IJIREEICE ISSN (Online) 2278-1021

ISSN (Print) 2319-5940

International Journal of Innovative Research in

Electrical, Electronics, Instrumentation and Control Engineering
NCAEE 2017
National Conference on Advances in Electrical Engineering
NMAM Institute of Technology, Nitte
Vol. 5, Special Issue 2, April 2017

LabVIEW Based Instrument Cluster Tester

Deeksha K1, Sandeep Reddy Cherukupalli2, K. Vasudeva Shettigar3
PG Scholar, NMAMIT, Nitte, Karkala, India 1
GOEPEL electronics India Pvt Ltd, India 2
Assistant Professor, NMAMIT, Nitte, Karkala, India 3

Abstract: Instrument cluster is the Human Machine Interface (HMI) in vehicle which ensures the safety and comfort of
the driver by showing the prevailing condition of the vehicle. These days instrument clusters are getting more and more
complex. So the testing of instrument cluster for proper functioning i.e. HMI, indicators and warning signals has to be
conducted. This paper presents the cost effective and efficient method of testing the instrument cluster using the
software developed in LabVIEW and CAN protocol. CAN controller interfaces the PC and instrument cluster, it sends
signals through CAN bus to test the tell-tale, dials, fuel gauges and display’s in the cluster.

Keywords: LabVIEW, CAN communication, Instrument cluster, TOMLine.

I. INTRODUCTION

In the recent years the automotive segments has become design and data transmission using CAN bus [5],
sophisticated, the instrument cluster which assist the driver characteristics and message transmission rules of CAN bus
with information of driving condition has become more using different processors and controllers [6] are proposed
complex, so in the process of manufacturing it should be in recent years.
tested to ensure its proper functioning. In some automobile The proposed work in this paper explains the validation
company unit testing is performed manually, using test of vehicle instrument clusters in real-time using
traditional instruments. This is tedious as the number of LabVIEW application, on successfully performing the test,
functions in the cluster increases. the series production of the cluster is started.
These days people search for ways to reduce their time
and effort to do any job. Automatic testing is more II. APPLICATION DESIGN
efficient and reliable, and less prone to human errors due
to negligence and fatigue. Hardware parts increase the risk The designed LabVIEW application for cluster testing
of errors during the production, thus the testing of the mainly has four panels. First panel we see when we open
system has to be carefully performed. For that reason, the application is shown in Fig. 1. It is the main panel or
automated testing in production lines is important to front panel, where we can select the required subpanel by
reduce the risk of hardware fault. This has led to the pressing the respective buttons on the main panel. The
implementation of this project. buttons in main panel are Test, Parameter, Settings, About,
The software for automated instrument cluster testing is Exit. The table in the main panel shows the information
developed in LabVIEW. LabVIEW platform has the about the tasks performed in the application with date and
capability of data acquiring, monitoring, processing and time and exit button will close the application. The
controlling. CAN is one of the widely used necessary parameters for interface are given in settings
communication interface in the automobile. It reduces the panel Fig. 2. It includes selecting the type of test to be
complexity of wiring and improves data transfer performed either End of Line Test (EOL) or Endurance
reliability. CAN controller is a vital device in the system Test, Number of test cycles to be performed and number
to process the message received from PC. It provides of cycles to be skipped which are applicable for endurance
dynamic signals to the system under test. test, and CAN port, TOMLine file paths also should be
An automated test based on LabVIEW application, for entered. TOMLine is the Vision software of Goepel
units testing of MIKME advanced microphone in a serial electronics for analysing the cluster image.
production is proposed, which is 20 times faster than In the parameter panel shown in Fig. 3. we give the name
manual test [1]. Currently, automated design validation of the test in test step table (eg: Ignition, Right indicator)
testing of a vehicle instrument cluster using dSPACE mid- and by pressing add button we add the test case. The
size simulator is presented [2]. An automated test system conditions for the test cases should be given in
for various systems using LabVIEW is implemented over subsequence table (eg: on or off). A test case can have any
last few years [3, 4]. Automotive instrument network number of subsequence. For every subsequence the

