OPEN SYSTEMS: SCUBA
Page 32
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The use of hand-held computers has grown at an extraordinary rate, faster even than that of mobile phones: millions are now in use around the world. The reason is that third parties—software companies and even individuals—have come up with thousands of applications for them, from diaries to games and even on-line medical and engineering reference books.
Now Cummins has got in on the act with its QuickCheck, a basic driveline diagnostics unit based on the Palm computer platform.
This "open systems" approach, in which the specifications of a platform are there for anybody to see and use, is evidently a good way of making sure that the platform is adopted.
Scan:la's first venture into open systems was in 1999, when it introduced an interface which turned raw CAN bus data into the SAP J'9 standard protocol. This was a L36 o option which simply looked like an extra socket on the dash,..hardly attractive to your average buyer, but at least it was a start. Scania's Darren Brown says: "Customers clearly want a standard that can be used across a fleet, but there have been no moves so fan Our system has an open standard and anyone can write new applications." Third-party systems providers such as VeM IS have already adapted their equipment to communicate with the Scania interface.
Scania has based its own fleet monitoring system on another widely used handheld computer; this uses a Casio Cassiopeia (running the Windows CE operating system) to display and analyse driveline information and to allow the driver to communicate with his base. We recently used the system to check fuel consumption during our Euro-2 vs Euro-3 test (CM 26 April-2 May).