2 - Configuring Vehicle Spy for Ethernet
We’ll begin by showing you how to configure Vehicle Spy to work with Ethernet. Most of the Ethernet features within Vehicle Spy are integrated seamlessly into the program, so no effort is required on your part to make use of them. All we really need to do is enable PC Ethernet interface support, and then choose an interface to work with. We’ll also briefly look at the Ethernet-related networks that come predefined within VSpy, and how to set up an Ethernet database platform.
2.1 Enabling PC Ethernet Interface Support
Since Automotive Ethernet is new, many Vehicle Spy users are not yet working with the technology. For this reason, the program begins by default with support for monitoring a PC Ethernet interface disabled. Naturally, we want this turned on, so let’s take care of that first. We only have to do it once, and then VSpy will remember to keep Ethernet interfaces turned on whenever we later start the software.
► Open Vehicle Spy 3 Options: Select Options... from the Tools menu.
The Vehicle Spy Options dialog box will open. The setting we are looking for is called Use PC Ethernet interface, and is located near the bottom left of the window (Figure 3).
A prompt will now appear suggesting that you restart the program.
When the program loads again you will now see a list of Ethernet interfaces at the bottom right of the screen, as shown in Figure 4. In this case we have three interfaces shown. Due to the small window size we use to keep screenshots legible, the names are shortened and hard to read, but we’ll show you in a moment how to get around that.
2.2 Working with the PC Ethernet Interface List
With PC Ethernet interface support now enabled, we have a list of Ethernet interfaces in the bottom right of the Vehicle Spy Logon Screen. However, Figure 4 uses a relatively small window size. You can see more of the interface list by enlarging the window, or by dragging to the left the vertical slider that divides the hardware device list and Ethernet interface list. You can also do both, as we did to create Figure 5.
After resizing, we can see that this computer currently has three interfaces: a wireless (“WiFi”) network adapter, the Ethernet EVB, and the PC’s wired Ethernet adapter. Note that from Vehicle Spy’s perspective, all of wired Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are considered Ethernet interfaces and will show up here.
Selecting an Ethernet Interface
The radio buttons are used to select which interface you want Vehicle Spy to use; here the Ethernet EVB has been selected by default. We are going to start working with Ethernet by looking at live Internet traffic in Chapter 3, so let’s select the interface that the PC is using for its Internet connection. On the PC used for this guide, that’s the wired Ethernet interface; select whichever one is appropriate for your machine.
► Select the Interface Used by the PC to Connect to the Internet: Click the radio button to the left of the appropriate interface. In our example, it would be the one that says Local Area Connection (the last one, on the bottom).
Viewing Ethernet Interface Statistics
Notice the two columns on the left side of the Ethernet interface list. The Packets/s column shows approximately how many messages are being received on the interface each second, while Total counts all messages seen by Vehicle Spy 3, either since it was started, or since the list was refreshed.
You can use these columns to monitor overall traffic on the PC’s Ethernet interfaces. This can be handy in certain cases. For example, if we weren’t sure whether the PC was connected to the Internet over its wired or wireless interface, the data here would tell us pretty quickly which one is actually active.
Refreshing Ethernet Interfaces
Your list of interfaces should remain the same, but notice that the packet counts of all interfaces are reset to zero, and then the active ones begin counting up again.
2.3 Examining PC Ethernet Networks
Vehicle Spy comes pre-configured with a number of different commonly-used automotive networks. This now includes Automotive Ethernet and related networks. You can view VSpy networks and manage their parameters in the Networks setup area.
► View Vehicle Spy Networks: Select Networks from the Spy Networks menu. Since Ethernet is relatively new, most of its relevant information is found near the bottom of the network list.
► Scroll to the Bottom of the Network List.
You should now see a display similar to that seen in Figure 6.
The networks relevant to Ethernet are:
Ethernet: This is the “main” Ethernet interface. The Network column will show the interface last used when Vehicle Spy went online.
Ethernet DAQ (neoVI 3G): Used to received Ethernet traffic from supported Intrepid hardware devices such as the neoVI PLASMA and neoVI ION.
FSA: A virtual network to support GM’s FSA technology.
TCP: A virtual network that displays logical data carried in TCP messages on the Ethernet network.
OP (BR) ETHn: These 12 networks carry individual traffic streams from the tap inputs on the RAD-Galaxy.
Note that you normally won’t need to change any of the defaults in this area when working with Ethernet.
2.4 Setting Up an Ethernet Platform
A platform is a collection of database files that is loaded within Vehicle Spy to provide information about messages. A platform can be used to create transmit messages that send data in a particular format, or receive messages that decode data read in from the network.
Platforms are important for many Automotive Ethernet applications, so we’ll now spent a bit of time learning about them, and how to set them up specifically for Ethernet. In particular, we’ll see how to create a platform from an AUTOSAR database file.
Selecting a Platform
The current platform is always displayed in a drop-down box at the top of Vehicle Spy. To change the current platform, simply select the one you want from the box; VSpy will automatically load its associated databases. Choosing the default platform, “(None)”, will unload all databases. The two buttons to the right of the drop-down box are used to set up databases for a platform, and to save pending platform changes, respectively.
Creating a New Platform
Let’s make a new platform that we can use for working with Ethernet.
► Launch Platform Setup: Select Setup Platforms from the Setup menu. A dialog box appears to allow you to work with platforms. Figure 8 shows how this dialog box appears before any platforms have been created.
Vehicle Spy will create your new Ethernet platform, and also set the current platform to “Ethernet”; you should see this in the drop-down box on top of VSpy now.
Adding an ARXML Database File to the Ethernet Platform
We have our platform created but it is currently empty, so we will now want to add a database to it. Vehicle Spy offers many ways of doing this, but we will focus on doing this via an AUTOSAR database file, which uses the .ARXML format. For this demonstration, we are using a custom example file; you should have your own database file you can substitute in the instructions below.
The Network Databases view opens, with a list of networks on the left, and tabs along the top corresponding to different methods of adding databases.
► Go to the ARXML Area: Click the ARXML / UEF / VSDB Support tab.
The ARXML Import dialog box appears (Figure 9) to allow you to select ARXML files and associate clusters with VSpy networks.
Vehicle Spy will show the name of the file in the file list in the top half of the screen, and list the clusters it references in the cluster/network list in the bottom half.
► Assign Network(s) to ARXML Cluster(s): Double-click in the cell under Vehicle Spy Network for the clusters that were loaded, and choose which networks you want to associate with each. In our example we have just one cluster, called “EtherSample”, which we’ll link to the Ethernet network (Figure 10).
► Save Database Changes: Press either of the flashing buttons to save the changes to your platform.
Your platform is now set up.
Viewing Platform Database Messages
Platform database messages appear within the database area of the Messages Editor, where they can be copied to quickly make transmit or receive messages. Let’s take a look.
► Open Messages Editor: Select Messages Editor from the Spy Networks menu.
► Select Ethernet Network: Click the drop-down box next to the words on Network in the blue header, scroll down until you find the “Ethernet” entry, then select it.
You should now see a set of database messages that you can use with your Ethernet network. Exactly what appears here will, of course, depend on the contents of the database you loaded. Figure 11 shows a few example messages from our sample database.
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