winIDEA Help

The XCP plug-in is a lightweight implementation of an XCP slave.  It enables measuring and calibrating of the target ECU without impacting overall ECU’s performance or memory footprint.

It is an interface between a measurement / calibration tool like CANoe or CANape and the rest of the tools stack down to the target ECU.  All microcontrollers, supported by iSYSTEM tools, can be handled by the XCP plug-in. It enables the measurement and calibration of an ECU without the need of any slave code on the ECU, without performance degradation to the ECU operation and without the need for a physical interface (like CAN, FlexRAY, …), other than the ECUs CPU debug or trace ports.

The XCP plug-in supports polled mode access, where access is directed from the XCP master and also high speed data acquisition, where data accesses are directed by the emulator (iC5000, iC5700, …) and streamed to the XCP master.

 

 

Features

•Synchronous data acquisition (DAQ)

•Direct memory access (polling)

•Online memory calibration (read / write access)

•Time stamped data transfer, generation of event timestamps by the ECU/Emulator

•Trace-to-XCP bridge

•A2L file generation

 

 

Limitations

•Ethernet transport layer supported only

•Only dynamic DAQ list supported

•Bypassing is not supported

•Block mode is not supported

•Resume mode is not supported

•Checksum is not supported

•Dynamic event list (Plug-and play) is not supported

 

 

Performance Characteristics

 

 

Architecture

 

 

 

Usage

The XCP master (i.e. CANoe, CANape) and the XCP slave (winIDEA XCP plugin) must be configured properly to establish communication. The TCP port should match. If the master and slave are on different host, you will have to configure the addresses accordingly, by default the communication is setup for localhost connection.

 

 

General setup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XCP slave configuration

 

 

XCP master configuration (i.e. CANoe)

 

 

Modes of operation

The XCP plug-in enables ECU measurement (ECU’s memory observation) and ECU calibration (ECU’s memory write). In all cases, it is the master’s (CANoe, CANape) responsibility to set-up the measurement environment.

The ASAM 2MC configuration file (extension .A2L) is a good starting point to prepare the measurement environment. A default WINIDEA_XCPSERVER.A2L file is provided by iSYSTEM for easy start-up.

On the master side, data acquisition may be configured as DAQ or Polling. DAQ is recommended as data acquisition is much faster and the sampling interval more consistent.

 

 

DAQ

In DAQ mode, data acquisition is performed by the emulator.  For maximum performance, disable »Real time memory-access« in Debug / Options / Memory Access. If real-time memory access is enabled and in use, the debugger and the DAQ aquisition subsystem will compete for resources, resulting in a slower or less stable sampling interval.

 

 

 

Example

DAQ configuration in CANoe:

 

 

 

In this case, iXcpArray_01 variable will be sampled by the emulator at a maximum sampling rate. Whenever a variable changes, an event is triggered and  data streamed to the XCP master. When DAQ is running, this is clearly indicated on the XCP's plugin main page.

 

 

 

DAQ Performance issues

General performance is indicated in the line »DAQ average/desired sampling time (us)«. Desired sampling time comes from minimum required event sampling time (see table):

 

 

If average sampling time exceeds the desired minimum required sampling time, the status line appears in red, clearly warning the end user of irregular sampling conditions.

 

Please take care when deciding on event number.  Events 0 and 1 cause a lot of traffic on the debug port, which could lead to irregular measurement conditions.

 

 

Polling

When the polling mode is used the memory access requests are generated by the master.  The XCP commands (read and/or write to ECU’s memory) are processed sequentially by the XCP slave. The statistics are clearly displayed in the “XCP statistics” section.  

 

 

 

 

Example

Polling configuration in CANoe:

 

 

In this case, every 100 ms a read request is forwarded to the XCP plugin, which reads the ECU’s memory. Statistics about the operation of the plug-in in this mode are shown on the XCP plugin statistics section:

 

If real-time memory access is not enabled, access to ECU’s memory is disabled. Statistics under XCP memory reads total/errors show the number of unsuccessful attempts.  ERR_ACCESS_DENIED is returned to the master.

 

 

Trace-to-XCP

Trace-to-XCP feature allows an XCP master to acquire the data from the target ECU which has been collected by winIDEA by a means of trace. This allows a tightly controlled data sampling with exact period.

 

 

The XCP plugin window

 

 

Command buttons to start, stop, A2L File Generation and XCP plugin configuration.

•The status line displays the general XCP plugin status (Stopped, Running / Listening).

•The master (client) info displays  the master connection status (whether a master is connected or not)

•The XCP statistics display overall XCP commands statistics. Memory reads, writes and errors are reported separately.

