Continue to Site

Welcome to our site!

Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

  • Welcome to our site! Electro Tech is an online community (with over 170,000 members) who enjoy talking about and building electronic circuits, projects and gadgets. To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

Engine monitoring system

Status
Not open for further replies.

2PAC Mafia

Member
Hi,

I worked on a boat with a MTU engines so it has MTU Blue Line monitoring and control system. It has its special CAN bus protocol and my customer asked me to install a displays on the bridge to monitor the different standard values RPM, oil temp, oil pressure... because they have only analog gauges on the bridge and fly bridge.

I saw at schematics there is an output RS422 from one of the monitoring modules at bridge and I was thinking about the possibility of installing displays which work with same protocol (RS422, RS485). The supplier asked to the manufacturer but as MTU is very special and protected brand they are not sure it will work.

I have RS422 to RS232 conversor to connect my laptop there so I´m thinking if there is a way to be sure this will work. Which software or tests can I do for that?
 
Thinking of the obvious: have you checked if there is a specific module produced by MTU? I vaguely recall something but I could be dead wrong.
 
I managed to suss out some of the bus messages on vehicle can busses, its fairly complicated, and diffrent manufacts are not the same.
I didnt quite get what you meant, if there allready is a monitor on the bridge you might be able to tap into the serial comms lines and listen to whats going onm then suss out the protocol, the display probably works in a similar way to vehicle can systems where you send a request and the relavent controller replies, or possibly mtu being a larger manufacturer the system might use arinc, this seems to be popular on bigger stuff.
Once you have an idea what the request strings are you could try connecting to the engine control with a serial terminal package like putty.
All this is assuming you have the skills to write your own code/build something.
If the protocol is simple you might be lucky and get something like torque to work, its a android based dashboard system that works with obd, you can add custom guages and setup request messages, it works with an elm 327 interface which supports a few can protocols, you might be able to wire it in if the engine control uses one of its supported protocols.
 
I agree with dr pepper. Years ago ELM327 was open source. The output was text strings. they weren't obvious but you could sort it out if really motivated.
 
If the analog gauges are connected directly to the engine(s), perhaps this device: **broken link removed** might work.

MTU compatibility is unlikely, though.
 
Thanks for your replies,

Thinking of the obvious: have you checked if there is a specific module produced by MTU? I vaguely recall something but I could be dead wrong.

Yes, of course, they have but they are very expensive, displays + cables + installation the captain didn't accept that from official MTU Service so I was thinking about this option.

I managed to suss out some of the bus messages on vehicle can busses, its fairly complicated, and diffrent manufacts are not the same.
I didnt quite get what you meant, if there allready is a monitor on the bridge you might be able to tap into the serial comms lines and listen to whats going onm then suss out the protocol, the display probably works in a similar way to vehicle can systems where you send a request and the relavent controller replies, or possibly mtu being a larger manufacturer the system might use arinc, this seems to be popular on bigger stuff.
Once you have an idea what the request strings are you could try connecting to the engine control with a serial terminal package like putty.
All this is assuming you have the skills to write your own code/build something.
If the protocol is simple you might be lucky and get something like torque to work, its a android based dashboard system that works with obd, you can add custom guages and setup request messages, it works with an elm 327 interface which supports a few can protocols, you might be able to wire it in if the engine control uses one of its supported protocols.

At the bridge there is an electronic module in charge of gauges, also the possibility to connect the MTU display, but also I saw this RS422 output.
So I would like to connect there and see if I can read sentences.

I also can connect my laptop into the bus and see parameters but its can bus uses special protocol.

I wanted to use a display from another manufacturer connected there.
 
Just because the open source ElmScan source code for the ELM327 isn’t available on line and I have it, here it is.

I also have the needed alld42.dll from an old computer. If you try to get it online, it comes with ads & parasites. I also have the .hlp file and some others. Anyone that wants them can PM me.
 

Attachments

  • scantool111src.zip
    154.4 KB · Views: 205
  • ScanTool.exe
    117.2 KB · Views: 162
Last edited:
Thanks, I don´t know about this program, I´ll check it.
 
I was going to develop a program for Mercruiser and other Chevy marine engines but my job changed to bigger boats so I didn't pursue it.

OBDII info
This is the ELM website with data sheets & technical info.
https://www.elmelectronics.com/obdic.html

This is the one I got with USB and is compatible with that source code.
USB OBD2 OBDII Code Readers Scan Tools Auto Diagnostic Scanner Car Diagnostic Tool Auto Scan Check Engine Light...
The newest ones are Bluetooth now
Professional Diagnostic Tool OBD2 OBD-II ELM327 ELM 327 V1.5 Bluetooth Car Diagnostic Interface Scanner Works...
And WiFi
ELM327 WIFI Wireless ELM327 OBD2 OBDII Auto Diagnostic Scanner Tool Adapter for Smartphone / PC / iOS / iPhone...
All less than $20.00

Info here OBD-II PIDs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a better zip folder with everything including that .dll
 

Attachments

  • ELMSCAN 111 sourcecode.zip
    606.9 KB · Views: 201
search sil labs forums for ODB project, there is a project done with one of there boards and a cable you can buy, the software is all keil C and in the project, this would let you get at the firmware and alter for4 your own needs, its really simple to add touch screen etc to the boards.

If your interested and have trouble finding it give me a shout, its somewhere under the hack a gecko title of projects
 
Could it be something similar to the truck standard J1939 which runs on CAN2.0B. It's named NMEA2000 or similar.
 
If you can monitor the bus with a serial terminal, get someone to ground or otherwise force one of the sensors to change significantly, you'll see this easier in the string.
 
I built one for our land rover ~18months ago, it had a fault on it that we couldnt find. Since then I have used it on several different tractors, from what I have seen they all use ODB but some of then sneak in some odd strings at the beginning of some packets.

I found using bog standard commands normally works, I am not sure if this is because to a certain extent ODB has to be standardized. The idea of building your own reader means you have better access to the code, that way you can read the stream easier.
 
OBD2 is a standard protocol, vehicle manufacturers have to adhere to the standard, however there are also manufacturer specific codes too on the same port.
If you use a commercial scanner like a snap on verus there are 2 modes OBD and manufacurer, the latter gives you a lot more data and often bi directional control, ie you can turn on/off solenoids and pumps etc for testing, its a really handy system, some even provide in depth test routines.
For the more educated things like fuel trim, and on diesels rail pressure control tell you a lot between the lines.
 
hi 2pac,

im in a similar situation, requiring monitoring of the MTU blue line series. quick question, have you had any luck with this?

ive done quite a bit of research here already. what I know is this:
- the X17 port transmits RS422 data on a proprietary MTU protocol.
- standard 9600 baud rate, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit with no parity
- I have the spec on the protocol but its missing parameter scaling / resolution
- 100 measured values are transmitted per data block, so parsing the info and converting becomes tricky.

most displays would run CAN, say j1939, or n2k.

the blueline has an internal CAN bus, again with proprietary protocol.

dumping the CAN may be easier, then reverse engineering a protocol converter to j1939. then use something like the Maretron J2K100 to convert this to n2k. analog values with be transmitted, but error codes not.

that's as far as I got. :)

did you figure this out?

kind regards
c
 
Then you now more than me, sorry, the customer didn´t want to install them finally so I couldn´t go deeper.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest threads

New Articles From Microcontroller Tips

Back
Top