32 n COMMUNICATIONS AND SECURITY June 2025 www.drivesncontrols.com Automotive supplier uses gateway to perform EOL tests The main task of end-of-line test procedures in the automotive industry is to ensure the quality and functionality of components such as motors, electric axles and or transmissions. This includes complex and varied tasks such as firmware updates and functional tests that must run precisely, rapidly and automatically. It is a challenge to achieve all of these processes on a single production line for various vehicle models and components from different manufacturers, without long set-up and changeover times. Ideally, this should be done centrally using a single hardware and software package. Each model has specific requirements regarding its test procedures and parameters, which must be adapted quickly and reliably without impairing production efficiency. When testing a transmission system, for example, gear changes and load distributions must be recorded. Shortly afterwards, rpm, acceleration values and power consumption of an electric axle may need to be checked on the same line. It is crucially important that the tests are conducted within a few minutes of each other and, where necessary, run in parallel. And this must be done for all of the products produced on the line. To support different OEMs, multiple configurations can be saved in a gateway and called up externally via the automation system, allowing production runs with batch sizes as small as one. One of the world’s largest manufacturers of electric motors, axles and transmissions is using such a gateway system on its production lines in Germany. End-of-line tests built into its lines need to map numerous test applications for DUTs (devices under test). It conducts these tests on behalf of OEMs. The manufacturer is using EtherCat as its automation protocol. To achieve maximum independence with different DUTs, the test scenarios are adapted dynamically in the gateway. The hardware and controller connections do not change; the adaptation to the new DUTs and applications is loaded via intuitive software. The manufacturer previously relied on DPDU (Diagnostic Protocol Data Unit) to flash controls, with many small CAN data packets being sent continuously to the gateway. This process was complicated and time-consuming. While looking for an alternative, the company came across HMS Networks’Mobilizer gateway which offers an alternative with a built-in an DoIP (Diagnostics over Internet Protocol) interface – a specialised adapter that facilitates communications between diagnostic tools and vehicle ECUs via Ethernet. The gateway provides a connection to the control layer using EtherCat. Different test scenarios can be mapped dynamically onto the gateway, ensuring that the control connection is unchanged, while the adaptations for various tests are made in the gateway configuration. The necessary flexibility is supported by software, which allows simple custom adaptations of the gateway configuration for each DUT type using a drag-and-drop technique that needs no programming knowledge. The gateway’s DoIP support allows larger data packets to be transferred efficiently. In combination with a quad-core processor and the Linux operating system, this conversion leads to substantial time savings and optimum use of the available computing resources. The gateway was developed specifically for testbeds in the automotive sector as well as for end-of-line (EOL) test applications. It supports common vehicle networks such as CAN FD, Automotive Ethernet (100/1000-Base-T1), LIN, FlexRay and EtherCat. It allows a host of applications such as data logging, ECU firmware flashing as well as the EOL tests. It provides up to eight CAN/FD channels, as well as EtherCat interfaces as well as digital and analogue I/Os. When connected to a PLC, more than 90 gateway combinations can be configured in the standalone testing system. n One of the world’s largest manufacturers of electric motors, axles and transmissions for automotive applications is using a gateway system to perform tests on components at the end of a production line in Germany. A large number of different test scenarios can be adapted dynamically via the gateway, saving considerable time. The end-of-line testing set-up allows a variety of tests to be carried our via a gateway
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