Kvaser, Inc. (USA) is greatly saddened to announce the death of our dear friend and colleague, Steve Corrigan, on Saturday, March 11, 2012. He was a wealth of knowledge in the CAN industry and we will miss him. Additional details are available at: http://www.chattanoogan.com/2012/3/12/221392/Corrigan-Steven-Patrick.aspx

See it here

ETAS and Kvaser Sign Partnership Agreement

Cooperation will address new segments and target groups in the measurement, calibration, and diagnostics area

Stuttgart, Germany / Mölndal, Sweden – 12th January 2012

ETAS and Kvaser have signed a partnership agreement with the objective of cooperating closely to provide attractive measurement, calibration, and diagnostic solutions for new segments and target groups.

Kvaser is a Swedish company that offers a complete family of bus interfaces and data loggers for CAN (Controller Area Network) and related networking technologies.The high quality, easy to use hardware interfaces can be used throughout the product cycle for development, simulation, test, and maintenance of CAN networks and associated technologies such as LIN and J1587.

Through this new cooperation, ETAS has become a member of Kvaser’s Technical Associate Program and now supports existing Kvaser hardware with the ETAS INCA measurement, calibration, and diagnostics software product family.Both Kvaser and ETAS have an open product philosophy that gives customers unsurpassed freedom of choice when it comes to the selection of measurement and calibration tools. ETAS will be able to address new customer groups in Heavy-Duty-Diesel and Off-Highway segments where the Kvaser hardware is used.

Kvaser hardware that is supported by INCA includes the Professional variants of the Kvaser Memorator, Kvaser USB CAN and Kvaser Leaf USB to CAN interfaces.

Customers on both sides will benefit from the collaboration between ETAS and Kvaser as it will give them immense flexibility to select the appropriate combination of soft- and hardware for the development of embedded systems.

About ETAS:

ETAS GmbH was founded in 1994 as a subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH. We today employ around 700 personnel and are represented in Germany, United States, Japan, Korea, P.R. China, India, France, UK, Sweden, Italy, Brazil, and the Russian Federation.

As a dependable and responsible partner, we offer a comprehensive product portfolio of integrated tools and tool solutions designed to increase quality and efficiency in the development and maintenance of embedded systems. Our tools are widely deployed in automotive and adjacent segments of the embedded industry.

The product portfolio is complemented by engineering services, consulting, training and first-class customer service. We are an active contributor to
standardization committees such as ASAM, OSEK, Nexus, AUTOSAR, AESAS, FlexRay, LIN, and JasPar. For more information, visit www.etas.com

About Kvaser:

With over 25 years of Controller Area Network (CAN) development experience and more than 30 CAN-related products to our name, Kvaser has deep knowledge of CAN and related bus technologies.

Whilst Kvaser’s R&D and production is carried out in Sweden, the standard products are available through a network of Qualified Sales Representatives, all knowledgeable in the design of embedded control systems. Kvaser also offers development services for OEM projects and today employs almost 30 people. For more information, visit www.kvaser.com

Kvaser announces CAN data logger with scripting functionality

Kvaser Eagle CAN to USB data logger enables engineers to run almost any CAN networking application using a simple-to-develop scripting language

Support and Availability

About Kvaser:

Mölndal, Sweden – 21st June 2011

Kvaser AB is pleased to announce a Rugged family of controller area network (CAN) to USB interfaces. Capable of operating in the harshest environments, including water submersion, Kvaser’s Rugged interfaces have been designed to meet the needs of engineers performing remote diagnosis or network troubleshooting in applications such as automotive, mining, marine, military, oil and gas exploration, military, industrial and heavy machinery.

All models within Kvaser’s Rugged interface range boast a lightweight yet highly durable, corrosion resistant aluminum alloy housing. A heavy-duty polyurethane coating that completely seals the unit and cabling to IP67 standard for water and dust ingress provides further protection. Vibration, shock and drop proof, Kvaser’s Rugged range operates over an expanded temperature range from –40 to +85oC.

Commenting on the announcement, Lars-Berno Fredriksson, president of Kvaser AB, said: “With the Rugged product line, we have interfaces that meet the demands of field engineers working in tough real-life environments, not the laboratory. Our Rugged interfaces are light and easy to use, yet are far more durable than competitor products, which often look tougher than they really are.”

