Tools for measurement, ECU calibration, and diagnostics

INCA streamlines the calibration process by allowing precise adjustment of function parameters, maps, and tables both offline and during ECU runtime. This advanced tool efficiently manages the ECU's volatile and non-volatile data memory, resolving parameter dependencies for seamless operation. With powerful editors, INCA presents scalars, curves, and maps as tables or graphs in both physical and hexadecimal formats for easy visualization and comparison of different calibration settings.

Regarding offline calibration data management, INCA provides sophisticated functions to list, compare, and merge datasets. The INCA-QM-BASIC add-on further enhances this capability by processing metadata that tracks the history and maturity of parameter or function calibrations, ensuring high-quality tracking and validation.

INCA excels in data acquisition, capturing information from ECUs and vehicle buses such as CAN, LIN, Ethernet, and FlexRay. Additionally, it measures signals from sensors and the vehicle environment, allowing engineers to calculate and display derived quantities in real time. Its advanced data recording features support multiple independent recorders, which can be triggered by complex conditions for parallel data capture. These records include measured and calculated signals, calibration parameters, trigger options, and user annotations, providing a comprehensive dataset for analysis.

Comparing measurement data across various calibration parameter variants is crucial in the ECU development process. The Measure data analyzer (MDA) empowers engineers to effectively visualize, post-process, analyze, and document these measurements. It evaluates the correlation between diagnostic data and signals from ECUs, sensors, and vehicle buses, providing a comprehensive overview of system performance.

MDA enables consistent data display through predefined configurations, ensuring a uniform presentation of measurements across different records. This consistency allows engineers to easily compare similar measurements using the same views and settings, streamlining analysis and decision-making. With customizable print layouts, MDA ensures that measurement results are documented professionally and align with corporate design standards.

During simulation, prototyping, or testing, measurement data often serves as critical stimuli. MDA excels in selecting and preparing these stimuli signals from raw data captured at test benches or within vehicles. It processes large volumes of measurement data efficiently and supports the MDF file format, an ASAM standard widely used in development and testing tools, ensuring compatibility and ease of use.

ODX-LINK extends the powerful measurement and calibration capabilities of the INCA platform by integrating comprehensive ECU diagnostics features. This integration enables simultaneous acquisition of calibration and diagnostics signals, streamlining the process of triggering and calculating derived signals. All data is conveniently recorded in a single measurement file, allowing for seamless display and analysis in the same interface. With a unified ECU and bus interface module, engineers can effortlessly manage both diagnostics and calibration tasks.

ODX-LINK incorporates advanced scan tool functions that comply with OBD emission regulations, utilizing services defined by ISO 15031-5 and SAE J1979. This user-friendly OBD scan tool visualizes fault memory entries by monitoring function statuses, vehicle information, in-use monitor performance ratios, and environmental data, often referred to as freeze frames.

In addition to OBD compliance, ODX-LINK enables comprehensive diagnostics of ECUs according to the ODX standard. INCA can emulate a service tester and perform troubleshooting functions, allowing for validation of service diagnostics well before service tester hardware is available. The inclusion of a remote-operable ODX-FLASH tool ensures that INCA/ODX-LINK offers a complete solution for validating ODX-based vehicle diagnostics and ECU reprogramming, delivering exceptional efficiency and accuracy.

INCA's comprehensive measurement and calibration capabilities are perfectly suited for PC simulation and prototyping applications. By simulating new software functions in a PC-based modeling environment, developers can refine and perfect these functions before deploying them in real-world scenarios. Prototyping further validates these functions by testing them under actual conditions, ensuring their reliability and performance.

Function prototypes can be implemented across various targets, including ECUs, experimental systems, or PCs. Regardless of the simulation or prototyping environment, INCA offers specialized add-ons that provide seamless measurement and calibration access. It utilizes the XCP protocol over TCP/IP to connect with generic simulation environments on the PC, ensuring smooth integration and operation.

INTECRIO facilitates the integration of generic C code, Simulink, and ASCET models within a single prototype, enhancing the flexibility and capability of the development process. INCA-EIP ensures full access to INTECRIO prototypes running on PCs and supports INTECRIO and pure ASCET prototypes on experimental systems. By employing the same INCA tool throughout each development phase, engineers can efficiently refine calibration values, ensuring optimal performance and streamlined workflows.

The INCA product family offers a wide range of open and standardized interfaces designed for configuration, data exchange, documentation, automation, and seamless integration with customer applications. These interfaces ensure flexibility and adaptability across diverse automotive environments.

Flexible ECU access and communication

INCA configures ECU access using description files in A2L and ODX formats, adhering to ASAM MCD-2 standards. For bus communication, INCA supports FlexRay, CAN, and LIN protocols through respective formats such as FIBEX, CANdb, LDF, and AUTOSAR. Calibration data is stored in hexadecimal formats, while multiple ASCII formats facilitate the exchange of calibration parameters. Measurement data is captured in MDF files, a de facto standard in automotive testing, compatible with leading data evaluation tools such as MATLAB® and FAMOS.

Comprehensive data management

INCA provides parameter listings and calibration results in XML format for easy integration and documentation. Experiment configurations and hardware setups can also be documented in XML files. For interactive access to parameter and function model descriptions, INCA’s open interface allows the integration of electronic ECU documentation in PDF or Windows® Help HTML format.

Advanced tool integration with APIs

INCA offers application programming interfaces (APIs) to enhance tool integration. The COM-API, based on the Microsoft COM (Component Object Model) standard, allows remote control of nearly all INCA functions, providing unmatched flexibility. With INCA-MIP, MATLAB® scripts can automate or semi-automate calibration procedures, leveraging MATLAB®’s extensive libraries and toolboxes for numerical calculations and optimization.

Customizable user interfaces

The INCA-INS.DK programming interface empowers users to develop custom display windows for measurements and calibration parameters, seamlessly integrating them into the INCA experiment environment. This customization capability enhances user experience and operational efficiency, allowing engineers to tailor the interface to their specific needs.

INCA-FLOW is used to automate calibration and validation tasks. The automation sequence is specified in a graphical editor as a flow chart, compiled, and called by INCA. The automated process can be run while driving or offline. Additional beneficial results of the explicit representation of application and validation processes are the documentation, the auditability, and the reproducibility of the automated calibration and validation processes.