Vector: XL API

Legacy/internal identifier: VECTOR-HW

Vendor information

Vendor

Web page

Product name

Version

Vector Informatik GmbH

http://www.vector.com

XL API

25.20.14

Categories

MDL 🛈

APL 🛈

BAN 🛈

BMA 🛈

SVC 🛈

DGN 🛈

FIU 🛈

EES 🛈

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AUDIO 🛈

ENVSIM 🛈

ENVCOM 🛈

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

Signal recordings 🛈

File format

Comment

*.asc

*.mf4

BUSACCESS - CAN(-FD) ports support MDF4 bus logging only. XCP ports support signal-based MDF4 recording.

*.pcapng

BUSACCESS - CAN(-FD) ports will use linktype=227. The resulting files cannot be processed by trace analysis.

Platform

Operating system

Support

Windows

✓

Linux

Ports

Specifics

This interface allows, by means of hardware, direct bus access to CAN, CAN-FD, Ethernet, LIN and FlexRay. It supports the test steps read signal, read/write signal group (all bus systems) as well as monitor (CAN, CAN-FD, LIN and FlexRay) and supports signal recording (all bus systems), Raw diagnostics with KWP2000 over ISO-TP (CAN only), the Mini residual bus simulation (CAN, CAN-FD and FlexRay) and Additional functions of the close-to-hardware bus connections (all bus systems).

Info

The APPLICATION ports can only be used with the Add-on ecu.test calibration

Supported drivers

To use the driver in ecu.test, it is necessary that the file vxlapi64.dll is located in the directory %windir%/System32/. If the Vector installer does not store it there, the vxlapi64.dll must be copied manually.

If the tool adapter is used in combination with another Vector application (CANoe, CANalyzer, CANape, …), make sure that ecu.test will be initialized with the hardware first. Otherwise it might happen that the device is blocked and a connection setup is not possible.

It is recommended to install version 25.20.14 of the Vector XL API and to use the latest drivers that are compatible with that API version. The use of ecu.test with other API and driver versions is untested. Unexpected errors of all kinds can occur, or the tool adapter can fail to work at all.

Hardware selection

One can either choose the device to be used directly in the test bench configuration. For example: The controller number 2 in a CAN port will then correspond to the second CAN channel.

Or, if hardware channels of several devices should be combined, the Entry “ecutest” in Vector Hardware Config has to be selected. For this, an Application with the name ecutest (without a dot, because Vector Hardware Config does not allow dots inside application names) must be created in the program Vector Hardware Config. Then one must manually assign the hardware channels as Application Channels to the application ecutest in Vector Hardware Config. The help of Vector Hardware Config or its successor Vector Hardware Manager contains further information.

In order to address more than 64 hardware channels, version 24.40 or higher for the XL-Driver-Library is required. In addition, the checkbox Support for more than 64 channels must be activated in the settings of the Vector: XL API tool.

Note on the use of ethernet ports

ecu.test uses the network-based mode for ethernet-based ports, e.g. SERVICE, ETHERNET-RAW or DLT-VERBOSE. The TBC option Hardware at tool level does therefore not affect ethernet-based ports. Thus, no ethernet port needs to be configured for ecu.test in the Vector Hardware Config. Instead, at port level a physical connector must be selected, which consists of the network name and port name.

Further information about how to use services offered via SOME/IP is found in section Service access.

Important

In order to use ethernet-based ports, the Network-based mode must have been activated in the Vector Hardware Config at device level by changing the entry Ethernet access mode configuration. When using PTP the option Forward gPTP frames has to be enabled on all switches.

Info

Further informationen about the purposes of the various Ethernet port types and their differences can be found in the description of the tool adapter tracetronic: Ethernet. All those not ending in -RAW here except ARP correspond to a similarly named type with the suffix or infix -PCAP there.

Tested hardware:

  • Vector CANcaseXL

  • Vector VN8970

  • Vector VN16xx

  • Vector VN56xx