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J1939 Interface

J1939 is a high-level protocol built on the CAN bus that provides serial data communication between electronic control units (ECUs) in heavy-duty vehicles. Applications of J1939 include:

  • Diesel power-train applications

  • In-vehicle networks for buses and trucks

  • Agriculture and forestry machinery

  • Truck-trailer connections

  • Military vehicles

  • Fleet management systems

  • Recreational vehicles

  • Marine navigation systems

The J1939 protocol uses CAN as the physical layer, which defines the communication between ECUs in the vehicle network. The protocol has a second data-link layer that defines rules of communication and error detection. A third application layer defines the data transferred over the network.

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