Softing DTS.monaco – All­-in­-One Engineering Tester

• Testing communication
• Analyzing data on the bus
• Testing ODX data against ECU
• Reading/clearing error memory
• Identifying variants
• Programming flash memory
• Displaying measurement values
• Testing actuators
• Parameterizing ECUs
• Variant coding
• Running ECU routines
• Testing OBD functions
• Creating/executing test sequences

Regardless of the integration level of software and ECUs, com­munication problems along the OSI communication layers result in specific challenges for diagnostic experts. These problems are critical for the remaining life cycle of the vehicle because, for example, in manufacturing, this behavior can lead to delays in or an entire absence of vehicle programming. The debugging of this kind of defective communication behavior thus necessitates an interface which both sends out services and jobs individually or cyclically to the test system and interprets information from off­board communication in detail and records on­board messages. The complexity of this kind of analysis is growing increasingly in the latest E/E architectures and their security measures against undesired external tampering attempts. Softing DTS.monaco is always up to date here and reliably supports corresponding protocols and mechanisms. This is supported in particular by the control units “Diagnostic Service”, “Symbolic Trace”, “Bus Trace” as well as the “Logical Link List” with reliable information on the status of the connection and the representation of the relevant services and bus communication. The DoIP monitor integrated in the new DTS generation 9 is particularly helpful in this respect!

The identification of a test unit as well as the reading out of the error memory are activities which are repeated throughout the product life cycle. Regardless of whether HiL, test bench or vehicle – the versions as well as any error memory entries which might occur must be acquired and documented in every test sequence. The most important aspect here is a simple and intuitive operation as well as reliable documentation (in part with a direct central link to IT systems). This kind of identification and error report can be generated and stored by Softing DTS.monaco. An XML file format for reports is expedient here. This is supported in particular by the control units “ECU Identification”, “DTC” and “Tool Quicktest”.

ECU and vehicle updating is an important application area for Softing DTS.monaco, as an accompanying measure in the engineering process to validate various software versions, but also to prepare the automated flash procedure for manufacturing and after-sales service. The compatibility to all kinds of methods and file formats is just as important here as simple and reliable operation. A process usually consists of several substeps as well as an initialization routine – now often additionally safeguarded with the Seed & Key procedure. Naturally, with its “flash” control element and numerous configuration possibilities, Softing DTS.monaco offers sufficient flexibility to be able to support complex procedures. In other words: ODX-D + Flash Job (with reference in ODX-F), External Flash Files (HEX, MOT, BIN, S3 and S19), Flash Sequences, Security Access, Latebound Flash Files, Flash Files > 4GB (“64-bit Flashing”), among others, are supported.