Over the years, as trucks have become more sophisticated, so have their onboard communication systems. The Controller Area Network (CAN) bus monitors and controls almost every aspect of a truck today form motoring the firing temperatures of each piston on the engine to telling if the seat belt is plugged in.
As we become more interconnected the need to collect some of these data items increases and need to be made available. Being able to provide access to the data on the vehicle to third party manufactures is essential with the use of onboard dashcams, video telematics and ELDs.
What is the RP1226 port?
The RP1226 port is a new 14-pin standardized port for allowing access to a heavy-duty truck's onboard diagnostics. The use of the port is to allow access to data elements for diagnostic tools, onboard dashcams, video telematics systems and electronic logging device (ELD) applications. Outside manufactures can retrieve the data items that they need for third party applications and services.
The port allows tools to make a request to the vehicle's CAN bus through the RP1226 connector and the request is filled and sent back to the plugged in device for its use.
Why the change to the RP1226 port?
Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can have tighter control over what has access to the CAN bus. Some OEMs have implemented gateways to the CAN bus to prevent situations such as a manufacture from making an overwhelming number of requests to the network that could cause issues with other systems on the truck.
Currently, the data items that are available to the RP1226 connector is up to the OEM. Some have unrestricted access to the CAN bus and other OEMs have limits on what is available.
What do you need to know about RP1226 ports?
As a fleet manager you will want to make sure that any new purchase of trucks come with the data you need available for your ELD or video telematics system to work. You will want to make sure that RP1226 port will at least give you access to:
- Odometer readings
- VIN#
- Speedometer
- RPM
- Engine hours
If you are running with additional products that might provide you with fault code alerts, fuel economy, or other items that you use for IFTA reports or other daily operations you will want to make sure those are available through the port as well.
If you are running with multiple tools that require access to the CAN bus you will want to make sure that the truck comes with the right number of ports necessary.
