CANbus: How to drive a Mercedes A-Class W176 cluster?

Hi guys!

I have got a very nice cluster from a Mercedes A-Class W176 and I'm looking for information on how it's possible to drive it via CAN communication?
If not I would be forced to drill and plug straight onto the motors
like switec motors tests I achieved... but that would be quite disappoiting




Do you have any information about this?

I have read the FAQ section http://www.xsimulator.net/community/faq/diy-dashboards-and-gauges-tutorials.140/
and http://www.xsimulator.net/community...-tacho-real-bmw-cluster-3dof.6323/#post-71861

thanks
Mat

Here a data base but with older Mercedes cars (before 1997)

_____________
Another site with documentation: http://doc.webasto-russia.ru/Car/Mercedes%20Benz/176%20+%20246%20%28%c0+B%29/
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I have seen some CANfilter PCB boards but I cannot figure out exactly what it does... or if it could give me some hints?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercedes-Be...7-W166-X166-W218-W172-W246-W176-/271269820219

http://fr.aliexpress.com/item/Hot-S...2294967838.html?spm=2114.06010108.8.67.md9bUO

This item can help car owners to repair (exchange to used parts) broken car electronic computers and keep original car data: like odometer, coding and other functions.

Theory and documentation
https://www.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/2007-8-1 Lecture3.pdf

http://inside.mines.edu/~whoff/courses/EENG383/lectures/38-CAN.pdf

If I want to drive the Cluster, I need to use the CAN bus communication
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_bus

Like this guy:
Volkswagen CAN Bus Gaming https://hackaday.io/project/6288-volkswagen-can-bus-gaming


He's using an arduino + CANbus shield from Seedstudio.com
23$

or from Sparkfun 40$
or CANdiy-Shield V2 - CAN-Bus Shield 15€

Arduino MCP2515 EF02037 SPI CAN BUS Shield Controller communication speed high 9€

Hello,
this should be a canbus device. It can be driven by various canbus boards for arduino.
The hardest thing would be getting the right adress data to drive the cluster.
Maybe you can find something on the net. If not I can maybe ask at work if you are interested. I work with cars and got good connection to Mercedes, Vw and so on.

Or you know someone with this car, than you can sniff the canbus and get the propper Ids.

I don't know about your knowledge about can bus but for information here is a little Document, it's from Vw but for the general process it doesn't matter.
http://www.volkspage.net/technik/ssp/ssp/SSP_238.pdf
At page 18 you can see a can Data Frame which you need to reproduce.
The Identifiers change from car to car and manufacturer to manufacturer and it's hard to get them.

Thanks @tombo!

Yes, it would be very useful if you could get the parameters of CAN communication (speed, length of fields...) as I cannot "sniff" into CANBus of a real car.
I'm currently learning CANbus: the documentation looks very interesting!

Hello,
I will not promise too much as the Ids are a secret, but asking is worth a try.

I don't want to annoy you, but I think it will be taking very long and will be a very hard way to get this device working, as it is from a newer car. In case of Security reasons the info is not avalible like for older cars.
I thought of something like this some time ago and gave up incase of so little info for ids avalible.
The best way would be to use the housing and implement your own electronics.

Would be nice if you can talk to the CANbus directly with the handles and stuff!

Sure, this is what others have done. Nevertheless it would be fun, driving the gauges directly

Some more informations:

this guy wrote 2 softwares to help reading the CANbus of a car

http://www.honeysw.com/canproject.php
and ended with a palm application that remotly controls its MErcedes car (just like K2000)

Here a Seat Ibiza cluster driven by an Arduino through CANbus



A good tutorial here "E46 instrument cluster driven by can bus MPG, Tach, Temp, Check engine"
http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1887229-E46-Can-bus-project
and a short video (not really explanatory)


-> I wish I could find the pinout of the A-class Mercedes 18 pins socket...

A book into Car Hacking!
It’s called Car Hackers 2014 by Craig Smith. It’s a great place to start if you want to get more information about the fundamentals of a lot of car hacking things.

Here is the Outline:

Introduction
Understanding Attack Surfaces
Infotainment Systems
Vehicle Communication Systems
Engine Control Unit
CAN Bus Reversing Methodology
Breaking the Vehicle
CAN Bus Tools
Weaponizing CAN Findings
Attacking TPMS
Ethernet Attacks
Attacking Keyfobs and Immobilizers
Attacking ECUs and other Embedded Systems
What does your hacker garage need?
Creative Commons

Go to http://opengarages.org/handbook/

Search Amazon for “Car Hackers 2014” ISBN: 978-0-9904901-0-4

I've juste read the book: it's very interesting! and freaking! if you want more information via video:


if you have a Mazda RX-8 cluster instrument the job is done here:
https://www.cantanko.com/rx-8/reverse-engineering-the-rx-8s-instrument-cluster-part-one/





Arduino/SECUduino CAN BUS instrument cluster lcd control - Seat Leon 2009


Gurpal has used SECUduino and a Ford cluster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utS6capLI3c

Many resources here canbushack: Hack Your Car

Nice video of real time "sniffing" CANbus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHRPmjwXF1U

I've just received my CANBus arduino shield

Any news ?

Nope! I'm stuck... I cannot start the Cluster

I have try this based upon electrical wiring information, but nothing happend


I need some expert help to get some more documentation...

I'll try to find a scheme for the cluster but probably need some more information about the car (year,gas or disel)

That would be really really great @Jadran!!


it's a Aclass 176 model cluster
2013 hardware design (from label)
made in 2015/06

A176 900 3303
HW index:00/04/13
HW-Ind Mech: A176 901 2102
SW-Version: 0333.90

Hi
Finally I found the scheme







Here is link with PDF : https://www.mediafire.com/?zc2jpq58jex515u

@Jadran: great!
Sorry I didn't answered because I hadn't received any alert...
According to this, the complete pinout should be the following:



And CAN_E should transmit information from motor, RPM, speed...

I'll try tonight

I hope that it will work properly