Copyright to IJIREEICE DOI 10.17148/IJIREEICE/NCAEE.2017.23 103

 IJIREEICE ISSN (Online) 2278-1021
ISSN (Print) 2319-5940

International Journal of Innovative Research in

Electrical, Electronics, Instrumentation and Control Engineering
NCAEE 2017
National Conference on Advances in Electrical Engineering
NMAM Institute of Technology, Nitte
Vol. 5, Special Issue 2, April 2017

general setting, CAN setting and TOMLine setting has to analysed by TOMLine and the test result is displayed in
be entered and saved. The selected test case or the table of test panel. Current cycle, number of cycle and
subsequence can be deleted by pressing delete button, on skip cycle are indicators, which show the values entered in
pressing execute button test page will open, and the back the settings panel if endurance test is performed, and it
button will take us to the front panel. will be zero for EOL test. Refresh and cancel button will
When the test button in main panel is pressed it will take start the test from beginning and stop the test respectively.
us to test panel which is shown in Fig. 4. Here we perform On pressing the report button, html report as shown in Fig.
the test for the test cases entered in the parameter panel by 5. is generated for the test results displayed in the table of
pressing start button. The test is conducted in the order Test panel and the generated report is saved for the future
given in parameter page. Cluster image for every case is reference.
displayed in the picture box, and the same image is

Fig. 2. Settings panel

Fig. 1. Main Panel

Fig. 3. Parameter panel

Fig. 4. Test panel

Copyright to IJIREEICE DOI 10.17148/IJIREEICE/NCAEE.2017.23 104

 IJIREEICE ISSN (Online) 2278-1021
ISSN (Print) 2319-5940

International Journal of Innovative Research in

Electrical, Electronics, Instrumentation and Control Engineering
NCAEE 2017
National Conference on Advances in Electrical Engineering
NMAM Institute of Technology, Nitte
Vol. 5, Special Issue 2, April 2017

Fig. 5. Generated html report

III. TEST SETUP AND WORKING PRINCIPLE B. Device Under Test

The device under test is the instrument cluster shown in
The test system for testing the instrument cluster is shown Fig. 7. it is one of the most complex electronic embedded
in Fig.6, it consists of host PC with LabVIEW application, systems in vehicles. Its functionality is distributed among
unit under test and communication interfaces. many ECUs. The cluster consists of tell-tale, warning
indicators, fuel gauge, speedometer, tachometer, and LCD
display.
The major components of instrument cluster which are
tested include Ignition, Right and Left Indicators, Parking
Light, Door Open Warning, Bonnet and Boot Lid Open
Warning, Low Fuel Level Warning, Tyre Pressure
Monitoring, Power Steering System, Speedometer gauge,
Fuel gauge.

C. CAN
CAN protocol is used for communication between PC and
instrument cluster. CAN frame which carry CAN
messages consist of an ID, a varying number of data bytes,
and data length specified by DLC. The particular function
in instrument cluster will have unique ID number and it
can have any number of data bytes. The size of different
fields in CAN frame is given below.
 ID: Identifier: 11 or 29 bits
Fig. 6. Automated control of Instrument cluster using  Data Bytes: 0 - 8 bytes
LabVIEW application  DLC: Data Length Code: 4 bits – 8 bits
A. LabVIEW CAN information given by user is automatically handled
The main controller of the system is designed LabVIEW by the CAN controller i.e. forming CAN frames for the
application. LabVIEW is a graphical programming given CAN details and gets the message on the bus.
language. So we can develop better programs in LabVIEW
since graphical programs are easier to maintain, edit and LabVIEW application acts as front end interface in testing
understand. We can reuse the code in different operations the device under test. The designed application is generic
hence it is simpler to program and easy to understand just since the user has got the freedom to add, modify or delete
by looking at the code. the test cases.

Copyright to IJIREEICE DOI 10.17148/IJIREEICE/NCAEE.2017.23 105

 IJIREEICE ISSN (Online) 2278-1021
ISSN (Print) 2319-5940

International Journal of Innovative Research in

Electrical, Electronics, Instrumentation and Control Engineering
NCAEE 2017
National Conference on Advances in Electrical Engineering
NMAM Institute of Technology, Nitte
Vol. 5, Special Issue 2, April 2017

REFERENCES

[1] Vladimir D. Ćatić, Natalija M. Lukić, Iva M. Salom, Vukašin P.