Rugged versions of Kvaser’s popular Leaf Light, Leaf SemiPro HS and Leaf Professional HS one channel CAN to USB interfaces are among the units available. The Leaf Light is perhaps the easiest way to connect a computer to a CAN bus by means of the USB 2.0 compliant connector and 9-pin D-SUB connector. Capable of time-stamping CAN messages to a 100 microsecond precision and handling up to 8000 messages per second, Leaf Light has made its name as the work-horse of USB to CAN interfaces.

Leaf SemiPro Rugged HS and Leaf Professional Rugged HS offer MagiSync™ clock synchronisation, enabling users to easily connect several MagiSync-equipped interfaces to a PC. Leaf SemiPro Rugged HS handles up to 15,000 messages per second, whilst Leaf Professional Rugged HS has a 20,000 per second capacity. Both models support silent mode for analysing tools such as AFT MARC I^TM, ATI Apollo^TM, ATI CANlab^TM, ATI Vision^TM, Kvaser CanKing^TM and National Instruments DIAdem^TM.

The Leaf Rugged range is complemented by Kvaser’s Memorator R SemiPro combined data logger. Notably, by soldering the SD-disk to the PCB the vibration resistance of the Memorator R SemiPro has been further enhanced to ensure error free operation, even when exposed to severe shocks.

For more information on the Kvaser’s range of Rugged CAN interfaces, please click the following link:
www.kvaser.com/en/products/can/rugged

Support and Availability
The Rugged family is available now with free software, free software updates and free support.

About Kvaser:

With over 24 years of CAN development experience and more than 30 CAN-related products to their name, Kvaser AB (www.kvaser.com) is the CAN expert, bringing its deep knowledge in the field of CAN to industries that include Automotive, Avionics, Building Automation, Domestic Appliances, Hydraulic Equipment, Industrial Automation, Maritime, Medical, Military, Railway, Telecoms and Textiles.

Kvaser is headquartered in Mölndal, Sweden, with regional offices in Mission Viejo, CA in the United States, and in Shanghai, China. Kvaser AB also has a global network of highly knowledgeable Qualified Sales Representatives and Technical Associates. To find the nearest Kvaser supplier to you, please visit www.kvaser.com

###

For media enquiries, please contact:

Michael Odälv, Marketing Director at Kvaser AB

Tel: 0046 (0) 31 886 344            E-mail: sales@kvaser.com

or

Vanessa Knivett, Kvaser Media Relations

Tel: 0033 (0) 618 609 287            E-mail: KvaserMedia@gmail.com

Kvaser helps the Delta Lloyd team to be key contenders in the Frisian Solar Challenge

Skimming along the canal in complete silence under partially cloudy skies, the Delta Lloyd Solar Boat looks like the ideal way to explore the waterways and riverbanks. But this is no pleasure craft. The Delta Lloyd Solar Boat Team competes in the Frisian Solar Challenge, effectively ‘The World Cup’ for solar powered boats, which takes the purely-solar powered contenders along a 220-kilometre-long route through the Dutch province of Friesland, a path made famous by the ‘Frisian Eleven Cities’ ice-skating race.

You might think that the Solar Boat Race would be held in sun-drenched climes, but the Frisian Solar Challenge sets out to prove that you do not need to live in the tropics to be able to generate and apply solar power. Reputed to be the largest race for solar vessels in the world, the biennial event is open to universities teams and specialist companies alike, which come to compete from all over the world.

The Delta Lloyd Solar Boat Team is a student run project from the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. Successive generations of Delft’s students have competed in the event, which had its inaugural race in 2006. Teams change every two years and Delft and the Delta Lloyd Solar Boat Team have already notched up two victories in the Open class race – in 2006 and 2008.

The challenge

Each team builds a new craft and for 2010, the task was to optimise the winning hull design from the 2008 boat, introduce hydrofoils to maximise efficiency and contribute a new propeller design. The 2010 team used a new power train, motor and controller, so there were some changes to the CAN bus system to be made. They also wanted to improve their competition strategy by understanding how the components within the boat were performing at different stages of the race. For example, to know how much energy is coming from the solar panel arrays, how much energy is left in the battery and how much energy is being used to propel the boat. Their goal was to make all this information available for both the skipper and the onshore team.

