How to locate engineering machinery failures through the cloud?

At present, CAN-bus technology is very mature in the construction machinery industry, but it is still very difficult to encounter faults on site, especially occasional faults. ZLG has proposed a set of practical solutions to the pain points of the current construction machinery industry to help the progress of the construction machinery industry.

1. How does ZWS-CAN Smart Cloud empower construction machinery?

1. Application of CAN-bus in construction machinery

As shown in Figure 1, China is a "infrastructure maniac", and construction machinery is widely used in the construction of urban and rural roads, urban infrastructure, national defense, water conservancy, electricity, transportation, energy industry and other fields. In recent years, under the leadership of major well-known domestic companies, the traditional operation mode and power mode have been changed, and the electrification, intelligentization and unmanned deployment of construction machinery have begun in China, and fault diagnosis technology based on big data has been developed to realize platform management of construction machinery.

Figure 1 Engineering machinery equipment

Due to the reliability and real-time performance of the CAN-bus, CAN-bus technology has been widely used in engineering machinery. Most equipment systems use the CAN data bus as the communication basis, as shown in Figure 2. Data transmission is achieved between electronic control units through the CAN data bus, and the control program ensures reliable and effective action of the actuator, thereby achieving safe, reliable and efficient operation of engineering machinery.

Figure 2 Application of CAN bus in construction machinery

With the advancement of electrification and unmanned construction machinery, the number of CAN nodes in the system will increase, and the difficulty of testing scenarios and troubleshooting will increase. In order to better manage and test construction machinery equipment on a platform, the demand for CAN-bus data to be uploaded to the cloud is increasing. In response to the needs of the industry, ZLG provides the ZWS-CAN cloud platform for CAN data, which can realize remote transparent transmission of CAN data with corresponding products.

2. How does ZWS-CAN reduce the difficulty of engineering machinery testing and troubleshooting?

The CAN data bus control technology on construction machinery is relatively mature, and its control software application layer is not prone to failure. Its failures are generally caused by problems in the CAN bus physical layer and data link layer.

There are many CAN nodes inside the engineering machinery and equipment system. If a CAN communication failure occurs on site, engineers are usually required to go to the site with test tools such as USBCAN cards for troubleshooting. If it is a routine fault, it is relatively easy for on-site engineers to locate the fault. If the on-site fault is sporadic, engineers usually need a day or even a month to capture and reproduce the fault on site. As engineering machinery and equipment develop towards intelligence and unmanned operation, this method of troubleshooting will only take longer and cost more.

Only by collecting, analyzing and judging the fault data reasonably can we effectively troubleshoot the fault and obtain satisfactory troubleshooting results. As shown in Figure 3, ZLG has launched the CANDTU product to address this pain point. By simply hooking the product into the CAN network, the data on the CAN bus can be completely recorded locally. Engineers can easily reproduce occasional faults and locate the problem faster. In addition, engineers can also remotely obtain on-site recorded CAN data through 4G, so that they can reproduce the fault scenario effortlessly thousands of miles away, which brings great convenience to engineers.

Figure 3 Schematic diagram of CANDTU product migration to the cloud

When engineering machinery and equipment encounter problems during the testing phase, it is difficult for testers to analyze the conditions on site or determine whether the equipment is in good operating condition, especially for some special engineering machinery used in plateau areas or extremely cold areas, which will increase the difficulty of testing. Usually, only by analyzing the CAN messages of the equipment can we intuitively understand the conditions of each node in the system, and then further feedback and optimize the system. As shown in Figure 4, the ZWS-CAN cloud can obtain CAN data and error frames of CAN network communication, which is convenient for engineers to test and analyze. Engineers can issue control commands remotely, which greatly reduces the threshold for engineering machinery testing.

Figure 4 ZWS-CAN platform captures error frame

2. CAN-bus data logging CANDTU series

ZLG Zhiyuan Electronics launched the CAN network bus "black box", which we call CANDTU. As shown in Figure 5, testers can use CANDTU to record CAN message data during the test phase in order to perform overall fault diagnosis on the equipment.

Figure 51. Schematic diagram of CANDTU series products

2. CANDTU product performance is as follows:

• Integrates 2 or 4 independent CAN channels that comply with ISO11898 standard;

• The standard storage medium is a 32G high-speed SD card, which supports multiple recording modes such as long-term recording, conditional recording, and pre-trigger recording, and can store large amounts of data;

• Supports conversion of multiple record data storage formats such as ASC and CSV, facilitating later software analysis;

• Passed strict vibration and impact resistance tests to meet the needs of industrial users;

• Equipped with 2-channel DI recording and 2-channel DO alarm output;

• Supports GPS positioning, 4G communication real-time upload to the cloud, and real-time viewing of vehicle positioning, instruments, oil temperature and oil pressure through mobile phones and other terminals.

3. ZWS-CAN Smart Cloud

ZLG Zhiyuan Electronics provides the ZWS-CAN Smart Cloud solution, which connects to the cloud server through the 4G communication of the CANDTU series products, and echoes the CAN message data to the scene for fault diagnosis. So, what special services and functions can the ZWS-CAN Smart Cloud provide for construction machinery? Let's make a brief introduction.

4. Transparent transmission in multiple scenarios, big data on the cloud

As shown in Figure 6, CANDTU-400EWGR can synchronously monitor and collect CAN bus data in different industrial scenarios in real time, and upload the data to the designated cloud server through 4G communication to achieve data cloud synchronization. Users can log in to the cloud through mobile terminals such as tablets and mobile phones, view cloud platform data in real time, and realize all-round processing of big data in the "device + cloud + terminal" mode.

Figure 6 CANDTU data on the cloud

5. Cloud curve, CAN message visualization analysis

ZWS-CAN Smart Cloud can realize visual analysis of DBC. Combined with colorful graphic controls, it can timely visualize CAN (FD) data and intuitively analyze the operation status. As shown in Figure 7, it can display signal values ​​and track signals.

Figure 7 Visual analysis of CAN messages

6. Support vehicle-mounted UDS diagnosis

As shown in Figure 8, users can directly perform standard UDS diagnosis on the vehicle through the ZWS-CAN cloud server to monitor the equipment.

Figure 8 Remote vehicle UDS diagnosis

7. Support Beidou/GPS positioning

As shown in Figure 9, logging into the ZWS-CAN cloud server can visualize the positioning on the map, display the vehicle running speed in real time, and record and store the vehicle running trajectory. The positioning accuracy is about 2m, which has a high degree of credibility for fault analysis and positioning.

Figure 9 GPS positioning function

8. Custom test scripts

As shown in Figure 10, the ZWS-CAN cloud server supports custom test scripts. Through the editor and actuator functions, it can perform actions such as sending, waiting, verifying, and verifying responses to achieve automated testing of the device, making it convenient for users to remotely test vehicle performance.

Figure 10 Custom script