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SavvyCAN Setup
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 3:28 pm
by vwbrady
Creating a dedicated thread for this topic.
I intend to get logs from my US BMW i3 during DC Fast charging since this seems to be a popular Charge Controller for conversions and will aide in achieving CCS DC charging instead of Chademo.
It seems a lot about EV conversions these days, and in the days ahead, rely heavily on CAN Bus understanding and manipulation. One of the first steps I see others take is logging CAN from a fully functioning vehicle or component - in an effort to reverse engineer the CAN messages required to activate and control said components.
SavvyCAN seems to be the tool of choice, but i've wasted hours trying to get it installed on my windows machine.
EDIT: apparently its because i'm more of a newb than i thought. Strike throughs are for editing the source code of the program - don't need that
Per this thread over on the SavvyCAN Forum SavvyCAN I need:
1. Visual Studio 19 Visual Studio 19 - Done
2. QT 5.15 QT Opensource- installed installer, then installed QT Open Source 5.15 (not 6)
I'm surprised this developer tool is required to be on my machine for SavvyCAN to work
3. downloaded SavvyCAN zip for Win64 -
http://www.savvycan.com/SavvyCAN.zip
4. downloaded GVRET master zip -
GVRET master
I do not know where to go from here. Also, I have a CANbed from Seedstudio (
https://www.seeedstudio.com/CANBed-Ardu ... -4365.html) that I'm hoping will work the same as a Due. But I'll order a Due if I have to.
Update: Now i need to see if i can put GVRET on my CANbed
Re: SavvyCAN Setup
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 3:46 pm
by Isaac96
I'd suggest getting a Due -- GVRET is specific to that hardware and the CANbed has a different chip (atmega32u4 vs sam3x8e).
Not sure why Visual Studio or QT are needed... on my system (win10) it's just double click to run, then again I have lots of stuff on here.
Do you get an error when running Savvycan.exe?
Re: SavvyCAN Setup
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 4:23 pm
by Bratitude
have you gotten SavvyCAN running on your windows machine? Should be as simple as downloading the .exe and running it. May have to extract the downloaded file first.
Re: SavvyCAN Setup
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 5:02 pm
by vwbrady
Bratitude wrote: ↑Sat Apr 24, 2021 4:23 pm
have you gotten SavvyCAN running on your windows machine? Should be as simple as downloading the .exe and running it. May have to extract the downloaded file first.
ok, i didn't know it was that easy! that is done and i know have SavvyCAN open and running. Now to get it connected to my CANbed with the arduino IDE. right?
what's with all the Visual Studio and QT stuff? know anything about that?
Re: SavvyCAN Setup
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 5:15 pm
by jon volk
The QT stuff and c/cpp files are the source code to build the application yourself.
Re: SavvyCAN Setup
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 5:54 pm
by Bratitude
like Jon said, that stuff is for building from source. Not needed in this case.
Now you may use what ever you like to capture the can data. Then you open the can capture in savvy can to analyze it.
It becomes much easier to work and study the data when it’s live, so setting up a GVRET device is quite handy. that’s where getting a due and loading the GVRET software on it makes life easy.
you’ll need to get a little can transceiver for the due aswell. Such as :
https://www.amazon.ca/SN65HVD230-Protec ... tra&sr=8-8
their are plenty of boards that are built for this, like the GVRET board!
http://store.evtv.me/proddetail.php?prod=EVTVDue2
this makes it supper easy.
Re: SavvyCAN Setup
Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2021 1:52 pm
by vwbrady
thanks for the feedback, that makes a lot of sense. i'll keep futsing around with it and see where i get.
I updated my first post
Re: SavvyCAN Setup
Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2021 9:15 am
by EV_Builder
If you want a more serious and less hassle interface (higher price and quality) I suggest you buy a peak usb interface. Savvy can supports it.
It won't miss a message or screwup the data what sometimes can be seen in other interfaces.
Re: SavvyCAN Setup
Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:41 am
by marengo
I already have a Lawicel based CAN to usb adapter
http://www.can232.com/?page_id=16
Is it safe to assume that it would be well worth the $100 spent to just go with the EVTVdue board instead of trying to cobble together lawicel and savvycan?
Re: SavvyCAN Setup
Posted: Wed May 31, 2023 7:57 pm
by sigdigits
vwbrady wrote: ↑Sat Apr 24, 2021 3:28 pm
Creating a dedicated thread for this topic.
I intend to get logs from my US BMW i3 during DC Fast charging since this seems to be a popular Charge Controller for conversions and will aide in achieving CCS DC charging instead of Chademo.
It seems a lot about EV conversions these days, and in the days ahead, rely heavily on CAN Bus understanding and manipulation. One of the first steps I see others take is logging CAN from a fully functioning vehicle or component - in an effort to reverse engineer the CAN messages required to activate and control said components.
SavvyCAN seems to be the tool of choice, but i've wasted hours trying to get it installed on my windows machine.
EDIT: apparently its because i'm more of a newb than i thought. Strike throughs are for editing the source code of the program - don't need that
Per this thread over on the SavvyCAN Forum SavvyCAN I need:
1. Visual Studio 19 Visual Studio 19 - Done
2. QT 5.15 QT Opensource- installed installer, then installed QT Open Source 5.15 (not 6)
I'm surprised this developer tool is required to be on my machine for SavvyCAN to work
3. downloaded SavvyCAN zip for Win64 -
http://www.savvycan.com/SavvyCAN.zip
4. downloaded GVRET master zip -
GVRET master
I do not know where to go from here. Also, I have a CANbed from Seedstudio (
https://www.seeedstudio.com/CANBed-Ardu ... -4365.html) that I'm hoping will work the same as a Due. But I'll order a Due if I have to.
Update: Now i need to see if i can put GVRET on my CANbed
If you or anyone else has had any luck getting GVRET working on the CANBed (dual is the one I've got) I would love to know how.
I've been pulling my hair out trying to get it going, but every time I fix a compile error, I end up with more errors than before....
I'm using platformio, which I like better than arduino ide, but the more I try, the worse it gets