Ristić, Milenko M. Kabović, and Nikola M. Nenadić, “An
Automated Environment for Hardware Testing Using PXI
Instrumentation and LabVIEW Software,” 24th
Telecommunications forum TELFOR 2016 Serbia, Belgrade,
November 22-23, Nov 2016 IEEE
[2] Yingping Huang, Alexandros Mouzakitis, Ross McMurran,
Gunwant Dhadyalla and R. Peter Jones, “Design Validation Testing
Source: Internet of Vehicle Instrument Cluster Using Machine Vision and
Fig. 7. Instrument cluster Hardware-in-the-loop,” in Proc. IEEE International Conference on
Vehicular Electronics and Safety,Columbus, OH, USA September
The CAN message of the respective test cases are sent to 22-24, 2008.
[3] Amit Dhondiram Magdum, A. A. Agashe, “Monitoring and
the DUT using CAN API (Application Program Interface) controlling the industrial motor parameters remotely using
in LabVIEW. The basic CAN API function block consists LabVIEW,” in IEEE International Conference On Recent Trends In
of an initialization, start, read or write data and clear. Electronics Information Communication Technology, May 20-21,
2016, India.
[4] Jiayue Li, Zhaoqin Peng, and Maidan Luo, “Testing Methods for
When the test is performed respective CAN message of Performance of Steering Gear System Based on LabVIEW,” in
the test cases are passed through USB cable to CAN Proceedings of 2016 IEEE Chinese Guidance, Navigation and
controller, where the message is converted to CAN frames Control Conference August 12-14, 2016 Nanjing, China.
and sent to Instrument cluster through CAN bus. The [5] Jiejie Dai and Hui Song, “Design And Realization Of Can Bus
Vehicle Instrument Cluster Based On Μ C/Os-Ii,”
instrument cluster on receiving the signal performs the [6] Bin Ling, Fengchao Peng andAilan Li, “The Car Body Control Bus
respective functions. The result of the test observed in Design Based On Can/Lin Bus,” IEEE 2011.
cluster is as shown in Fig. 8. Once the test is successfully [7] National Instruments Corporation 1-1 Controller Area Network
performed; the series production of the same is started. (CAN) Tutorial

BIOGRAPHIES

Deeksha K, received her B.E. (E&E)

degree from KVG College of Engineering
India in 2015. She is pursuing her M. Tech
(Microelectronics and Control Systems) in
Nitte Mahalinga Adyanthaya Memorial
Institute of Technology, Nitte, Karkala,
India, under Visvesvaraya Technological University,
Belgaum. Her area of interests includes Control systems,
Fig. 8. Instrument cluster showing various indicators Automation and Electronics.

IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK Sandeep Reddy Cherukupalli, received

his B.E. degree in Electrical and
The instrument cluster test system acts as virtual vehicle to Electronics from KVG College of
test the clusters behavior and to test the functionality. Engineering, Sullia under Visvesvaraya
Technological University, Belgaum, India
LabVIEW application is successfully applied for testing in 2005 and MS degree in
the instrument cluster. Using this system, we can saves Microelectronics from Darmstadt
time, reduces complexity and error in testing. This will University of Applied Science, Darmstadt, Germany in
save time and money. 2008. He is currently working for ATS department in
GOEPEL electronic India Pvt. Ltd. His area of interest
The machine vision system to read and analyze the test includes Automation in Automotive, Microcontrollers,
result will be done as future work. Embedded C, Embedded Systems. He was an intern at
Fraunhofer-Institute where he worked for Testing and
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Validation of Web Service for enterprise application
integration (EAI). Analysis of Enterprise Service Bus
I would like to show my gratitude to ATS team of (ESB). An European Union project in 2007 and at
GOEPEL electronics India Pvt Ltd for their selfless help Gleichmann & Co Electronics, Gmbh in 2008, where he
and NMAM Institute of Technology for all support and developed a high speed data transfer protocol between two
encouragement in doing this project.

Copyright to IJIREEICE DOI 10.17148/IJIREEICE/NCAEE.2017.23 106

 IJIREEICE ISSN (Online) 2278-1021
ISSN (Print) 2319-5940

International Journal of Innovative Research in

Electrical, Electronics, Instrumentation and Control Engineering
NCAEE 2017
National Conference on Advances in Electrical Engineering
NMAM Institute of Technology, Nitte
Vol. 5, Special Issue 2, April 2017

stratix II FPGA’s. He worked as Sales Manager at Smart

electronics development Gmbh for 2 years 10 months.

K. Vasudeva Shettigar, received his B.E.

(E& E) degree from SJCE, Mysore
University, Mysore, India in 1986, and
M.Tech. (Power Systems) degree in 1992
from National Institute of Engineering
affiliated to Mysore University. Presently
Mr. Vasudeva Shettigar is serving as Associate Professor,
Dept. of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Nitte
Mahalinga Adyanthaya Memorial Institute of Technology,
Nitte, Karkala, India. He is Life member of ISTE. He has
published 11 technical research papers in various National
and International conferences. He has chaired International
conference held at NMAMIT Nitte during May 2011,
2013 and 2015. Mr. Shettigar has organized several
National Conferences and National Workshops and Short
term training programes (STTP) in the college for the
benefit of faculty (NMAMIT) and faculty of neighboring
Institutes. His areas of interest include power system &
protection, power quality and High Voltage Engineering.
He has a teaching experience of over 27 Years, and guided
over 50 U.G & 24 P.G. Technical Project works.

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