Automotive CAN Bus General Question

[mac-will]

Hello,

I am totally new to CAN bus.

I am unable to find answers to some general questions, I'm hoping someone here might point me in the right direction.

I am specifically interested in automotive CANBus data. For example if I wanted to read databus data on a FORD how would I go about finding what parameter means what?

Are certain parameters, say engine speed or road speed, standard across manufacturers?

My end goal is to have a small microcontroller read the road speed from CANBus and display it on an LCD, on a Ford and on a VW.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

MAC

[CAN Man]

Sadly the car industry hasn't standardised can messages very much yet.

I work on Ford/PSA systems and wouldn't be able to identify any particular frame on a ecu without knowing exactly the model / software version etc.

Naturally we have that sort of information for the systems we work on, but only certain sets of data get published to OBD manufacturers.

This is a good source of info of that nature:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics

Public OBD data may include the information you need

mac-will wrote:

Hello,

I am totally new to CAN bus.

I am unable to find answers to some general questions, I'm hoping someone here might point me in the right direction.

I am specifically interested in automotive CANBus data. For example if I wanted to read databus data on a FORD how would I go about finding what parameter means what?

Are certain parameters, say engine speed or road speed, standard across manufacturers?

My end goal is to have a small microcontroller read the road speed from CANBus and display it on an LCD, on a Ford and on a VW.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

MAC