Trace Export: Order of Signals

[wolffm]

Hello everybody,
I am new to PCAN-Explorer 6 (currently using a trial version). While I could call support and ask for help I think my issue might be of interest to other users thus I share my question online.

TLDR
Task: export trace signals of multiple transducers of the same type whilst maintaining the connection between message and device under test to csv
Issue: best I could get is one column per signal and transducers but there's no evidence in the csv which column belongs to which sensor

I am using PCAN-Explorer 6 for logging the messages of multiple transducers on four busses (PCI-Express Card) of the same type: they all respond to a global request on their bus. The content of the messages received is of the same type (e.g. temperature). I always need to know which temperature belongs to the respective device under test. If I stick to the trace the message origin is easily identified by the senders CAN-ID. I then use a script (Scilab) to sort all messages and calculate the values from hex representation.

I set up Signals with the symbol editor to translate my transmits into human readable values. It's great for quickly checking on the values on the transmit/receive panel and I can use the existing DBC for my signals.

Finally I wanted to export the signals instead of parsing the trace. While there is a functionality in PCAN-Explorer that let me do this, I struggle with the exported signal <==> transducer relation.

In my first approach I

1. defined global signals
2. created one symbol for all transducers CAN-IDs
3. attached the signals to my symbol

In the resulting csv export I see all signals from all transducers mixed in one column.

In my second approach I

1. defined global signals
2. created individual symbols for each transducers CAN-ID
3. attached the signals to each symbol

In the resulting csv export I see all signals from all transducers in individual columns.
But which signal belongs to which transducers? How can I maintain the CAN-ID relation?

Please clarify on best practice here, as I mentioned, I am new to PCAN-Explorer and would love to improve.

[PEAK-Support]

You need to create individual signal names directly in your symbol definition.
Simply do it for ones Symbol (CAN-ID) save it with the Symbol-Editor and edit the file (text_based) manualy to paste / copy the block and change the naming for your need. Then you have Signal Information that show you which "transducers" create the signal.

[wolffm]

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

While the proposed workaround does the trick in a way, it is not a satisfying solution to me.
I lose all comfort from Signals global definitions and have to copy/edit/paste for a hundred devices. Of course I could write a script for this, but already finding all attached CAN-IDs is a real pain with so many devices.

Maybe somebody comes up with a more practical solution?

[PEAK-Support]

How should this work ? if you need seperate Info for every Signal, then you have to add this info ?
But also check the Online help for this features:
Options - General - Signals--> select the prefered signal name display mode - maybe this is enough for you to solve your problem.

[wolffm]

How should this work ?

I don't know, that's why I was asking the experts.

if you need seperate Info for every Signal, then you have to add this info ?

I was hoping that I don't have to add this information manually because it is already there. In my trace I can see the CAN-ID and the Symbol in each line and thus might also be accessible by the PCAN-Explorer at the time of export.
An option like "split signals by CAN-ID" plus "add CAN-ID to signal name on export" would be a great addition.

But also check the Online help for this features:
Options - General - Signals--> select the prefered signal name display mode - maybe this is enough for you to solve your problem.

Unfortunatley it is not the representation in PCAN-Explorer that I need to change, it is the representation in the exported csv-File. This seems to be unaffected by the setting you're referring to.

[PEAK-Support]

OK - we have checked it and the Symbole File Name, the Symbol Itself are not included when export.
We will add this to one of the next release.

[wolffm]

Great news, thank you very much for the quick response.
Have a nice day everybody in Darmstadt!