Here’s one that hits all the right buttons for most electronics engineers: electric cars and oscilloscopes.
In the latest episode of his popular Applied Science YouTube channel, Ben Krasnow taps into the CAN bus of a Tesla Model S electric car and then decodes the data using a Tektronix MDO4104C mixed domain oscilloscope.
As Krasnow, explains a modern car is continually sending hundreds of variables through its data bus, but very few of those are available to the driver. Some of those can be interesting, such as the number of amps being pulled out of the battery pack, or the level of torque being produced at difference speeds. The possibilities for deep insight into the car’s operation are endless.
In the video below (on YouTube here), Krasnow walks through the steps he followed to patch the MDO into the Tesla’s data bus and ultimately present it on the car’s screen. He also shows how to decode CAN data using the built-in decode capability of the scope. You’ll also want to subscribe to the Applied Science channel to catch the follow-on episode when he puts his data logging set up through its paces.