How to connect WT-CAN adapter to CAN bus network

“Today, I will introduce an artifact that can connect the power analyzer to the CAN bus network, the WT-CAN communication adapter: iDAQ-WTCAN. It’s the little box pictured below. With it, you can directly connect Yokogawa’s WT5000 or WT1800E series power analyzers to your CAN system to easily obtain the required power parameters.

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Today, I will introduce an artifact that can connect the power analyzer to the CAN bus network, the WT-CAN communication adapter: iDAQ-WTCAN. It’s the little box pictured below. With it, you can directly connect Yokogawa’s WT5000 or WT1800E series power analyzers to your CAN system to easily obtain the required power parameters.

Why do you need a CAN communication adapter?

Because of its excellent stability and scalability, CAN bus is not only widely used in the field of automotive electronics, but also has certain applications in wind power, photovoltaic and other fields. Therefore, many related integrated test systems also use the CAN bus as the communication method for data acquisition and transmission. The advantage of this is that the data on the CAN bus can be directly obtained without additional development in the communication method.

But these test systems always include some general-purpose test equipment that does not support CAN communication, such as Yokogawa’s WT series power analyzers. In the automotive motor bench test system, Yokogawa’s WT power analyzer has become the first choice for bench power measurement equipment due to its excellent performance and stability, so the bench integrator will develop Ethernet communication methods for the WT power analyzer. to get power parameters. This creates additional development costs for integrators and limits the flexibility of test engineers to obtain power parameters.

In response to more and more customers’ needs for CAN communication, we commissioned a third-party partner to customize the WT-CAN communication adapter for Yokogawa power analyzers. This adapter communicates with the WT power analyzer through Ethernet to obtain the required power parameters, and then converts it into a CAN message and sends it to the CAN network. At the same time, it can also perform common settings and control operations on the power analyzer through the CAN network.
　

Chart 1 WT-CAN communication system solution

Main functions and usage of WT-CAN adapter

Key Features and Specifications:

Both WT5000 and WT1800E power analyzers are supported.

Support CAN2.0A/2.0B communication protocol.

Up to about 210 power parameters can be transmitted at the same time.

DBC files can be generated to directly export power parameters to the test system (software).

The fastest conversion transmission period is 50ms.

Common settings and operations of the power analyzer can be performed remotely via the CAN bus.

In addition, the setting of the WT-CAN adapter is also very easy, which can be done in just a few simple steps:

Step 1: Connect the adapter to the PC via Ethernet to ensure that the two are in the same network segment.

Step 2: Open the dedicated setting software WT-CAN Setting Tool, and enter the basic configuration of the power analyzer and the basic parameter information of the CAN network.
　　

Figure 2 Basic parameter settings of power analyzer and CAN network

Step 3: Select the power parameters that need to be sent to the CAN bus and generate a DBC file.

Figure 3 Select power parameters and generate DBC file

Step 4: Write the above settings into the WT-CAN adapter.

Step 5: Connect the WT-CAN adapter to both the Ethernet port of the WT power analyzer and the CAN communication port of the system. After importing the generated DBC file into the upper system, the required power parameters can be received in the CAN network.

The above steps are only the settings required for the first use. If there is no special requirement in the future, you can use it directly.

Figure 4 Demonstration of power parameters transmitted through CAN bus

If you want to change the settings of the power analyzer during the test, such as modifying the voltage and current range, changing the data update interval, or controlling the start and stop of the integral function, it is no longer necessary to enter the dangerous test site to operate on the instrument host, and the engineer only needs to The power analyzer can be set by sending a specific code to the CAN network from the host computer, which is not only safe but also efficient.