Setting up a Flexray Network

Markus,

My only caution is to please understand that we don't provide a FlexRay stack in HalCoGen. The main users of FlexRay are in the automotive space and there are companies that sell FlexRay software as a product.

If you can work within that constraint (understanding that you'll need to find third party support for the FlexRay network) then yes these are good MCUs because the CPU is an ARM Cortex, and there are low cost tools and software that will help you bring up the rest of the chip very quickly.

None of our development kits have FlexRay transceivers built onto them. The HDK has two different expansion boards online that have FlexRay transceivers but these are provided simply as design sources & gerbers - you have to order and build the PCBs yourself. You could adapt these to LaunchPads now to take advantage of the low cost. But you would need to use the LC4357 launchpad LAUNCHXL2-570LC43 because the LAUNCHXL2-TMS57012 uses the TMS570LS1224 part # which is one of the variants without flexray.

Other than that I'd probably want to invest in some sort of FlexRay bus analyzer but I don't really know who makes this sort of product.

Hi Anthony.

Thank you so much for the reply.

I have been looking at the Flexray products sold by the automotive companies, but the prices are far to steep for this project.

I ment to link to the TMDS570LS12HDK development board which has the TMS570LS1227 MCU. This one supports 2-Channel Flexray, but as I understand it from what you are saying, the FRAYTX/RX/EN 1&2 pins on the dev. board/MCU are not connected to anything. So this is only the Host and communication controller, w/o the Bus Driver/Transceiver? Or is this maybe the case with the Launchpad, and the HDK board actually have the bus controller? I did not quite understand what you ment with "provided simply as design sources & gerbers".

Might the LAUNCHXL2-570LC43 be another option instead of the TMDS570LS12HDK ? As you mentioned the TMS570LC4357 that is on the launchpad also have a Flexray controller.

So I would have to connect a bis driver like the NCV7383 from ON semiconductor to the MCU from you? And then, of course I should have a bus Analyzer in order to debug, I know of some but are still looking for some cheaper options, maybe this could be done with a logic analyzer or a picoscope (I might have the opportunity to borrow a picoscope).

Hi Markus,

There is an expansion board for the HDK that you can look at here:
processors.wiki.ti.com/.../HDK_FlexrayCanLin_Daughter_Crad.zip

But it's not something we sell -- instead the design files are there in the .zip.

The LAUNCHXL2-570LC43 is the only launchpad that we have right now where you can access flexray pins. I'm not sure which connector they are on but the schematic is available on the wiki page processors.wiki.ti.com/.../LAUNCHXL2-570LC43

Hi again Anthony,

So as i understand it now, the expansion board you linked to works with the TMDS570LS12HDK? Otherwise I could also build the expansion board and jump the wires/ adapt it to fit with the LAUNCHXL2-570LC43?

Again, thank you so much for the information.

I will then try with either the Launch or HDK then, thank you. Good point about jumpers, should rather redesign to fit the launch board.

One last point, do you know of any code examples for a Flexray node with a TI MCU or where to find it? This could be really helpfull as this is the first time I use CCS or TI MCU´s.

Thank you for the great support

QJ Wang might have some code but if so I think it's a demo he worked on .. don't think we have any application notes on FlexRay.