LEDs have many advantages over incandescent lamps, and one of them is the possibility to easily control electronically. Due to its simple architecture, the LIN bus is the obvious choice for lighting infrastructure in cars. However, LED drivers with LIN connection are scarce but a transceiver method established in other devices may simplify the task.
Mazda's new compression technology »SKYACTIV« is being deployed in the new »CX-5«. In order to design the neccessary control network, the car manufacturer made use of specialized development software.
Designing ISO 26262 compliant ECUs can be very challenging, especially since current developments in automotive technology render established design patterns useless. Specialized tools are supposed to simplify and automate the functional safety compliance process.
Happy new year, dear readers - welcome to the future! One vision of the future is the ‘connected car’, and many drivers seem to want that. As consumer demand for in-vehicle connectivity continues to grow, automotive manufacturers are under pressure to deliver competitive, innovative features while minimizing cost. A major stumbling block is cabling - it’s heavy, difficult to design and expensive.
Among the most critical points in automotive electronics are intersections of different bus systems. Those areas need to be designed and tested thoroughly – and it’s a bonus when the development device can be used in all stages, even in production.
Modern cars consist of dozens of electronic control units. This modular architecture facilitates development and manufacturing as well as after-sales service. Even testing isn’t too hard, except when it comes to interactions between the modules. At that point, functional testing needs to go hand in hand with communications analysis.
Among the most used electronic components in modern cars are sensors. Since they are omnipresent, they came into focus for space saving. Most (analogue) sensing components can’t shrink much but the ‘back end’ like signal conditioning can.
In order to ensure reliable operation of motor vehicles on the road, German law requires a motor vehicle type approval (Allgemeine Betriebs-Erlaubnis, ABE) – also referred to as »e1« approval – for all components that are connected to the vehicle's electrical system. This is required even for the most unspectacular components.
The new specification for MOST150 allows on the one hand for communication and power supply on the same cable, on the other for optical coaxial cables. This is not a contradiction.
While MOST certainly is the largest, most implemented multimedia network for automotive applications, it seems to have got a bit quiet around it lately. Alas, springtime is MOST Forum time, where news get spread around.
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