•The DAQ statistics display the overall DAQ acquisition performance.

 

 

XCP plugin configuration options

Configuration options are displayed in a separate window.  

 

 

A2L (ASAM) file generator

For easier integration with popular XCP master applications (i.e. Vector CANoe, Vector CANape), simple A2L file generator is embedded into the XCP plugin. Invoke it either by pressing the “gear” icon or, alternatively, from View / XCP / Generate A2L file.

 

 

Main window of the A2L (ASAM) file generator appears:

 

 

On startup, the generator connects to winIDEA instance and reads available global variables from all downloaded files.

 

 

 

In the left list box (Available variables), select variables, which shall be monitored by  XCP plugin:

 

 

Move selected ( > ) or all( >>> ) to the right list box (Selected variables)

 

 

Press “Generate” to start A2L FILE generation process. Generation is template-based, the template resides in $(UserProfileDir)\iSYSTEM\winIDEA\Templates\XCP\. Template is actually an ASAM file with a special $(winIDEAVariables) tag, which is replaced with observed variables data. Templates have extension .A2L.TPL.  New templates could be added / modified for specific purposes.

 

 

 

Target A2L is generated in the workspace folder by replacing $(winIDEAVariables) tag with selected variables data and $(additionalEvents) with the optionally specified events for Trace-to-XCP. The default file name is WINIDEA_XCPSERVER.A2L.

 

 

DAQ measurement sequence

 

If you have started with A2L file generator, only adoption of measurement mode is required.  Some XCP masters allow linking the ECU's MAP file with A2L observation variables; this automatically updates variable addresses.

 

For DAQ-based measurement, following events/measurement modes are available by default:

•max_rate (max sampling rate on the Emulator)

•1ms_loop (1ms sampling rate on the Emulator)

•10ms_loop (10ms sampling rate on the Emulator)

•100ms_loop (100ms sampling rate on the Emulator)

•1s_loop (1s sampling rate on the Emulator)

Up to 256 events could be used (please add own to .A2L file or A2L.tpl template).

 

 

An example of the measurement configuration in CANape:

 

 

 

 

 

Optionally, use debugger Run control to manipulate target execution.

 

 

Trace-to-XCP measurement sequence

 

 

Open View / XCP / Generate A2L file.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XCP Master configuration examples

In this section, some popular XCP master applications and required configuration setup are described. Integration examples could be found in winIDEA examples/XCP folder.

 

 

Integration with VECTOR CANoe

 

Prepare ASAM2 2MC (A2L) file

To startup with CANoe, correctly defined ASAM 2MC configuration file (A2L) is crucial for correct configuration. A2L File Generator is a good starting point.

CANoe includes a specialized  ASAP2 file viewer, which allows A2L file preview. Appropriate tool is required to create/modify the ASAP2 file (i.e. ASAP2 editor).  

However, it could easily be adjusted by a simple text-editor (since A2L file is a text file).  

Essential sections of A2L file are:

•IF_DATA XCP section

•MEASUREMENT section

The IF_DATA_XCP section describes the essential XCP plugin properties. Use complete IF_DATA_XCP section in your target ECU A2L file to enable correct XCP data exchange.

This section provides a very important part, so-called Event list.  The Event list contain one or more events.

 

 

Usage of XCP Events

Events are placeholders for variable observation.  Each event has a unique ID. Max 255 could be used with the XCP plugin. From the master point of view, all events are trigger-based events (not cyclic); it means, XCP message would be transmitted to the master only if variable change is detected by XCP plugin. Setting the event type to cyclic in A2L file doesn’t make sense: their behavior is predefined in XCP plugin and is based on the event ID.  

 

 

 

 

However, inside the emulator, changes are detected by the internal loop, which is cyclic. Following table describes event’s internal cycle interval:

 

 

The MEASUREMENT section

The MEASUREMENT section defines observed variables measurement and their relation to XCP events.  This part should be adjusted to actual ECU memory layout and desired observation cycle time.

 

Example:

/begin MEASUREMENT iXcpCounter_100ms ""
UWORD NO_COMPU_METHOD 0 0 0 65535
ECU_ADDRESS 0x20000068
FORMAT "%.15"
/begin IF_DATA CANAPE_EXT
  100
  LINK_MAP "iXcpCounter_100ms" 0x20000068 0x0 0 0x0 1 0x8F 0x0
  DISPLAY 0 0 65535
/end IF_DATA
/end MEASUREMENT

 

 

 

 

Integration with VECTOR CANape

Integration with CANape is somehow similar to integration with CANoe with more measurement setup flexibility. Following screenshots may show/help how to prepare a  measurement environment.