2020, it was quite a year. Being unexpectedly thrust into remote working had the Measurement, Calibration and Diagnostics team focused on supporting customers with new product offerings in this area.

Among these were several concepts and demonstrations utilizing the ES820 Drive Recorder Module, one of the newer, stackable 800-series modules that can be used for a variety of measurement tasks in the development, calibration and validation of electronic vehicle systems.

Because the ES820 runs ETAS INCA and can replace the INCA PC or laptop, it is easy to integrate into existing vehicle instrumentations to capture and record signals from electronic control units (ECUs), buses, networks, sensors and measuring instruments in the vehicle. The ES820 interfaces with all INCA supported hardware including our latest FETK high performance ECU interface. Once configured, the ES820 records all data from connected devices without any additional action from the user or driver.

ETAS INCA and beyond

As if being a drop-in replacement for the INCA PC or laptop isn’t convenient enough, the ES820 offers several other features:

• The ability to retrieve data remotely or a via a USB stick.
• Recording files tailored for specific teams can be obtained consecutively. This efficiently packages data, rather than using a large measure-all, all-the-time file requiring additional sorting.
• Assists with data collaboration. When data resides on an individual team member’s laptop, no one else can access it. The ES820 eliminates that roadblock.
• A rugged, robust device. During field test and extensive development programs, laptops are prone to screen and/or hard drive damage or even worse, data loss.

But that’s not all … ES820 add-ons

In addition to the inherent features of the ES820 module, it can be configured to run additional programs. Software add-ons can be developed by the ETAS product team, ETAS engineering services or third parties. ES820 add-ons include:

Remote Access

If problems arise shortly before or after Start of Production (SOP), calibration experts need quick access to the vehicle. Experts go out into the field to investigate problems and/or do fine calibration. With the ES820 Remote Access to INCA the calibration engineer can:

• Remotely use all INCA capabilities
  • Measurement, diagnosis
  • Calibration
  • Flash Re-Programming
• Have virtual interactions:
  • Diagnose field problems
  • Fine-tune calibrations
  • Update the ECU
• Save travel costs from experts going to the defective vehicle
• Reduce time to fix problems
• Utilize the extended safety concept to assure safe interaction

The ES820 lets you make/test calibration changes remotely

Display Application

This allows for the current status of the drive recorder to be displayed on an attached USB monitor. The driver can ensure the recorder is running prior to starting their route. Other advantages include the ability to change recording jobs and monitor the ES820 disk space.

The Drive Display App provides a visual status of the ES820

Two available menus for the control of recording jobs and monitoring memory

Cloud access

By utilizing the software add-on capabilities including User Applications and 3^rd party remote connectivity software, the ES820 can send the data recording to the cloud for safe, secure storage and accessibility by others.

Notification to Engineer

Developed by ETAS field application engineers, in addition to a notification, the ES820 sends a short recording of data to the respective engineer when an event or OBD code is set.

Summary

ETAS designed the ES820 module to provide a convenient, efficient solution that is easily integrated to vehicle systems for all measurement activities.

• Highly rugged system allowing for operation under automotive conditions
• Specifically designed for unattended/semi-automatic operation (remote control via large buttons, simplified visualization schemes for measurement data, remote visualization of equipment status, one-click actions, etc.) to increase safety during test drives.
• High performance enabling the validation of upcoming requirements:
  • Functional Test: Convenient access to the ECU to download different calibration sets into the ECU and measure ECU internal variables.
  • Environmental Test: Monitoring the real-world environment with additional sensors.
  • Durability Test: Conveniently log, store and manage large amount of data.
• Expandable by internal functions and external interface modules.
• The capability to measure various data from the environment, vehicle busses and control units during each test run, which aids in diagnosing rare unforeseen faults and avoiding cost-intensive test repetitions.
• When used with the FETK the measure all approach can provide significant cost savings in validation activities.
• Unattended operation or operation by an inexperienced user can help decrease staffing costs.
• Constantly evolving software and hardware features as well as overlap between ETAS products. For example, INCA v7.3 meta-data will also provide the ability to annotate the calibration and software levels with the data recording files.

As you can see, the ES820 offers a lot. To learn more and see how it works with other ETAS products, check out another blog post on distributed calibration.

Contact us if you have any questions or to set up a remote demonstration of the ES820 or any other ETAS product.

Rose Ryan       Franz Foltz
ETAS Calibration Experts