Project setup

A project describes the ECUs of one vehicle. Start it by hand or let the CAN scanner fill it in.

Create a project

1. File → New project (Ctrl+N).
2. Enter a project name. The application creates a folder inside the workspace projects/ directory.
3. Save with Ctrl+S.

The title bar shows Black Magic - [Workspace : Project]. A dot next to an ECU status icon means unsaved changes. Closing with unsaved changes asks Yes / No / Cancel.

Add ECUs

From the scanner

1. Open Tools → CAN Scanner.
2. Select the adapter, bit rate and 11/29-bit mode.
3. Use Broadcast for a functional request or Scan for an ID range; Stop ends the run.
4. Add the found ECU pairs to the project.

By hand

Create an ECU in the project and fill in:

• unit name and caption (for example ENG / Engine control);
• transmit and receive CAN IDs, or the DoIP address;
• transport type;
• auth levels and the Seed2Key DLL, if the ECU needs security access;
• parameters, routines and IO controls.

Each ECU is stored as a separate .bmecu file, so it can be copied into another project.

Project properties

View → Project Properties holds:

• Title — project name;
• Local DTC File — .json or .txt descriptions;
• Auth Library — project auth DLL;
• Features — project feature flags (for example vehicle modules);
• Cover Image — PNG/JPG/BMP cover;
• Notes — opens notes.md.

A missing file is highlighted in red. Project Notes supports Save and Reload; notes.md is limited to 64 KiB and is stored next to the project, not inside .bmprj.

Undo and table behaviour

• Edit → Undo (Ctrl+Z) and Redo (Ctrl+Y). The depth is a setting (default 20, range 0–100); history is not saved between launches and is blocked while an ECU task runs.
• In ECU List, a single click selects, a double click opens the ECU and reads its parameters, and a right click opens the context menu.
• Right-click the Unit column header for Fill from. Columns can be sorted, reordered, hidden and resized.
• If no ECU is selected, ECU Edit shows No ECU selected.

Before the first read

• Check that every ECU has the correct request and response IDs.
• Select the transport per ECU.
• Open the ECU once and refresh identification parameters; this proves the addressing before you build a large parameter table.

Related

• Connect to a vehicle
• Read and write values
• Features: workspace and projects