The solution

Explained Bart Meenks, a member of the 2010 engineering team: “To interface with the CAN bus during testing and whilst sailing with the on board computer, a good quality CAN bus interface hardware was required, so we contacted Kvaser.” Kvaser responded by donating a Leaf Light, which could be used to test new components, as well as a PCI104 CAN bus interface for the on-board computer. “As our motor was a prototype”, noted Meenks, “the CAN bus commands were a bit unclear. However, using the Leaf Light and the very handy LabVIEW drivers and VI’s that Kvaser supplies via its website, we were able to figure out all the commands, problems and variables and managed to get the motor to spin the same day it arrived!  In addition, the CANking software proved very useful in finding a problem with our CAN bus cabling and monitoring of the bus during testing.”

For the on board computer, Kvaser’s compact and stackable PC104 form factor proved ideal for the team’s needs. Says Meenks: “Although this was our first practical experience working with CAN bus, the Kvaser hardware, software and useful information on their website made the task much easier.”

With the introduction of hydrofoils, the 2010 team managed to achieve a top speed of 36 km/h whilst using the same power as the 2008 boat, whose top speed was 24 km/h. “Unfortunately, the hydrofoil concept worked three days too late and so we only came in third,” said Meenks. However, they did manage to set a new race top speed and won the last leg of the race.

At present, the 2012 team is being put together, though support will also come from the 2010 team whose have by Meenks admission, “all got the solar boat bug!” Meanwhile, work hasn’t stopped as the 2010 contenders are working on a wireless telemetry system to relay data to the onshore team, as well as an automatic stabilising system which will be controlled by CAN bus. “We hope that by improving the boat’s stability, we can reach the 40km/h,” Meenks concludes.

For more information about the Delta Lloyd Solar Boat Team, go to www.deltalloydsolarboat.nl or send an email to info@solarboatteam.nl. For more information about Kvaser’s hardware, go to www.kvaser.com.

Leaf Light is used to test new components on the Delta Lloyd Solar Boat

Kvaser enters into co-operative agreement with Softing Automotive Electronics

Mölndal, Sweden – 17^th March 2011

Kvaser AB, a leading provider of controller area network (CAN) interfaces and software, has entered into a co-operative agreement with Softing Automotive Electronics GmbH, a highly respected supplier of products and services for designing, testing, manufacturing and servicing automotive ECUs.

Today’s announcement expands an existing relationship between the two companies. Prior to this, Softing provided software to complement Kvaser’s hardware as a Kvaser Technical Associate. Now, Softing has become a Kvaser Qualified Reseller and will offer Kvaser hardware to complete its portfolio. Notably, Softing plans to offer a new diagnostic solution package that combines an entry-level version of its DTS-Monaco software for ECU communication, diagnostics and onboard analysis with Kvaser’s Leaf Light CAN to USB interface.

Explaining how Kvaser’s hardware complements Softing’s own CAN interface offering, Peter Biermann, managing director of Softing Automotive Electronics said: “It is important for Softing to offer our customers exactly the solutions they are looking for. With the Leaf Light interface from Kvaser we can offer our customers a reasonably priced diagnostic solution that is lean and easy to use – as a ‘one stop’ provider.”

Commented Lars-Berno Fredriksson, president of Kvaser: “Softing Automotive Electronics is highly respected in the automotive industry and we are very pleased to be able to work with such a world-renowned name. This is also tremendous affirmation of the high quality of our interfaces. We look forward to a close co-operation with the company in the future.”

About Kvaser:

With over 24 years of CAN development experience and more than 30 CAN-related products to its name, Kvaser AB (www.kvaser.com) is the CAN expert, bringing its deep knowledge in the field of CAN to industries that include Automotive, Avionics, Building Automation, Domestic Appliances, Hydraulic Equipment, Industrial Automation, Maritime, Medical, Military, Railway, Telecoms and Textiles.

