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CAN bus and vehicle networking, explained.
Field guides and deep dives on CAN, CAN FD, LIN and the diagnostic protocols behind modern vehicle data. Written by engineers, for engineers.
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12 articles
Guide
On-board diagnostics: what OBD and OBD2 actually do
What OBD and OBD2 really do behind the 16-pin port. The protocol that rides on CAN, the modes and PIDs it uses and how trouble codes are built.
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Guide
Understanding CCP and XCP: reading and tuning an ECU
How tools read and tune a running ECU. CCP and XCP, the A2L file and the difference between polling and DAQ measurement.
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Guide
What is CANopen? CAN bus with a common language
CAN with a common language. The object dictionary, node IDs, PDO versus SDO and the NMT states, without the standards jargon.
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LIN bus basics: the low-cost companion to CAN
The low-cost companion to CAN. How LIN works, why it is cheaper and how the two buses share the work in a modern vehicle.
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Message filtering on the CAN bus
Keep only the IDs you care about. How acceptance filters and masks cut logger storage and noise, by single ID, range, DBC or J1939.
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CAN bus errors: how the bus finds and contains them
How the bus catches a bad message five different ways, and how error counters quietly take a failing node off the wire before it...
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A practical CAN bus troubleshooting guide
Most CAN faults come down to three multimeter checks. Termination, idle voltage and grounding, plus a transceiver test, in a field-ready order.
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Understanding UDS, Unified Diagnostic Services
The diagnostic language behind every modern ECU. How a UDS request is built, what the service IDs mean and how to read the reply.
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CAN bus explained: nodes, frames and how it works
How CAN bus actually works: nodes, one shared twisted pair and the priority rule that decides who talks. Built from first principles with demos.
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Understanding CAN DBC files
What a DBC file holds and how it turns raw CAN frames into readable engineering values. With a live signal decoder and a byte-order...
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CAN bus baud rate, and how to calculate bus load
What baud rate really means, and how to work out bit time, frame time and bus load. With calculators that do the maths for...
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Guide
CAN vs CAN FD: the differences explained simply
Same wiring, more headroom. What CAN FD actually changed, from 64-byte messages to the bit rate switch, with demos you can try.
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