Arduino in an XC90 - who wants to join me?

[SwissXC90]

So I have the following:
2 x Arduino Uno
1 x CAN-BUS Shield v1.2 from Seeedstudio
1 x GSM shield
35 years electronics experience (hardware)
20 years VisualBasic experience (software, still going strong)
10 years automotive serial bus reverse engineering experience (on a previous vehicle) at binary level - that was fun...
1 month Arduino experience (totally a newbie)

I'd like to use my hardware and skillset to add some extra functions to my XC90

The XC90 has a 125kbps low-speed CAN bus, connecting all the non-drivetrain and safety components
The drivetrain and safety - airbags, engine, gearbox etc- are on the 500 kbps high-speed CAN bus, I'm NOT touching that!.
The low speed bus is 15625 bytes per second, which at around 12-byte average frame length is around 1300 frames per second to process. Should be doable with an Arduino.

Once the commands are reverse engineered, I want to do the following as a starter:

1. Lamp-On reminder when drivers door is opened. I'm always leaving my lights on in the garage. A DIM message and warning ding / lamp can also be sounded / displayed
2. Auto CRUISE enabler when the ignition is turned on
3. Auto navigation ACCEPT for the annoying warning screen on startup
4. Visual rear parking distance indicator
5. Using Front Fog Lamps as corner illumination at low speed
6. TPMS using ABS signals
7. Maybe automatic car finder / status indicator / heater starter all via SMS
8. Anything else that makes sense....

I'd like to see if there are other software programmers on this forum who would like to join me and explore the insides of their XC90 in a joint effort.

NOTE: you WILL need to have VIDA to be able to reset any fault messages that may occur through CAN bus data collisions etc during the experimental phase!

Who's in?

[Father Ted]

I would be but you lost me in the first sentence!!

Good luck, though. Sounds like a great project.

[colinbos]

Say that again in English, Swiss !?

Ill make the cups of tea, if that helps ?!!

[Tannaton]

@Moose Test - good excuse for another oscilloscope?

[bokabil]

It's your own version of the Volvotech CFE, nice!

My background is embedded software, mostly RS485/SCI/I2C bus. It is only last year that we've had a product that runs on CAN bus but I was not directly involved. I know the basics of CAN but lack debugging experience. No experience on Arduino as I work mainly with Freescale/TI chips.

I suppose, reverse-engineering the CAN commands is at least 50% of the work. Knowing which device is on which node and their corresponding commands. If you can get access to a scope/sniffer that can decode CAN bus, that will be most helpful.

[SwissXC90]

Originally Posted by bokabil

It's your own version of the Volvotech CFE, nice!

Yep, with different functions

Originally Posted by bokabil

My background is embedded software, mostly RS485/SCI/I2C bus. It is only last year that we've had a product that runs on CAN bus but I was not directly involved. I know the basics of CAN but lack debugging experience. No experience on Arduino as I work mainly with Freescale/TI chips.

Perfect, and you are just down the road from where I live.

Originally Posted by bokabil

I suppose, reverse-engineering the CAN commands is at least 50% of the work. Knowing which device is on which node and their corresponding commands. If you can get access to a scope/sniffer that can decode CAN bus, that will be most helpful.

I have a sniffer and a lot of the reverse engineering has been done already, I have a lot of data. So that reduces the workload a lot
And I have reverse engineering experience on vehicle databusses.... lower bitrates but the principles are the same

Wanna meet up for a coffee and chat?

[XJSDriver]

Hi, I have an Arduino and Vida and have been looking on the net at how to read ODBII data to create additional displays but this never got off the ground. Am keen to be involved and kept in the loop - would love to be able to help where I can but you are way ahead of me!

[Moose Test]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

@Moose Test - good excuse for another oscilloscope?

When did you ever know me to need an excuse for that?

I've been resisting the temptation to buy a nice deep memory Keysight unit with automotive serial decode over the xmas break. This post isn't helping.

@Swiss - It's a very interesting idea for a project, I'd been thinking of something similar (but LIN based), to explore adding paddle shifters to my XC70. Sadly the demands on my time from a work perspective are too great at present for it to be fair to make any time commitments to you but I wish you all the best with it and look forward to reading about your progress.

Perhaps I might be of use later on, with your tracking/status/remote features. My day job involves IoT, telemetry, mobile web apps and the like.

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by Moose Test

When did you ever know me to need an excuse for that?

I've been resisting the temptation to buy a nice deep memory Keysight unit with automotive serial decode over the xmas break. This post isn't helping.

@Swiss - It's a very interesting idea for a project, I'd been thinking of something similar (but LIN based), to explore adding paddle shifters to my XC70. Sadly the demands on my time from a work perspective are too great at present for it to be fair to make any time commitments to you but I wish you all the best with it and look forward to reading about your progress.

Perhaps I might be of use later on, with your tracking/status/remote features. My day job involves IoT, telemetry, mobile web apps and the like.

Off topic I know but the Keysight stuff looks a very useful tool... could replace my multimeter? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKki89sq0XY

[Moose Test]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

Off topic I know but the Keysight stuff looks a very useful tool... could replace my multimeter? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKki89sq0XY

Absolutely. That particular model is the best £15k 'multimeter' you'll ever own! Go for it.

Be sure to care for it nicely, as he does...