Large-scale application of J1939

Product developers at Hydro Electronic Devices say the SAE electronic-systems standard provides a method for achieving improved engineering flexibility, product standardization, parts rationalization, servicing, and customer convenience.

The Controlled Area Network (CAN) protocol was developed by Bosch in the early 1980s to allow multiple microprocessor-based electronic control units (ECUs) to communicate with each other over the same pair of wires. CAN J1939 was developed to provide a 250 kbaud CAN system for use on heavy trucks and off-highway vehicles. The first SAE J1939 standards were released in 1994 and were designed to replace J1587/J1708 protocols with a higher bandwidth system. It took about four years from the publication of the first J1939 specification to significant production of J1939-based machines.

Machine manufacturers are applying the protocol to their machines for reasons including increased reliability, self-diagnostics, ease of installation, elimination of long connection wires, log and record capabilities, remote queries and upgrading of software, and electromagnetic/radio frequency interference (EMI/RFI) tolerance. According to engineers at Hydro Electronic Devices, Inc. (HED), application of the protocol to production machines will accelerate to the point that CAN will be the predominant communication mode for multi-module machines. Newer machine designs will use the multi-module design in place of the older single-control-device approach.