I'd like to control/read INCA with LabView.

[Herman Swede]

In the process of automating a testbench for ECU:s I'd like to
1. read the values of the parameters in the ECU.
2. change the values of the parameters in the ECU.

I'm working with LabView and the ETAS hardware ES1000.
I would be greatful if someone could give me some useful tips/samplecode.

[Khalid]

Hi Herman,

The most important thing we need is a driver that will let LabVIEW communicate with the ES1000. This can be a set of VIs or an OPC driver, etc. You will need to check with ETS if they have such drivers for LabVIEW.

The only thing I could find on the Net was the report by OSU students on their future truck project where they used ES1000 and LabVIEW> Maybe you can try contacting them somehow:

http://www.futuretruck.org/pdfs/2000presentations/10ohio.pdf

Hope this gest you started at least.

Regards,

Khalid

[Herman Swede]

Hi Khalid,
thank you for your answer. Sadly enough the students had implemented the communication between ES1000 and LabView using a CAN-Interface (NICAN); and that is not really what I'm looking for. What I found out so far is that the software, INCA, that I use to read/change the Parameter-values in the ECU (over the ES1000, which is the Hardware where modules for signal-acquisition can be implemented) has an interface which uses he ASAP3-Standard for "extern control" of the conditions in the ECU. Now, if you, or someone else that has time to read this comment, got the knowledge where I could find LabView VI's/drivers which makes it possible to communicate with INCA over the ASAP3-Interface I would be very, very greatful.

[Khalid]

Hello Herman,

I didn't find any VI-based drivers for the INCA. Looks like you have three options:

1. Implement the ASAP3 protocol yourself in LabVIEW using the Serial/VISA functions in LabVIEW. Though the protocol seems pretty straightforward (simple serial commands), it will still require some good LabVIEW coding on your part (or you may hire an Alliance member/System integrator if you wish). Here's the specification for the ASAP3:

http://www.etasgroup.com/downloads/am_tn_asap3_2.0_en.pdf

2. ETAS says they have a Matlab API to talk INCA (http://en.etasgroup.com/products/inca/sample_applications.shtml). And LabVIEW can "call" Matlab scripts. That would be another route: LabVIEW>>Matlab>>INCA. I don't know much about ho
w LabVIEW interfaces with Matlab, but here's some info' that might get you started:

http://www.ni.com/analysis/matlab.htm

3. You may, as a last resort, bug the ETAS guys to help you with your app. Afterall, it's their hardware and you want to use it with the industry de-facto standard automation & measurement software -- that's not asking for much, is it? 🙂

Regards,

Khalid

[dclapa]

Did you get anywhere with this problem?  I would like to do exactly the same thing.

[dryan0929]

Just wondering if there has been any recent activity in this area. I have had some success communication between INCA and LabView on a local computer via the ActiveX components.This has given me the ability to read measurements from INCA, and to monito and change calibration values suing the INCA toolAPI. However, INCA does not support DCOM in order to communicate remotely. In this case the only option is to resort to the ASAP3 interface that has been discussed here. I am wondering if there have been any developments in ASAP3 support for LabView since this thread was last viewed. I am currently looking into the ASAP3 protocol if anyone wants to try to tackle this with me. The other option is to use LabView on both machines to handle the remote communication and then communicate locally through the API.

[Sima]

I'm also looking to do the same thing. LabVIEW <=> INCA over Ethernet. Would like to hear from anyone who's had some success using the ASAM-MCD-3MC protocol implemented in LabVIEW. Thanks.

[dryan0929]

Success!! I have managed to get Labview and INCA to communicate remotely over an ethernet connection by sending raw hex strings over the TCP connection. It is kind of a crude method, but with some help I'm sure it would be possible to to get labview to correctly format the telegram structure and parse the responses from INCA. If anyone is still interested I could use some help converting the hex string that INCA is returning back into a floating point representation.

[Sima]

I assume you're using INCA's "older" ASAP3 interface and not the newer ASAM-MCD-3MC interface? I'd be interested to see some code on your communication with INCA over Ethernet, if you're willing to share. I have some VIs from NI that talk to INCA using serial/VISA, but they're just unofficial VIs. I don't know if they might be useful to you.

[dryan0929]

Sima,

You are right in part. I am essentially using the "older" ASAP3 protocol to encode the messages that I am sending to INCA. The VI, however, is communicating with the ASAM-MCD-3MC interface which, at this point, is still compatible with both standards. From what I can tell the ASAM-MCD-3MC standard simply adds functionality to the old ASAP3 standard, and up to this point the simple commands that I am using appear to be identical for either standard. At any rate, the implementation in LabView is the same whether you use ASAP3 or ASAM-MCD-3MC only the physical messages that you send to INCA may vary somewhat.

Thank you for attaching the INCA VIs I think that I will be able to use them for what I am doing, and you may be able to modify them slightly to use ASAM-MCD-3MC. From the attached VI you'll see that I am using the same approach, but using the TCP modules and a slightly more brutish method of hardcoding the packets to be sent. Your VIs will be very usefull in making the process a little more versatile.

A few notes about my VI: I don't know how familiar you are with the ASAM-MCD-3MC 4 INCA interface, but you will have to follow the procedure outlined in the INCA manual for setting up the client and server through the DCOM config. Also, if you are running a firewall you will have to unblock LabView on the client computer and INCA on the server computer. You may have to manually open up port 22222 on both computers as well. Once you have done this, you need to run INCA on the server computer and open the experiment that you want to use. From within the experiment environment you can run the ASAM-MCD-3MC 4 INCA interface. Once the interface is running and online, you can run the VI on the client computer; it will establish the TCP connection, sent an INIT command, and then close the connection. If everything is configured correctly, you should get the following messages:

10/4/2007 10:10:53 AM,579381  Status: aaaah -> Command received
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/4/2007 10:10:53 AM,579929   Command 2: INIT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/4/2007 10:10:53 AM,596489  Answer for command 2: INIT
   Status: 0h -> Success
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you again for the VI library. I will see if I can get them to work with my VI. Let me know if I can be of any help.