Kvaser is headquartered in Mölndal, Sweden, with regional offices in Mission Viejo, CA in the United States, and in Shanghai, China. Kvaser AB also has a global network of highly knowledgeable Qualified Sales Representatives and Technical Associates. To find the nearest Kvaser supplier to you, please visit www.kvaser.com

About Softing:

The Softing Group, based in Haar near Munich, is a reliable system partner to vehicle manufacturers, system and ECU suppliers. The company, which has around 230 employees, is world-renowned for ECU communication and in-vehicle diagnostics, having offered its powerful tools and solutions for more than 30 years. The company’s long-term customers include all leading automobile manufacturers. In a growing market for test and diagnostic systems in vehicle electronics, Softing already has a 70,000-strong installed base. To find out more about Softing, please go to www.softing.com

###

For media enquiries, please contact:

Henrik Torell, Marketing Director at Kvaser AB

Tel: 0046 (0) 31 886 344            E-mail: sales@kvaser.com

or

Vanessa Knivett, Kvaser Media Relations

Tel: 0033 (0) 618 609 287            E-mail: KvaserMedia@gmail.com

or

Susanne Baschnagel, Marketing Manager of Softing Automotive Electronics

Tel.: 0049 (89) 456 56 102            E-Mail: susanne.baschnagel@softing.com

Mission critical display makes use of Kvaser interfaces

As the Commander in a tank or armoured vehicle, the ability to make quick, accurate decisions is vital, but to perform in such a way, an intimate knowledge of the surrounding environment is necessary. It is for this reason that armoured vehicles used for reconnaissance or battle situations these days typically boast a variety of externally mounted cameras – near-infrared, night-vision, thermal-imaging among them – to relay as much outside information as possible to those inside the cabin. For today’s military, the trend is increasingly to gain situational awareness and fire from within the comparative safety of the vehicle, which means there are more remotely operated cameras and weapons stations on every type of military vehicle, and a commensurate increase in the information displayed inside.

Invariably, reconnaissance and target acquisition systems are integrated with the vehicle’s communication network, as Mike Hantson from Nijkerk Computer Solutions, a specialist systems integrator for industrial and defence oriented applications, explains: “You’ll often have several applications running in the vehicle and you need a minimum of communication between them, connecting them together.” Nijkerk makes displays that are integrated in tanks and armoured vehicles by their customers. Hantson says: “The applications designed by our customers (mainly system integrators) exchange information with other external applications and systems within the vehicle, for which they use a communications bus such as CAN or Ethernet.” These might be other vehicle-mounted sensor subsystems, such as ground surveillance radar, chemical or IED detection systems, or vehicle subsystems such as the engine, transmission, turret or stabilised gun systems.

Kvaser’s PC104+ boards sit inside Nijkerk’s Multifunctional Display Unit (MFDU), an intelligent rugged display unit that has been designed specifically for observation and command and control systems. It can handle composite video and has a graphical processing unit within it that generates overlays with various effects like alpha-blending, rotation/translation and scaling. Programming is done in Linux or Windows.

The boards are integrated in a closed system that needs to meet extremely constrained environmental conditions. Toughest amongst these are vibration and shock, which will be of no surprise for an all-terrain vehicle that may be fired upon. But equally hard are the temperature requirements. The system needs to be able to start-up and operate at temperatures down to -40°C and up to +71°C – this is the temperature outside the box, meaning that the temperature within the box may be closer to +90°C.

Among the key reasons for choosing Kvaser products, says Hantson, was the performance of the boards, the number of available channels and total bandwidth, as well as Kvaser’s support for Linux. He notes: “Kvaser’s Linux libraries were good and very easy to use, and since we recommend that developers use Linux, Kvaser’s approach fits well with our thinking.”

Nijkerk’s MFDU is integrated into a vehicle’s communications network via the CAN interface or an Ethernet port. Noting the option to choose CANbus or Ethernet, Hantson says: “Some customers are switching to Ethernet because most computers today have Ethernet, but there are many military customers using CANbus, and for the vehicles themselves of-course, CANbus is the major communications system.”

Whilst Hantson says that demand for increased data throughput and higher information transfer speeds is relentless, he confirms that high speed CAN has enough headroom for the time being. He notes that much progress has already been made from an operational point of view in speeding information transfer: “In very old systems, reconnaissance teams recorded information in the field and brought it back to staff HQ for analysis. Nowadays, the analyst is put as close to the action as possible, enabling him or her to interpret the various sources of information in virtual real-time.”

