ECU Diagnostics - CAN Bus, hunt for answers

[John Vine]

Thanks, James. That explains a lot.

 

JV

[mph]

Hello

Old thread I realise — but are you still working on this? I'm interested and intrigued by trying to get some information from the ECU, and also wondering if, based on this long thread, a replacement ECU is the actual answer.

Cheers

--Mark

[Purplemeanie]

Mark,

I’ll let others say whether they’ve taken things any further… but I think most people who try have contacted me and I’m not aware of anyone actively working on it at the moment.

I was contacted by someone about 6 months ago who was looking to get into this but I didn't hear any more after the first few conversations.

There was also someone who created their own data dashboard in a car about 18 months ago using the code we developed.

Getting info from the ECU isn’t too big a problem now we have the protocol decoded, especially with your development experience. Changing the ECU mappings is a whole other thing... as factory ECUs are locked.

Look forward to seeing if anyone else has moved things forwards.

John

[CtrMint]

Hey John, 

So I did dig out the project in the summer, and tried to find time for it, but to be honest I struggled.  I've not really moved forward.

There's a couple of factors that are influencing my view of whether to take my fork forward.

• Linux dependencies, particularly on Raspbian (I'm still focussing my efforts on a Pi and Python), I'm having to run a fairly old distro, which isn't good in the long run.
• Lack of flow control, my intention was to build a dash and logger separately, both of which are prototyped,  I intended to capture my logs to SSD in real time then push to big data and run ML across them.  See if I can't gain a unique insight.  Given the effort I didn't want to build a Caterham MBE centric solution, but I'm not sure if it's worth the effort to build a modular flexible framework capable of supporting CANBus compliant ECUs.  I'm tempted to just rip out the ECU and put a proper CANBus compliant ECU in.  I'm sure there are other benefits in a different ECU.
• Coming up with a production ready design for a screen was also a factor, again compatibility with commerical screens which support correct CANBus etc.

Lots of to do,.... I'm afraid.

[mph]

Somebody did mention to me they pulled the Caterham hobbled ECU and swapped it for a SBD Motorsports MBE9A4.

Did you mention at some point you had the code on GitHub Mark? I wonder if it's worth 'compiling' the Python + deps into a binary to save all the dependency faff. PyPI has been a mess for a while now, what with the search stuff getting nobbled a while back.

--Mark

[CtrMint]

Hi,

We've been working on the MBE9A4, it's fitted to the 420, albeit in a locked state.

I do have the code in it's current rather scruffy form on Github, https://github.com/ctrmint/7talk. It really does need improving though 

The dependency which is an issue is the device module for the canbus device ( i think).  I've had a couple of goes and recompiling it, but ended up with the new kernel device driver signing protection getting in the way.  I've just not had the chance to deal with that.  Any solution needs to ensure the compiled module can be safely shared.   I guess some cert infrastructure needs to be considered.

[mph]

When it comes to coding I am of the 'if it works, it's good enough!' school of thought I was a terrible coder when I actually did stuff, now I just dine out on former career as an engineer and simply talk a good game. Friends who still code for a day job despair of my approach 

Have starred the repo. Will take a look in the coming days