Plex Knock Monitor CAN Template

[killerbee]

Does a motec can template exist for this unit so it can be logged using a motec data logging dash ?

http://www.plex-tuning.com/products/ple ... r-v2-0-new

[adrian]

We haven't done any templates for that yet.

Having a look at the user manual it specifies what channels are sent on the CAN bus but doesn't give any unit/scaling/bit position information.

If someone could get that information, I can put together a template pretty quickly.

[stevieturbo]

Send them an email, they're very helpful. Although I have brought the thread to their attention.

[adrian]

You can download a C185 config file from here that contains the Plex CAN template.

The reason for this is I had to rename a number of general purpose channels to match the names used in the Plex device. Unfortunately the name information isn't saved as part of the comms templates that you can export from the config which means they revert back to their default names when you load them into a new config.

To use the template in another config simply save it out of the above config and then manually rename the channels in your new config using the information from the original config.

I have listed some assumptions that I had to make as the information I had on the CAN structure wasn't complete.

The two byte messages are Big Endian/Motorola format
All channels are unsigned
No units were specified so have used RPM for Engine Speed and unitless for all other channels.
The transmit address isn't specified (I believe you can set this in the Plex software) so I have used 0x500 as the base address. If you use something else you will have to edit the template, put the new address on the parameters page and edit the compound IDs on the receive channel page.

[MalcolmG]

Thanks for the template Adrian.

I've just been setting up a Knock Monitor with the help of a CAN bus analyser so thought I would share the information I've gathered so far.

First, the Knock Monitor has a 120R terminating resistor built in. This is pretty annoying for people installing it onto a complex bus with several other devices, or wanting to be able to occasionally add it in to an already terminated bus on a vehicle/engine when needed. I'm waiting to hear from Plex whether it's possible to disable this (seems unlikely, but you never know).

Second, it looks like the message transmission only works properly in 500kbit mode, in 1Mbit mode it only transmits message 1. I've also asked Plex about this so we'll see if there's an explanation or a fix for this.
edit: I've just updated to the latest firmware (v0.65) and this problem seems to be fixed

Otherwise, Adrian's template looks to be pretty good, I haven't fed an engine speed signal in yet to know what the scaling on that channel might be, but the scaling on the knock level and threshold channels is all just 1, and they're unsigned and big endian.

[MalcolmG]

Plex have updated their help with better information on CAN setup:
http://www.plex-tuning.com/instructions ... ndUse.html

[killerbee]

Adrian,

I am rather new to messing with CAN templates sort of selecting them in the dash manager. I downloaded the template file from the link you provided (Plex Knock.c185v58). When I try to load the template into the dash manager it appears to be expecting a file with an extensions of either CC7 and/or CC8. Changing the extension and trying to load the template generates an error message "File Format Not Valid". I tried opening it in textpad (ascii editor) but looks like it binary. What am I doing incorrectly ?

[killerbee]

After re-reading your post I clued into the fact that the file you provided is a configuration file for the C185 dash manager and not a CAN template (my bad). I am still unclear how to export the CAN template from the provided file into my dash config file.

[David Ferguson]

To export a CAN template from one Dash Config to be used with different Dashes, do the following:

-- Open the Dash Manager (C185 Dash Manager) for the config with the CAN template you want.
-- You may have to import the config (since it wasn't save from the latest dash manager). Use File->Open, Click Import, select "Old Dash Configuration(...)",and open Plex Knoc.c185.v58 When back at the Open Dialog, select Plex Knock and click OK.
-- Use Connections->Communications->CAN 2, select the Plex from the list and click the "Edit... Button.
-- Use the Save As... button to save the template.
-- You might want to take a look the the Received Channels and note what names Adrian Used for the various channels.

-- You can now close this Dash Manager, and open yours. You should be able to select the CAN template, but you will find the channel names are all the defaults: GP 1 - GP 19 (0 dps)

[adrian]

Just following on from Davids steps, one other thing to note is there are currently two versions of Communication template, cc7 and cc8.

cc7 are used in non-colour dashes and colour dashes with versions prior to 1.9 or 5.9. cc8 are used only in colour dashes from v1.9/5.9 on wards. Depending on which device you have will determine whether you should save the template using the current release version of Dash Manager (using the import function as David described) or if you should open it directly using version 5.8.

The templates are not backwards compatible, you can't convert a cc8 into a cc7 but you can convert from cc7 to cc8. That is why I created that config in an older version of Dash Manager