Once the information has been analysed on screen, that data then becomes intelligence i.e. it has been filtered and interpreted, and it is sent to HQ. A housekeeping computer might receive that information over the CANbus, and then send it on to the higher hierarchical level. But key is getting data and video from the external cameras and sensors to where it is most needed initially, rendering a fully redundant and totally reliable communications bus like CANbus an absolute necessity.

Kvaser has released new software:

Kvaser Drivers for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7

Driver

Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7 drivers for all our CAN hardware. For 32-bit and 64-bit systems. It also contain a driver for the virtual CAN bus.

V4.4

Kvaser Device Firmware

Firmware

Firmware update for Kvaser Leaf (all types), Kvaser Memorator Professional, Kvaser Memorator SemiPro, Kvaser Memorator Light, Kvaser USBcan Professional, and Kvaser BlackBird.

V2.3.400

Kvaser CANlib SDK

Development Kits and Tools

Software development kit - everything you need to develop software for the Kvaser CAN and LIN interfaces. Link libraries, header files, sample programs, Microsoft Visual Basic and Borland Delphi components, documentation, and more. Note: you need to download and install the appropriate device drivers separately.

V4.4

Kvaser CANKing

Kvaser Software

A free of charge, general-purpose CAN bus monitor. Works with all CAN interfaces from Kvaser. Windows 2000 or later is recommended but Windows 98 should also work.

V5.2.779

Mölndal, Sweden – 1st February 2011

Kvaser AB is pleased to announce that rt-labs AB, which specialises in software development for embedded and real-time systems for the Swedish manufacturing sector, has joined Kvaser’s Technical Associate programme.

rt-labs brings specific expertise in software components and development tools to Kvaser’s sales network. Most notable are its real-time operating system rt-kernel® and its team collaboration development solution, rt-collab®. The rt-kernel® realtime operating system (rtos) is used in Kvaser’s Leaf CAN to USB interface product family and in Kvaser’s next generation interface platform, which is under development.

Kvaser and rt-labs have worked together for many years, so the company is very familiar with Kvaser’s products. With plenty of experience serving the automotive and industrial fields, rt-labs software development skills are an ideal complement to Kvaser’s hardware.

Commented Bertil Borghed, founder of rt-labs: “After a long and successful cooperation, we are very proud to now be a full member of the Kvaser Technical Associate family. We participated from an early stage in Kvaser’s latest development programme, where the integration of our rt-kernel® rtos will facilitate the possibilities for greater OEM customisation of standard Kvaser products.”

Noted Lars-Berno Fredriksson, president of Kvaser: “Tying rt-lab’s knowledge even closer to us in the form of the Technical Associate cooperation is very pleasing. They are very well-respected, having gained a reputation for their creativity and ‘troubleshooting’ capability within the automotive and industrial sectors and beyond.”

About Kvaser:

With over 24 years of CAN development experience and more than 30 CAN-related products to their name, Kvaser AB (www.kvaser.com) is the CAN expert, bringing their deep knowledge in the field of CAN to industries that include Automotive, Avionics, Building Automation, Domestic Appliances, Hydraulic Equipment, Industrial Automation, Maritime, Medical, Military, Railway, Telecoms and Textiles.

Kvaser is headquartered in Mölndal, Sweden, with regional offices in Mission Viejo, CA in the United States, and in Shanghai, China. Kvaser AB also has a global network of highly knowledgeable Qualified Sales Representatives and Technical Associates. To find the nearest Kvaser supplier to you, please visit www.kvaser.com

About rt-labs:

rt-labs is based in Gothenburg, Sweden, and has extensive experience in embedded software development across a broad range of industries. rt-labs offers a combination of software components, development tools, processes and consultancy services to help make our customers embedded product development even more successful.

To find out more about rt-labs expertise and real-time software offering, visit www.rt-labs.com

For media enquiries, please contact:

Henrik Torell, Marketing Director at Kvaser AB

Tel: 0046 (0) 31 886 344            E-mail: sales@kvaser.com

or

Vanessa Knivett, Kvaser Media Relations

Tel: 0033 (0) 618 609 287            E-mail: KvaserMedia@gmail.com

or

Fredric Eliasson, Sales and Marketing Director of rt-labs AB

Tel.: 0046 (0)733 311 122      E-Mail: fredric.eliasson@rt-labs.com