openxc-control - write messages to the VI and change its settings

openxc-control is a command-line tool that can send control messages to an attached vehicle interface.

Basic use

version

Print the current firmware version and firmware description of the attached CAN translator:

$ openxc-control version

An example response is v7.2.1 (default), where the default firmware description can be modified in the JSON file via the "name" entry. The first example in Low-level CAN Features would return a value of passthrough.

id

Print the unique ID of the VI, if it has one. This is often the MAC address of the Bluetooth module.

$ openxc-control id

platform

Print the hardware platform of the vehicle interface.

$ openxc-control platform

Supported platforms include CHIPKIT, BLUEBOARD, FORDBOARD, CROSSCHASM_C5, CROSSCHASM_C5_BT, CROSSCHASM_C5_BLE, and CROSSCHASM_C5_CELLULAR

set

Modify the run-time configuration of the VI. Currently, you can change the acceptance filter (AF) bypass status, passthrough CAN message output, and the payload format used from the OpenXC message format.

Enable and disable CAN AF bypass for a bus:

$ openxc-control set --bus 1 --af-bypass
$ openxc-control set --bus 1 --no-af-bypass

Enable and disable passthrough of CAN messages to the output interface (e.g. USB or Bluetooth):

$ openxc-control set --bus 1 --passthrough
$ openxc-control set --bus 1 --no-passthrough

Change the payload format to Protocol Buffers, then back to JSON:

$ openxc-control set --new-payload-format json
$ openxc-control set --new-payload-format protobuf

Change the time for the RTC unit on the C5 devices:

$ openxc-control set --time 1461545558

Set the host and port for the C5 Cellular device

$ openxc-control set --host www.server.com --port 80

This will return true when successful. If network-host is supplied, but not port, port will default to 80.

write

Send a write request to the VI, either for a simple vehicle message write (to be translated by the VI to a CAN message), or a raw CAN message.

To write a simple vehicle message, the --name and --value parameters are required. The --event parameter is optional.

$ openxc-control write --name turn_signal_status --value left

To write a CAN messages, the --bus, --id and --data parameters are required. data should be a hex string.

$ openxc-control write --bus 1 --id 0x124 --data 0x0234567812345678

A CAN message with an ID greater than can be represented with 11 bits will automatically be sent using the extended frame format. If you want to send a message with a lower ID using the extended frame format, you can use the --frame-format flag:

$ openxc-control write --bus 1 --id 0x124 --data 0x0234567812345678 --frame-format extended

Note

The vehicle interface must be running firmware that supports CAN writes, and must allow writing the specific message that you request with openxc-control.

sd_mount_status

This queries the device to see if the SD card is mounted correctly.

$ openxc-control sd_mount_status

This will return ‘True’ if the SD card is available for writing. Otherwise, it will return ‘False’.

Command-line options

An overview of all possible command line options can be found via --help.