Basic Operation of Vehicle Spy

Overview

Vehicle Spy is a vehicle network tool. As such, it can read and transmit messages on a vehicle network. In Vehicle Spy, messages that are received are grouped into the Receive table in Messages Editor view. Messages that are transmitted are called Transmit Messages. These messages are grouped into the Transmit table in Messages Editor view. Transmit messages are also displayed and transmitted from the Transmit Panel. Messages, whether transmitted or received, are defined as a collection of bytes which encode some type of data (called a signal) and have an identifier. For the purposes of working with multiple network vehicles, Vehicle Spy can function on more than one network. Networks can be setup for a specific protocol and attached to a vehicle Network Hardware interface. Each vehicle network contains a collection of nodes or ECUs. ECUs (Electronic Control Units) act as a source or receiver of messages. Vehicle Spy allows you to assign ECU specifications to messages and signals. This lets you analyze your network based on ECUs. Vehicle Spy offers many ways in which to view vehicle network data. The first is Messages view. This view allows you to see the message traffic as it appears on the bus (scrolling mode) or as a stationary list of messages with changing data bytes (static mode).Messages displayed in Messages view are collected in a circular buffer. Vehicle Spy also contains an exciting feature called Graphical Panels view. With Graphical Panels, users can easily create their own virtual instrument panels. These panels can include meters, graphs, LEDs and numerous other elements for visually representing data. Function Blocks are another powerful feature found within Vehicle Spy. This feature gives users custom control over Vehicle Spy. Function Blocks support custom scripting, buffer capturing with pre/post triggering, and replaying messages.