Can Access read data from a CAN adapter? (1 Viewer)

[aaronb50]

My company is about to spend a lot of money on third party software that can read the data coming from an ECU to a CAN adapter.

Is it possible to use Access to get that data in a usable format?

I don't see anything on Google about this.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

What IS a CAN adapter and how does it talk to anything else?

UPDATE: OK, it is a Controller Area Network adapter. I have found a couple of Google articles that talk about CAN-to-USB adapters. If you had one of those, you might be able to access the CAN either as a weird drive-letter device or as a network channel.

I would guess that you could try to open the device as an input file (OPEN "adapter-name" FOR INPUT AS FILE #1....). Alternatively, look up "WINSOCK" programming for Access and VBA. I have no experience with that but have heard of it.

 

[aaronb50]

Thank you!

I will go down that road and see what I can find.

 

[HiTechCoach]

My company is about to spend a lot of money on third party software that can read the data coming from an ECU to a CAN adapter.

Is it possible to use Access to get that data in a usable format?

I don't see anything on Google about this.

Without knowing the third party software or what it does it is impossible to tell you anything specific.

Getting data in a usable format does not depend on Access. It all depends on the other side. How the data is sent is controlled by the "third party software". It is possible that the "third party software" can write the data into a SQL database that you can use. That would be the best. If this were my project, I would be working with the third party software vendor to see what is possible. I would ask the vendor for an SDK.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Find out what you can about this third-party adapter to see what kind of device driver it uses. I cannot imagine someone trying to sell you an adapter without SOME sort of device driver usage guide. Even if they go "on the cheap" and make it talk USB, there HAS to be some sort of dialog between your system and the adapter. Otherwise it is totally useless. I don't know what clout you have, but bring up that point to whoever is buying this device.