Integration of CAN Stack and UART Based Bootloader for Electric Vehicle ECU

 
Customer

Our client is a highly reputed Fortune 500 automotive Tier-2 supplier. They command a sizeable market share in the automotive ECU business.

Interestingly, in this project we also worked in close collaboration with the Electric Vehicle OEM who our customer (Tier-2 Supplier) was supplying the Automotive ECU (electronic control unit)
 

Business Challenge

• The challenge was to develop an electric vehicle solution that would facilitate a 2-way wireless communication between the automotive ECU and the remote server.
• This was required for the purpose of OTA (Over the Air) ECU reprogramming as well as transfer of the CAN data (vehicles’ speed and other diagnostic metrics) to the remote server.
• The wireless controller entrusted with the task to communicate with the remote server had to take in the information from ECU Microcontroller and hence a customized communication protocol with message configuration was also required.
• The Electric Vehicle OEM was also in need of a CAN Stack solution. This was required to collect vehicle data through OBD port for ECU microcontroller
• Automotive protocol stack development requires specialised software and hardware skills and is also a time-consuming process. This has direct impact on the overall ECU product development cost and vehicle’s time-to-market .
• Our ready-to-deploy CAN stack solution, expertise in Bootloader development and integration to ECU hardware impressed the clients and they were happy to have us on-board.

Connectivity of Microcontroller with Wireless Controller

Embitel Solution

• CAN stack based on ISO 15765 was integrated to the Microcontroller to facilitate communication between the microcontroller and the vehicle’s OBD port.
• UART based Bootloader was integrated to the Microcontroller to enable OTA (Over the Air) ECU in-vehicle reprogramming and application upgrade through the remote server.
• A customized protocol based on UART to facilitate the communication between the Wireless controller and the Microcontroller was developed.

Impact

• With our pre-tested CAN Stack solution, customized protocol, and Bootloader, our client could provide the desired electric vehicle ECU to the OEM in just 1 month time instead of originally estimated 6-7 months, had the stack been developed from scratch.
• This brought down the cost of development and time-to-market considerably.

CAN-URT Interface Design

Tools and Technologies

• Hardware Platform: Freescale Microcontroller
• Software IDE: Code Warrior
• Simulator: Busmaster (Software), Value CAN (Hardware), Docklight, Tera Term