New to this, Syvecs ECU and CAN Question

shmed · Post by **shmed** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 10:16 am

Hi, I'm considering buying a RaceCapture Pro to enhance the data logging provided by my Syvecs ECU. Trouble is, and bear with me as I'm not too hot on all this stuff, I'm not sure if the RaceCapture Pro will simply display information provided by the Syvecs over CAN.

To provide more background to this, whilst the Syvecs can do everything I need, it will cost more to add a Bluetooth and GPS module to it than it would to buy the RaceCapture Pro and Bluetooth module (about £350 more so not unsubstantial). What I don't want to do is open myself up to a world of 'compatibility' pain, I'd rather spend the extra cash.

Can anyone help please?

Post by **brentp** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 5:54 am

Hello, and welcome! We are working on releasing a CAN module add-on for the RaceCapture/Pro - initially focusing on CAN - OBD2, but could handle other systems.

We would need to know the CAN protocol for your ECU - do you know if that is documented anywhere? If so please link us / forward us the documentation for review.

Also, how did you hear about the RaceCapture/Pro system?

shmed · Post by **shmed** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 8:35 am

Hi, and thanks for the reply.

So from your response, am I right in thinking that out the box, the RaceCapture Pro can't capture CAN? I thought it could, but having re-read the product details, it says 'Hardware expansion to add OBD-II and CAN', which implies that you need to buy more hardware to add CAN support.

I have spoken to the guys at Syvecs, and whilst they don't have the CAN protocol documented, they have provided the following response (I'm sure I could get more detail if required):

Capturing CAN bus info shouldn't be a problem. In the Custom CAN config you set the frame numbers and contents. Each frame contains up to four parameters which are transmitted as 16 bit big endian. The bus runs at 1MBit/sec when using this config. The formula for getting the raw values into engineering units are displayed in SCal when you select a parameter.

As for how I found out about AutoSportLabs, I have a friend over here in the UK that uses the RaceCapture Pro on his ADR. He recommended it, and so here I am, hoping your product can work for me too

On a slightly unrelated note, if I wanted to put overlays onto some track footage, is this something the RaceCapture Pro can help with (I'm thinking along the lines of the V-Box)?

gizmodo · Post by **gizmodo** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 7:44 pm

I use RaceCapture Pro logs along with RaceRender to do video/data overlays and it works quite well. The hardest part is getting the video and data streams to sync.

shmed · Post by **shmed** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 10:21 pm

I found a product called dashware that looks like it does the same thing. I'll have a look at both of them once I have a race capture

Post by **brentp** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 10:43 pm

There are a number of video rendering overlay apps out there. Let us know how they work out for you!

shmed · Post by **shmed** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 11:01 pm

Hi Brent, what do you think about the CAN stuff I posted above? Does it sound like the racecapture might be able to handle the Syvecs CAN feed?

Post by **brentp** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 11:03 pm

Sounds like you can configure the system to output whatever you need - much like other systems like Motec. In this case it sould be able to work conforming to a spec we publish. Nice of them to make their system flexible; other systems will output only their specific format.

So, it's a good sign we would be able to injest data from that system.

-Brent

dimondjack · Post by **dimondjack** » Sat Jan 18, 2014 3:05 pm

I've tried both Dashware and RaceRender. I recommend RaceRender, as Dashware was less intuitive and liked the RCP data file even less.

The trick (documented in a RaceRender thread on this forum) is to make sure your time stamp is in incrementing seconds.

shmed · Post by **shmed** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 2:42 pm

Sorry, just to repeat a question:

Am I right in thinking that out the box, the RaceCapture Pro can't capture CAN? I thought it could, but having re-read the product details, it says 'Hardware expansion to add OBD-II and CAN', which implies that you need to buy more hardware to add CAN support.

Post by **brentp** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 7:34 pm

That's correct!

We are testing with our CANx module, here:

https://github.com/autosportlabs/CANx

We're working to enable it in our firmware right now - we'll post updates (pics and videos) as we have them!