What I would like to do is either build or program a J1939 decoder that could be somewhat universal. The question at the moment is if I spend the money to download the current specifications will I have enough info to do what I want? I am not sure of what in the will cost for everything, but from what I can tell is I have at least two more downloads besides the overview I have already downloaded. I just don't want to find out in the end I won't be able to do anything with it.
For example: My employer has strictly Freightliner so we have everything we need for them, but there are some other makes we get in to every now and again. We have the engine software, but it would be nice to be able to pick up some messages between the rest of the various ECUs for troubleshooting. Something simple and as universal as possible would be nice. At times the proprietary software is a bit too much for what we need to do with it and it seems to intimidate people, along with a simpler layout would benefit everyone in the end.
There are a few things I need to figure out... First thing is there is a extended message format along with the standard J1939 messages that is commonly used for proprietary messages. Secondly I don't know about all makes, but I do know Freightliner also has a proprietary CAN network besides the J1939 that may hide the messages I'm after unless you use the proprietary software to access them through the common gateway controller.
In the end I would like to be able to just get basic information on switches, sensors, and such as defined in the current J1939 specifications and maybe be able to retrieve and clear error codes. I know in the end there will be some interpretation between the different makes as they may use some messages different than others, but hopefully I can show a ball park estimate of what the current status of things are.
The build part of the question is a last resort. We have a Nexiq unit now we use for diagnostics and luckily there is an API for download to use to interface with it. I have skimmed over the example, but totally lost so far. There isn't much to go on. That will be the next battle.
I know it's a long shot, but thought I would ask. Thanks.
For example: My employer has strictly Freightliner so we have everything we need for them, but there are some other makes we get in to every now and again. We have the engine software, but it would be nice to be able to pick up some messages between the rest of the various ECUs for troubleshooting. Something simple and as universal as possible would be nice. At times the proprietary software is a bit too much for what we need to do with it and it seems to intimidate people, along with a simpler layout would benefit everyone in the end.
There are a few things I need to figure out... First thing is there is a extended message format along with the standard J1939 messages that is commonly used for proprietary messages. Secondly I don't know about all makes, but I do know Freightliner also has a proprietary CAN network besides the J1939 that may hide the messages I'm after unless you use the proprietary software to access them through the common gateway controller.
In the end I would like to be able to just get basic information on switches, sensors, and such as defined in the current J1939 specifications and maybe be able to retrieve and clear error codes. I know in the end there will be some interpretation between the different makes as they may use some messages different than others, but hopefully I can show a ball park estimate of what the current status of things are.
The build part of the question is a last resort. We have a Nexiq unit now we use for diagnostics and luckily there is an API for download to use to interface with it. I have skimmed over the example, but totally lost so far. There isn't much to go on. That will be the next battle.
I know it's a long shot, but thought I would ask. Thanks.