitted through buses. Controller Area Network (CAN) is the most common of these automotive data buses which is also used in industry because of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). For a demonstration of this communication for education purpose, the instrument panel and its visualization were created. Demonstration panel contains gateway which simulates signals from the electronic control unit (ECU), accelerator pedal and Skoda instrument cluster. This instrument cluster shows engine speed, vehicle speed, coolant temperature and position of servo drive in two turbochargers. For data acquisition from CAN BUS a modular system CompactRio with a module for CAN BUS from National Instruments is used. The whole application is created in visual programming language LabVIEW using FPGA module. For visualization, CAN BUS communication is filtered and processed, to obtain three message objects to observe required data for visualization instrument cluster and accelerator pedal position.