Text preview for : 5991-3293EN Debug Automotive Designs Faster with CAN-dbc Symbolic Trigger and Decode - Application N part of



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Keysight Technologies
Debug Automotive Designs Faster with
CAN-dbc Symbolic Trigger and Decode
For Keysight Infiniium Oscilloscopes




Application Note
Introduction

The differential Controller Area Network (CAN) bus is used extensively in all of today's automobiles
for drive-train and body control. This protocol was developed by Bosch more than 30 years ago, and
it is still considered the "workhorse" serial control bus of the automobile. The CAN bus has also been
heavily adopted for industrial and medical equipment control applications.

The oscilloscope is the primary measurement tool used today to test and debug the physical layer
of this serial bus. Although CAN bus protocol analyzers, such as Vector's CANanalyzer, are also
commonly used for testing and debugging at a higher-abstraction application level, the advantage
of an oscilloscope is that it provides you with the ability to monitor the analog quality (signal
integrity) of the physical layer of the CAN bus. The electrical environment in automobiles is naturally
harsh with lots of noise and often unexpected transients. The core competence of an oscilloscope
is that it can capture and show you details of those infrequent automotive transients and noise that
could be producing CAN bus errors.

This application note will begin by showing the difference between oscilloscope hexadecimal
triggering and decode versus CAN-dbc symbolic triggering and decode of a CAN differential bus.
We will then provide some background on the core element required to symbolically decode the
CAN bus, which is an industry-standard .dbc file. In addition, we will provide step-by-step
instructions on how to perform CAN symbolic-level triggering and decode using a Keysight
Technologies, Inc. Infiniium oscilloscope. CAN-dbc symbolic triggering and decode is standard
with the N8803A or N8803B CAN/LIN/FlexRay option.
03 | Keysight | Debug Automotive Designs Faster with CAN-dbc Symbolic Trigger and Decode For Keysight Infiniium Oscilloscopes - Application Note



Triggering on and Decoding the Symbolically Decoding the
CAN Bus CAN Bus
To assist in synchronizing on and identifying specific CAN As mentioned earlier, one of the advantages of a CAN protocol
frames to test and debug, most of today's mid-range and high analyzer is that it can display results at a higher-abstraction
performance oscilloscopes, including Keysight's Infiniium 9000 application level. In other words, it translates captured data into
Series oscilloscopes, have the ability to trigger on and decode human language such as "Speed = 852.52 rpm"