CAN Terminal is a feature that can be useful for developing and debugging ECUs.  CAN Terminal gives a way to send text commands and receive responses from an ECU, and display them in the main window of the CAN terminal.

 
Figure 1: CAN Terminal

The first requirement for using the CAN Terminal is that a connected ECU supports this type of communication.  The protocol used requires the strings to be sent using ASCII and to have a $0D as the last byte in the string.  The message can be in more than one frame, but must have a $0D to end the string. 

Can Terminal is enabled by checking the "Enable CAN Terminal" check box in the upper right of the dialog  (Figure 1, bubble ,).The command or string to send to the ECU goes textbox next to the send button (Figure 1, bubble 2,).  If the message is periodic, check "Repeat Every (ms)" and enter in the rate to have it repeat (Figure 1, bubble 3,).  The clear button (Figure 1, bubble 5,) will empty the messages in CAN terminal window. 

The "Setup...." button (Figure 1, bubble 4,) brings up a setup window where the network, CAN  IDs, and a output log file can be specified.

Figure 2: CAN Terminal Setup

Vehicle Spy Documentation - (C) Copyright 1997-2011 Intrepid Control Systems, Inc.

Last Update: Friday, May 22, 2009