Interfaces

Analog sensors

Dewesoft X can acquire, store and analyze data from almost any analog sensor using Dewesoft USB and EtherCAT data acquisition hardware.  

When DAQ device is connected to the computer, Dewesoft X will recognize it automatically and display the list of available analog channels. Analog channels can have different modes, depending on the amplifier used by the DAQ hardware. Modes are Voltage, IEPE, Charge, Bridge (Full, Half, Quarter, 120/350 Ohm). TEDS technology is used for sensor autodetection and automatic configuration.

Each analog channel has software selectable features like sampling rate, name, color, unit, sensor, amplifier settings and filtering with live signal preview.

TEDS and smart sensors

Dewesoft implements TEDS standard to read, auto detect and automatically configure connected sensors. Calibration, scale factor, sensitivity, unit, model and just about anything else will automatically be read and set the channel configuration according to the connected sensor. 

You can also easily turn any sensor in your possession into "smart sensor". Simply equip sensor with the TEDS chip and write sensor and amplifier configuration with one click. Next time you connect the sensor, entire channel configuration will be set up automatically.

Sensor database

Dewesoft X includes a sensor database which holds the list and the properties of all sensors you want to use. Each sensor is defined with the information in the database:

• Sensor type, serial number, calibration date and period
• General sensor information with the ability to define custom fields
• Scaling type, either linear, polynomial or table
• Transfer curve used for sensor correction

The sensor database can be created and adapted according to the used measurement hardware. All functions for creation, editing and managing sensors are included.

For more information about sensor database and editor visit Sensor database PRO training online course.

Sensor connector wiring schemes

Dewesoft X includes smart wiring schemes for easy creation of sensor connectors for the connection to the front-end amplifiers. 

Depending on the used amplifier and selected operation mode, the correct connector pinout and the needed connections to the sensor are displayed. By moving the mouse pointer over the wires software will show you how to connect sensor pinout to the connector pinout.

This will save you a lot of time and will spare you endless search for additional documents.

Automotive interfaces

Dewesoft X3 offers support for several standard automotive interfaces for analyzing and inspecting vehicle data. Data can be captured from all the supported interfaces and synchronized with other sources like analog, video, and others... Supported automotive interfaces:

• CAN bus
• OBDII on CAN
• CAN FD
• J1939 and J1587
• XCP/CCP
• LIN bus
• FlexRay
• Kistler KiRoad
• MTS road simulator integration
• Testbed AK-protocol support
• ETAS INCA over CAN
• SENT (SAE J2716)

Slide right for more details about individual automotive interfaces. 

CAN bus

X3 can interface with all Dewesoft CAN devices which is dominated vehicle bus interface found in today's vehicles. X3 can decode any kind of data from CAN bus in read-only or acknowledge mode. Support for OBDII on CAN, J1939 and J1587 standards is also available.

Dewesoft X makes it extremely easy to setup CAN channels. The software can import and export CAN DBC or XML files. DBC files are common files for CAN message and channel definition. After the import software will automatically set up all available CAN channels and decode CAN messages.

To learn more about CAN, OBDII and related features please visit CAN bus PRO training online course.

CAN FD

Dewesoft X currently offers support for Vector CAN FD interfaces. 

Key features

• Synchronised CAN FD acquisition with other sources like analog, digital, video, GPS, etc.
• Decode, store and send CAN FD messages
• Dual baud rate up to 12 MBit/sec
• Message decoding up to 64 bytes
• Support for CAN DBC or XML file import and export for easy setup of CAN FD channels

XCP/CCP

Dewesoft X3 offers support for XCP and CCP protocols via XCP/CCP plugin.

The plugin enables data acquisition from Electronic Control Units (ECUs) supporting CCP or XCP over CAN or Ethernet protocol. It supports multiple ECU's. No additional HW is needed except CAN or Ethernet port. 

For more information see Dewesoft X plugins page.

FlexRay

FlexRay is an automotive network communications protocol developed by the FlexRay Consortium to govern on-board automotive computing. It is designed to be faster and more reliable than CAN.

X3 offers support for FlexRay protocol with FIBEX library import option. All Vector FlexRay cards are supported.

For more information see Dewesoft X plugins page.

LIN bus 

The LIN bus plugin allows you to simply connect and listen to communication on multiple LIN networks. Using Vector hardware, it mimics listen-only slaves that listen to all data transmission on the bus. Decoding can be done in three different forms:

• analog data with extensive scaling options,
• discrete data
• a mix of both.

The plugin supports importing the configuration from LIN description files (LDF). To read the LIN bus, a Vector LIN card is required.

SENT (SAE J2716)

The SENT protocol (Single Edge Nibble Transmission - SAE J2716) is a data transmission protocol that has seen a big increase in use, especially in the automotive industry. The module developed decodes a SENT signal transmitted from a sensor using counter channels.

The module supports two fast channels and any number of slow channels, which are detected automatically. The SENT signals can be decoded from multiple sensors simultaneously while each sensor is using a dedicated counter channel.

Video

Dewesoft was one of the first data acquisition software to offer synchronized video for free. X3 features advanced video engine to include various video capabilities to your measurements. 

Direct X camera support offers affordable, low-cost video that can be added to your measurements. For truly synchronized to analog video, we offer Dewesoft high-quality, high-speed cameras. For extra high-speed video we support Photron high-speed cameras and for thermal imaging, we have added support for FLIR infrared cameras.

For more information about video acquisition please visit Video acquisition PRO training online course.

Kistler KiRoad

Kistler KiRoad offers very accurate wheel force and moment measurement from Kistler RoaDyn® wheel force transducers, each represented as three vectors in an orthogonal reference system.

The KiRoad device is fully supported inside Dewesoft X and the offers fully synchronized or async acquisition via Ethernet TCP/IP lossless interface. The sampling rate is up to 1250 Hz. Hardware synchronization with Dewesoft DAQ devices keeps data from all devices in perfect sync.

LORD MicroStrain

This add-on adds support for the LORD Microstrain® MIP protocol. The add-on supports most of the IMU, GPS, and EF (Extended Kalman Filter) data-packets and some of the initialization commands.

Ethernet

Dewesoft X3 can receive and decode data from multiple ethernet streams. Different filter capabilities are available (TCP, UDP, filter data) and support data decoding with various formats (Motorola, Intel, float, signed, unsigned ...). Linear and non-linear (polynomial) scaling is possible.

For more information please see Ethernet plugin manual in the download center.

Siemens S7

Dewesoft X offers support for Siemens S7 protocol and features direct communication with Siemens PLC over Ethernet. No Siemens licenses are required. Read & write functionality is supported for all S7 data types - Boolean, Byte, Char, Word, Int, DWord, DInt, Real, Date, Time Of Day, Date_Time and String).

It is possible to communicate with multiple PLC devices simultaneously.

Timing

Dewesoft X provides the interfaces to acquire the data with external exact clock source. This is required when synchronizing several devices, or when an absolute time stamp is needed. Three timing sources are supported in Dewesoft: 

• IRIG timecode, 
• GPS timecode or 
• NTP SYNC synchronization.

NMEA weather station

For acquiring weather and environment data like air temperature, pressure, wind speed, humidity and others, Dewesoft X supports Vaisala WXT530 series NMEA compatible weather station.

Data is acquired via the RS-232 interface. MWV and XDR messages are supported. The device must be configured to send the data automatically.

Custom interface support

Even though Dewesoft X supports a wide variety of data interfaces you can easily add support for additional custom interfaces, devices, protocols, and sensors.

Dewesoft X offers DCOM plugin technology which you can use to support 3rd party devices. Visit developers section ​​​​​​​for programming guide and example code.