About CSS Electronics
CSS Electronics supplies 3,000+ companies across 100+ countries. Applications include telematics, development & diagnostics, while industries include automotive, heavy duty, motorsports & production. The CAN bus data loggers are used in particular by OEM engineers, operators, site managers & researchers with customers including VW, JCB, Bosch, Siemens, Toyota, Continental, Cummins and more.
CAN bus is the technology used to facilitate data communication between ‘electronic control units’ in practically all automotives today. It is also used extensively within the maritime, aerospace, robotics and automation industry. Essentially, CAN is the network on which sensor information like speed, RPM, temperatures etc is exchanged between different parts of a vehicle/machine.
There are many protocols based on CAN bus, such as OBD2 and UDS (used in cars), J1939 (used in trucks), CANopen (used in machines), NMEA 2000 (used in maritime vessels) – and many more.
The CANedge is a series of data loggers for recording CAN bus and/or LIN bus data. Data is recorded to an internal SD card, which can be extracted periodically for analysis via 100% free and open source software/API tools.
The CANedge1 enables offline logging to an SD card, while the CANedge2 (with WiFi) enables automatic upload of log files from the SD card to the end user’s own server. For example, a CANedge2 can be deployed in a stationary production machine to log data and upload the log files via an available WiFi network to a self-hosted MinIO S3 server. Similarly, the device can be installed in vehicles that periodically visit the same area for periodic offload of data via stationary WiFi routers.
If users prefer to upload data while vehicles are operating in the field, the CANedge2 can simply be deployed with a cellular WiFi router (e.g. a USB 3G/4G hotspot). The user would then use their own SIM card (e.g. from soracom) in the hotspot to provide internet access – and the CANedge2 can then upload data to a cloud server like an AWS S3 bucket.
For more details on the CANedge, see below 3 minute introduction video:
CSS Electronics also offers sensor-to-CAN modules via the CANmod series. This series includes modules like the CANmod.gps (GNSS & 3D IMU to CAN), CANmod.temp (4 x thermocouple to CAN) and CANmod.input (8 x analog/digital/pulse sensors to CAN).
These CANmod devices can be used to produce sensor data and inject it into any CAN bus – e.g. in a vehicle, machine, boat etc. The devices can also be used as simple add-on modules for CAN bus interfaces and loggers. For example, users can connect one or more CANmod devices via the 2nd port of the CANedge – thus adding e.g. GPS position, speed and acceleration data to the existing data recorded from a vehicle.
For details on the CANmod, see e.g. below intros to the CANmod.gps:
Data recorded with the CANedge can be easily displayed in tools like the asam mdf GUI or processed via Python/MATLAB. Users can also easily create customized telematics dashboards using Grafana integrations.
