Online Forum provides insights on SAE J1939 vehicle protocol

June 1, 2008 - PRLog -- According to Wikipedia, the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet, "SAE J1939 is the vehicle bus standard used for communication and diagnostics among vehicle components, originally by the car and heavy duty truck industry in the United States." Beyond that statement, and despite a growing popularity, there is only few information to find on J1939 and the same is true for the entire World Wide Web.

The gatekeeper of the J1939 Standards Collection is the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), but profound information on their web site is sparse. Downloading the J1939 PDF documents comes with a hefty price tag, even for SAE members who receive a small discount.

At this time the only available and complete technical reference on J1939 is provided by the SAE for a price tag of US$595.00 (Single-User, one-year subscription). The complete printed standards collection comes as a colossal work of 1600 pages for a price of $310.00. The problem, though, with the J1939 standards collection - as with most standards - is readability and educational value for the newcomer to the technology.

Recently there have been increased activities to improve the current situation. The J1939 Reference Guide Compilation Project is an attempt to create a complete and readable J1939 reference freely accessible for everybody. The information provided on this web site (http://www.cannewsletter.com/j1939standardscollection.html) is based on publicly available information such as, but not limited to other web sites and printed literature as well as contributions by engineers familiar with Controller Area Network and the J1939 protocol. The information on this web site, while based on the J1939 standard, is not a reproduction of any copyrighted SAE document.

In addition, as a support to the compilation project, Copperhill Media of Greenfield, Massachusetts and Smart Electronics Corporation of Oakville, Ontario (http://www.smartco.net)  have created an Onlin forum at http://www.J1939Forum.com. Everybody, who interested in or working with the technology, is invited to sign up and gather and contribute further information on J1939.

For more information contact Wilfried Voss at wilfried.voss@copperhillmedia.com or (413) 475-3651.

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Copperhill Media Corporationis a publisher of technical literature with focus on Controller Area Network (CAN) and related technologies such as CANopen and SAE J1939.