CAN data logger with scripting functionality!

CAN to USB data logger enables engineers to run almost any CAN networking application using a simple-to-develop scripting language

A new high-speed controller area network (CAN) to USB data logger has been introduced by Kvaser that boasts the ability to run user-developed scripts to suit a wide variety of CAN networking applications.

Kvaser Eagle is a flexible, versatile, enhanced evolution of the Kvaser Memorator Professional designed with engineers in mind who need customised features such as CAN protocol converters, CAN gateways, advanced CAN logging functionality, CAN node simulation and standalone ECU programming. As such, the Kvaser Eagle can be applied in industries as broad ranging as automotive development, industrial diagnostics and oil and gas monitoring.

Kvaser Eagle’s script functionality allows users to develop highly customised applications written in the Kvaser t programming language. The programming language, which is event driven and C-like, is compiled into efficient byte code for execution on Eagle on the developer’s PC. Kvaser also has a network of technical associates with different domain expertise who will become a major source of application-specific Kvaser t software for Eagle.

Commenting on the announcement, Lars-Berno Fredriksson, Kvaser's president, said: “With the Kvaser Eagle platform, we responded to customer requests for a CAN interface that meets the requirements of many different application domains, as well as being applicable to the whole CAN based systems lifecycle; development, integration, verification, after market and maintenance. The result is our most flexible interface yet, which with a little programming expertise or help from our network of specialist software partners, can be perfectly tailored to the user’s application in a way that most other CAN interfaces on the market cannot.”

Their marketing director Michael Odälv added: “An important provision for Eagle was the ability to encrypt scripts so that domain developers and users can protect their intellectual property. In addition, our design team made ease of program development central to their efforts, giving software developers the ability to develop Kvaser t script using an editor that they are already familiar with and Kvaser’s CANlib software development kit.”

Ease of software development does not compromise the Kvaser Eagle’s advanced feature set: the Kvaser t language supports floating point calculations, structures, recursion and file access, and a Kvaser t program can also be linked into the Eagle’s data logger functionality to implement advanced filters.

Eagle has two CAN interfaces on one side and a USB connection on the other. Real-time performance from the CAN buses has been secured by using three microprocessors (MCUs) in the device, one MCU to handle each busload and another to run the script.

The Kvaser Eagle is based on an Arm 9 core that runs at 200MHz with minimal current consumption. This enables the battery to operate for a week whilst waiting for a CAN message. The SDRAM and NAND flash in the Arm 9 provides two hundred times the memory capacity found in Kvaser’s Memorator Professional interface and data logger and there is the option to increase memory capacity, should users require it.