University of Zimbabwe Department of Computer Science

MCT 505 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE TERM PAPER

VEHICLE DIAGNOSIS PLATFORM, WHATS THE UNDERLYING EMBEDDED STRUCTURE? A CASE STUDY OF THE X431 DIAGNOSTIC KIT.
MOTIVATION

Most modern automotive vehicles include several electronic control units (ECU) which communicate over an electronic network. Each ECU is usually connected to one or several components, e.g. sensors and actuators, and to make sure that the components are operating correctly, they are monitored by the ECUs.Often diagnostic tests, which can be simple or complex, are used to perform the monitoring. The results of which can be used in different ways. With improvements in technology and an interesting thrust towards embedded systems in the 21st Century world over. There is quite some improvements in the field of automotive vehicle diagnosis and sophisticated machines are emerging serving good performance in the field of vehicle diagnosis and maintenance which even if remains somewhat a manual task in most developing nations, there is a wide room for improvement.

Considering that for instance the chances of a human being diagnosing a problem today on one vehicle and do the same scan of the very same problem a year after on another vehicle, is one task that will indisputably produce results whose reliability we cannot always bank on. This is an opportunity to explore the available diagnostic equipment and assess the structural design that has seen the emergent of a machine that supports the use of the CAN bus connector to communicate with the ECU of a motor vehicle. Are the results of such equipment once produced reliable? How were they able to incorporate a printer to the small portable unit?

This research paper will draw particular attention to the X431 diagnostic kit which has become a hand portable embedded system kit that offers amazing results by a click of the LCD displayed hard coded instructions. However there are areas of this kit that still draw particular attention to further development considerations given a balanced analysis of the entire package.
Author:-Gamundani Attlee Munyaradzi - R034087A Msc. in Computer Science 2010

University of Zimbabwe Department of Computer Science

Having used the X431 Diagnostic kit for over a year, the author will need not to be just a nave user, as perpetrated by demands to implement skills attained in studies being undertaken at the department of Computer Science, University of Zimbabwe for the Masters of Computer Science degree. This paper serves as a partial fulfillment of the degree program requirements particularly the application of theory to reality.

Author:-Gamundani Attlee Munyaradzi - R034087A Msc. in Computer Science 2010