1.

A2L Files:- An A2L file according to the ASAM MCD 2MC standard (formerly ASAP2) contains all the information about measurement and calibration variables in the ECU. This includes information on the variables memory addresses and conversion methods, the memory layout and data structures in the ECU, variant dependencies, and communication parameters for the measurement and calibration interface. The automotive industry has widely adopted the A2L file format as a de-facto standard. To define communication-specific data in the A2L, you just need to create a suitable new driver in File generation tool (XCP-on-Flex Ray, CCP-on-CAN, etc.), you can use the editor to conveniently input and manage all other settings, such as entry of minimum and maximum values, groupings, definition of conversion rules and storage schemes.

ECU

A2L (It Contains CCP on CAN)

1. Memory Addresses 2. Calibration Variables(data types, minimum & maximum Range, dimensions) 3. Conversion Methods(How to convert variables to human readable quantities) 4. Memory layout and data structure of ECU. 5. Variant dependencies 6. Communication parameters. 7. Calibration interface.

USE of A2L File The description is typically used by measurement & calibration systems (MC-systems) for tuning scalar constants, curves and maps of the ECU software and to record the system's response via measurement variables during real-time testing. 1. Association for Standardisation of Automation and Measuring Systems.

Members:- Its members are primarily international car manufacturers, suppliers and engineering service providers from the automotive industry.

What it do?? :- The standards define protocols, data models, file formats and application programming interfaces (APIs) for the use in the development and testing of automotive electronic control units. ASAP2:ASAP2 is a data definition standard proposed by the Association for Standardization of Automation and Measuring Systems (ASAM). ASAP2 is a standard description you use for data measurement, calibration, and diagnostic systems. The ASAP2 file generation process requires information about your model's parameters and signals. Some of this information is contained in the model itself. The rest must be supplied by using Simulink data objects with the necessary properties.

ASAM MCD 2MC:The standard belongs to a group of coordinated standards, which are part of a 3-layer base architecture for MCD-systems (Measurement, Calibration, Diagnostics)

ASAP2

ASAM MCD 2MC

ASAM MCD-2 MC includes the description of internal ECU data (characteristics and measurements) and the ECU interface (how to access characteristics and measurements) in one file. This was a deliberate decision to keep all information to describe and access ECU data in one location.

XML

ASAM MCD 2 MC

1. XML increased the file size by approximately five times, which would have caused severe performance issues with tools that process such files. 2. Reliance on non-XML format and would have to be re-written from scratch.

WHY Calibration??? Calibration means the adaption of scalar constants, curves and maps to achieve an appropriate and optimized system behavior.

ECU Software Development

New Set of parameters Determined

Test to evaluate effectiveness of calibration.

TO DO THIS WE NEED Internal variables are read from memory and transferred to a system that displays the data in a human-readable format.

ECU

PC

WHY System Engineer replaced with Calibration?? In the early days of ECU development ECU Source code Modified Source code Re Flashing of ECU

Variables for Data logging

Modified Parameters

As the controls of software grew in complexity and the development of the software was split up into several groups of engineers (function developers, software developers, calibration engineers, vehicle test engineers, etc.), this process became too cumbersome and slow. The process of measurement & calibration needed to be separated from the process of software development. Structure of A2L file:-

1. The version number (keyword:ASAP2_VERSION) of the standard and optionally the version ASAP2_VERSION number of the AML language(A2ML_Version) is stated.

Hex/s19 File:Firmware is stored in Hex, S19 or Binary files; they contain only the actual data of the program to be downloaded. However, the operation requires more information, such as the product identifier, vendor identifier, Firmware version and the Alternate setting number (Target ID) of the target to be used, this information makes the upgrade targeted and more secure. To add this information, a new file format should be used, to be called A2L file format.

Why compatible Hex and A2L files required??

There are 2 key components to a calibration; the .A2L file and the .S19 (aka .hex). The A2L is the blank template and the S19 fills it in with calibratable values. Whenever the software engineers make a change to the embedded software and then recompile a new A2L, the blank spaces move around a little, so the old S19 doesn't populate the A2L in the correct locations - and that don't work too good. S-19:- The Motorola S-record format is an ASCII hexadecimal ("hex") text encoding for binary data. It is also known as the SREC or S19[ or This is an ACSII representation of the binary file in hexadecimal format. HEX:- The Intel hex (hex) generally known as hex file, is a format used to store machine language code in hexadecimal form. It is widely used format to store programs to be transferred to microcontrollers, ROM and EEPROM. The compilers convert the programs written in assembly, C etc into corresponding hex files, which are dumped into the controllers using burners/programmers. This article explores the details of the hex file format.