SAE J1939 Programming with Arduino - A Brief Introduction to the SAE J1939 Protocol

This post is part of a series about SAE J1939 ECU Programming & Vehicle Bus Simulation with Arduino.

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Truck and Bus Control and Communications Subcommittee has developed a family of standards concerning the design and use of devices that transmit electronic signals and control information among vehicle components. 

SAE J1939 and its companion documents have quickly become the accepted industry standard and the vehicle network of choice for off-highway machines in applications such as construction, material handling, mass transportation, forestry machines, agricultural machinery, maritime and military applications.

Note: It is fair to say that the SAE J1939 vehicle protocol is primarily used on diesel engines, which covers all previously mentioned applications.

SAE J1939 is a higher-layer protocol based on Controller Area Network (CAN Bus). It provides serial data communications between microprocessor systems (also called Electronic Control Units - ECU) in any kind of heavy-duty vehicles. 

The messages exchanged between these units can be data such as vehicle road speed, torque control message from the transmission to the engine, oil temperature, and many more.

Note: Even though being around for many years, the SAE J1939 protocol is still gaining popularity, especially in view of the increased use of fleet management systems, which, unavoidably, will need data from the vehicle network, for instance, to calculate maintenance cycles. Fleet management is also tightly associated with the Internet of Things (IoT), and transportation is considered one of the fastest growing markets for IoT.

SAE J1939 has become the accepted industry standard and the vehicle network technology of choice for off-highway machines in applications such as construction, material handling, and forestry machines. J1939 is a higher-layer protocol based on Controller Area Network (CAN). It provides serial data communications between microprocessor systems (also called Electronic Control Units - ECU) in any kind of heavy duty vehicles. The messages exchanged between these units can be data such as vehicle road speed, torque control message from the transmission to the engine, oil temperature, and many more.

A Comprehensible Guide to J1939 is the first work on J1939 besides the SAE J1939 standards collection. It provides profound information on the J1939 message format and network management combined with a high level of readability.

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