TTControl, TTTech's subsidiary specializing in electronic control systems for off-highway vehicles, has developed a flexible and easy-to-use solution for remote assistance support of vehicle control systems. Remote access to vehicle data such as error logs or run-time parameters speeds up and simplifies vehicle diagnosis and significantly reduces maintenance costs and downtime.
The remote assistance solution uses standard GSM modems for remote operation and Ethernet for local operation in order to connect a self-configuring PC-based service tool with a vehicle control system. The PC software synchronizes with the vehicle's control unit by downloading and interpreting an XML configuration file that is stored on the display controller. Run-time parameters can be monitored and modified over this connection. In addition, files can be loaded to the internal memory of a remote display controller, or to an optional remote-connected dual memory stick supporting USB and RS-232 interfaces.
In order to make best use of the limited GSM bandwidth, the remote assistance solution uses compression and dynamically adjusts the amount of transmitted data based on the currently visible parameters in the user interface.
The built-in connection manager is used for storing and calling remote devices. All remote operations are password-protected, thus different passwords may be set for the various appliances.
The integrated code generator can be used to automatically create the interface code for customer-specific remote-callable service functions. These can be easily mapped onto the user interface of the remote assistance PC tool, including input/output parameters, status and error codes.
