The VCOM custom device is a feature of NI's Vehicle Communication Toolkit (NI-VCOM) installed as part of the Battery Test System Software Package that allows you to monitor, send signals to, and receive signals from a DUT's battery management system (BMS). In order to communicate with a BMS on a DUT being tested by the Battery Test System, you will need to create, configure, and export a VCOM custom device for that DUT.

Ensure that the tasks required for your system in Define the Test Station have been completed before adding a VCOM custom device to your VeriStand project.
Note The Vehicle Communication Toolkit User Manual contains most of the information necessary to create and configure a VCOM custom device, and should be used in conjunction with this procedure to add a VCOM custom device for a BTS VeriStand project.
  1. Open a new VeriStand project.
  2. Click Configure to open the System Explorer.
  3. In the System Explorer window, navigate to <Project Name> » Targets » Controller » Custom Devices.
  4. Right-click Custom Devices and select NI » VCOM to create the VCOM custom device.
  5. If your project uses .dbc or .ldf for database communication:
    1. Click Create RBS Descriptor.
    2. Refer to the Using RBSConfig section in the Vehicle Communication Toolkit User Manual for information on how to use the RBSConfig window which appears to create an RBS descriptor file.
  6. Click Set RBS Configuration.
  7. Once the RBS Configurator window has opened, refer to the The Configuration Tool section in the Vehicle Communication Toolkit User Manual for information on how to properly configure a new VCOM custom device.


  8. The RBS Configurator window closes once you finish configuring the VCOM custom device, and the Add/Update Sections window opens immediately afterwards. Select Import All to import all of the channels you configured for your peers, or select Import Manually to select which channels are imported. Click Done once your selections are complete.


  9. (Optional) If you selected Import Manually for any of your peers, an Add/Update Channel Selection will appear for each of the peers being imported manually. In each window, select the channels you want to import and click Done.


  10. Test your configuration to ensure you are communicating correctly with the DUT. If there are any issues, you can change your imported channels by clicking on a peer folder below VCOM in the System Explorer window and clicking on Import Channels to reopen the Add/Update Channel Selection window for that peer.


  11. Once you have successfully tested your configuration, right-click VCOM and select Export Config.
  12. Enter the path to export your VCOM custom device configuration to in the Export RBS Configuration window and click Export. Name your exported configuration VCOM Configuration.zip.


  13. Place the exported .zip file containing your VCOM custom device configuration in the DUT folder in your Battery Test Package file hierarchy which contains the DUT XML configuration file the VCOM custom device corresponds to.
  14. Use the DUT XML editor to add BMS channels in your VCOM Custom Device to your .dut xml configuration file.
    1. Open TestStand.
    2. Select Tools » Edit DUT XML.
    3. Select the Ports tab.
    4. Click Add Port to add a port and selected channels from your VCOM configuration.
  15. To publish specific port endpoints as SystemLink tags, add a SystemLink DUT configuration file to your DUT package. In the DUT XML configuration file, include the SystemLink.ConfigurationPath attribute with the SystemLink DUT configuration file name (for example, SystemLink.ConfigurationPath="SystemLink Dut.xml"). Refer to SystemLink DUT Configuration File XML Conventions for information on creating the SystemLink DUT configuration file.