Documentation

Interrupt Setup

Introduction

The communication in a FlexRay cluster is facilitated by the TDMA method (Time Division Multiple Access). Each node has pre-defined time slots to send data packets. Each communication controller (CC) has an internal clock, which is synchronized over the FlexRay network. The clocks must be synchronized to avoid the frames of two nodes colliding.

The clock on which the Simulink model runs, however, is part of the target machine and is therefore not synchronized with the clock of the FlexRay CCs. To ensure a deterministic behavior, we must trigger the IO623 driver blocks using the IO623 CC1 interrupt, which is generated at the start of each communication cycle (see graphic below).

Currently, the interrupt is only generated by CC1. This means you will always need to configure CC1 and connect it to the FlexRay bus, even if your I/O module contains multiple CCs.

The Interrupt Setup block represents hardware interrupts from Speedgoat I/O modules. It is used to trigger an asynchronous subsystem or provide the pulse for a model base rate. Refer to the Interrupt Setup help page.

Run the following command in the MATLAB command window:

speedgoatlib_interrupt

Drag and drop the Interrupt block to your model. Alternatively, you can find the Interrupt Setup block by entering speedgoatlib in the MATLAB command window, and then navigating to Tools & Utilities > Utilities. Double click the Interrupt Setup block, and then select Speedgoat IO623 Interrupt in the Select Interrupt list (the IO623 Setup block must be in your model). Select the corresponding Module ID, and then click Select, Apply, and OK.

LED Indicators on the Front Panel

Each FlexRay channel (A and B) on the front panel has two LED indicators for signaling different monitoring states: Red and green. If no LED is lit, then no CC is installed at the corresponding connector or no bus activity is detected. The LED states are explained in the following table:

Configuration of FlexRay Controller using FIBEX File

A configuration file, namely a CHI file, is required for every CC on your IO623 I/O module. CHI files define all the necessary FlexRay parameters for the CC to connect to (or start up) a FlexRay cluster and send and receive frames.

With our CHI Generator Tool you can load a FIBEX file, which contains the configuration for a whole FlexRay network, and export the CHI files for the different CCs. You can download the CHI Generator from the Speedgoat Customer Portal.

Also, part of the CHI file is the receive and transmit buffer configuration. A message buffer RAM with 2048 32-bit words is available for the creation of these buffers. Each message buffer uses 16-byte administrative data. The remaining space can be used for the payload. This leads for example to a maximum configuration of 30 message buffers with a 254-byte payload, 56 message buffers with a 128-byte payload or 128 message buffers with a 48-byte payload. The maximum number of message buffers is 128.

Every frame that needs to be sent by the CC requires a transmit buffer to hold the data until it is ready to be sent. The data written to the IO623 Send blocks will be written directly into these buffers for optimal performance. For the receive functionality, the buffer configuration is less critical. You can specify dedicated buffers to receive specific frames. Unused message buffers will be configured as general-purpose receive buffers which can receive frames from any slot (the driver requires at least a few of these general-purpose buffers to be present). The frames received will then be buffered in a 2 MB SRAM. This allows you to receive all frames during a FlexRay cycle.

Speedgoat CHI Generator - User Manual

Introduction

The Speedgoat CHI Generator is exclusively used to create RBS CHI files for the IO623 Setup block.

The Speedgoat CHI Generator configures the CC based on the FIBEX database. It is an intuitive tool to generate RBS CHI files based on FIBEX files. The special characteristic is that the files help to stimulate one or more Electrical Control Units (ECUs) from the FIBEX file. That means that the CC is configured to send all messages received by the ECU (Device Under Test DUT). Message dependencies to other DUTs are resolved and considered. Furthermore, the user has the option to switch off individual frames and add additional frames. Consequently, an adaptation of the RBS CHI files for changed development levels is clean.

Main Features:

System Requirements:

Installation

To install the Speedgoat CHI Generator, the Speedgoat_CHI_Generator_32Bit.msi or Speedgoat_CHI_Generator_64Bit.msi packages are required. Use the correct installation package for the operating system (the 32-bit package will not work on a 64-bit operating system and vice versa). Start the installation by double-clicking the installation package and follow the installation wizard instructions.

Start Speedgoat CHI Generator

Start the application by clicking the [Start] button from the Windows taskbar and then selecting StarCooperation -> Speedgoat CHI Generator -> Speedgoat CHI Generator.

To run the Speedgoat CHI Generator, a license per PC and person is needed. Then on the first start of the Speedgoat CHI Generator, the following window is shown.

Please fill out your name, company, and email address. Then click “Generate Request Key”. Copy the generated code into an email and send it to sales-ee@star-cooperation.com. (You can close the dialog box by clicking on the X-button.)

After the personal registration key is generated, it will be sent to you by email. When you start the application, the registration window is shown again. Copy the registration key into the Activation key text field and then click on the “Activate Product” button. The Speedgoat CHI Generator main window will now display.

Speedgoat CHI Generator GUI overview

The most important options are described.

File menu:

Speedgoat CHI Generator can start from Command Prompt and open an RBS or FIBEX file.

Navigate to the installation path (e.g. cd “C:\Program Files\StarCooperation\Speedgoat CHI Generator”), to open the file with path c:\files\myProject.rbs type in the Command Prompt: ChiGenerator4Rbs.exe c:\files\myProject.rbs

A relative file path is also supported: ChiGenerator4Rbs.exe ..\..\..\myProject.rbs

When the path contains spaces (e.g. c:\My Documents\fibex.xml), enclose the file path with quotation marks: ChiGenerator4Rbs.exe “c:\My Documents\fibex.xml”

RBS Cluster tab:

Frames tab:

The Frames tab shows the resulting RBS frames from the RBS Cluster configuration. The frame configuration gives the possibility to add or disable frames. If there are not enough sync or startup frames, an existing frame can be configured as a sync or startup frame, or new sync/startup frames can be added.

RBS Controller tab:

The RBS Controller tab shows the controller in the configured frames when the RBS to send and receive is used

Every time the tab is clicked, the Select hardware window pops up to select and configure the RBS hardware. If the RBS hardware was already selected, the Select hardware window contains the configuration settings indicated immediately below.