The ECU Measurement and Calibration (ECU M&C) Toolkit contains a development system for electronic control units (ECU) based on existing ASAM standards. The function set of the ECU M&C Toolkit enables engineers to optimize and verify the functionality of electronic controller devices. Most ECUs interact with other ECUs, external sensors, and actuators in a Controller Area Network (CAN). During the development and verification phase of an ECU, engineers access the ECU for acquired data (Measurement), or to adjust parameters inside the ECU itself (calibration). Since the bandwidth and number of identifiers for a CAN network is limited, the Association for Standardization of Automation and Measuring Systems (ASAM e.V.) has specified the CAN Calibration Protocol (CCP), a protocol layer based on CAN to access the Measurement and calibration data in an ECU.

To build on the functionality of the CAN Calibration Protocol (CCP), ASAM defined the new protocol specification XCP (Universal Measurement and Calibration Protocol) which can be considered an improved and generalized version of CCP. The X represents the various transportation layers used by the members of the XCP protocol family—for instance, XCP on CAN, XCP on TCP/IP, XCP on UDP/IP, XCP on USB, etc.

The ECU M&C Toolkit is particularly suited to the automotive industry and their component suppliers. It provides a function set that can be used in the development or verification phase of an ECU. Access to the data inside an ECU takes place based on information stored in an ASAM MCD 2MC (*.A2L) database file provided by the ECU supplier. Selecting each signal by its name provides convenient access to the data inside an ECU. The ECU M&C Toolkit uses XCP and CCP as the fundamental communication protocols and to support ECU database (*.A2L) files. You can easily switch between the XCP and CCP protocol layers through software.

Measurement and Calibration Databases

The ASAP description file (ASAP2 or ASAM MCD 2MC) is used to describe the ECU internal memory configuration. An ASAM MCD 2MC description file with the file extension .A2L contains information and access location for the relevant data objects in the ECU, such as:

  • Project relevant information
  • ECU data structure
  • Conversion procedures for representation in physical units
  • Descriptions of the available Measurement channels inside the ECU
  • Descriptions of the available Characteristics inside the ECU
  • Descriptions of how to access the ECU over CAN

Use of the ECU M&C Toolkit requires an existing ASAM MCD 2MC database file. These files can be generated by various third-party utilities. A database editor for ASAM MCD 2MC databases is not part of the ECU M&C Toolkit.

ECU Measurements

The ECU M&C Toolkit gives the user access to ECU internal physical values defined by their names in the ASAM MCD 2MC database file. Based on this information, the ECU M&C Toolkit communicates through XCP or CCP to the ECU. A DAQ (data acquisition) list can be set up, which sends ECU internal data synchronously or asynchronously to the XCP or CCP master. The ECU M&C Toolkit provides a way to configure several Measurement channels into a single Measurement task. The term task refers to a list of measurements (channels) read or written together. A common use of the task concept is to read DAQ channels available on the ECU.

ECU Characteristics

ECU Characteristics are maps of ECU internal variables, which may be used as calibration information or set-point information. The ECU memory content of Characteristics can be read or even changed with the help of the ECU M&C Toolkit.