My personal contribution to the right to repair initiative.
These dashboards have a tendency to fail at least once over the vehicle’s lifespan. For repair purposes, a method is required to power and operate them on a workbench. The DIY CAN bus emulator introduced here serves this purpose.
- Designed to test your Renault Scénic II dashboard during and after repair
- Powers up the dashboard without requiring installation in the vehicle
- Includes an extended test sequence that even displays the stored mileage at startup (see video)
- Outputs timestamped messages to a serial console when connected
- Supports standalone operation using a standard charging adapter
click to watch the full vid on Vimeo
- An Arduino (Uno), a cheap clone also works ;-)
- A MCP2515 module (e.g. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=MCP2515)
- The Arduino IDE to compile and upload the sketch to the Arduino (https://www.arduino.cc/en/software)
| PIN on Arduino | PIN on MCP2515 CAN Bus Breakout Board |
|---|---|
| D2 | INT |
| D10 | CS |
| D11 | SI |
| D12 | SO |
| D13 | SCK |
| 5V | VCC |
| GND | GND |
On the MCP2515 board, ensure the jumper labeled J1 is closed to enable CAN bus termination.
| PIN# (grey connector on dash) | meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | +12V |
| 2 | GND |
| 29 | CAN LOW |
| 30 | CAN HI |
Important
Ensure your power supply and cabling can handle 4-5 amps peak current (filament heating, capacitors) at startup. Especially when using small current limiting lab power supplies this may become a thing. Should your power supply not provide enough current, the program might run, but the dashboard will remain dark.
The Arduino project can be compiled and uploaded via the Arduino IDE. Either clone this project or download it as a ZIP-File. The code running on the Arduino is based on MCP_CAN_lib. For convenience, a copy of this library is part of this project. Just place the entire can-library folder (MCP_CAN_lib-master) into the library folder of your Arduino IDE (on linux: ~/Arduino/libraries), (on MAC-OS: /Users/YOUR-USER-NAME/Arduino/libraries/) .
The message sequence can be extended or modified by editing the following code fragments within the canEmu.ino file:
/**
* the following struct contains the messages which are send to the dashboard
* for initialization
* feel free to add or remove messages.
* {duration, id, dlc {byte1, byte2, ... byte_dlc}}
**/
const struct msgStruct initMessages[] PROGMEM = {
{10, 0x35d, 8, { 0x10, 0x03, 0x20, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x50, 0x00}} //dash on
,{4, 0x60d, 8, { 0x00, 0x10, 0x00, 0x00, 0x27, 0x73, 0x21, 0x71}} //reset displayl state
...
};
/**
* the following struct contains the messages which are send to the dash
* within a loop
* feel free to add or remove messages.
* {duration, id, dlc {byte1, byte2, ... byte_dlc}}
**/
const struct msgStruct messages[] PROGMEM = { //load into flash-memory (sram was to small)
{1, 0x743, 8, {0x02, 0x10, 0xC0, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00}} //enable indicators
,{3, 0x743, 8, {0x04, 0x30, 0x06, 0x20, 0xFF, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00}} //left ind. lights
,{3, 0x743, 8, {0x04, 0x30, 0x07, 0x20, 0xFF, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00}}
,{1, 0x743, 8, {0x04, 0x30, 0x01, 0x20, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00}}
,{1, 0x743, 8, {0x04, 0x30, 0x01, 0x20, 0x07, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00}}
,{1, 0x743, 8, {0x04, 0x30, 0x01, 0x20, 0x06, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00}}
...
};Note
To see what the code is doing, start the serial console of the Arduino IDE at 9600 baud.
Tip
If you remove line #4 (#define ENABLE_CANBUS), output to the MCP2515 breakout board will be skipped.
By doing so, the code runs fine within the famous and free WOKI Online Arduino Simulator, making it easier for debugging purposes.
The code was tested on a V5.14 dashboard and runs fine.
- Keep it simple.
- Ensure even non-Arduino experts can easily use and set up the project.
- Minimize dependencies (e.g., libraries, source files, additional hardware, etc.).
- Make it adaptable and expandable even without knowledge of C / C++.
- Read the CAN messages from an external SD card (supporting different dashboards without compiling the code).
- Single-step mode (possibly forwards and backwards) via an additional button.
- PCB layout for a self-contained, single-board solution.
- The CAN message to activate the lightbulb symbol is currently unknown.
- If you are looking for further information, tips & tricks on how to repair your Renault Scenic II dashboard, check out https://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/showthread.php/59335-repair-dashboard-scenic-2
- Radovan Petković Raša shows the systematic troubleshooting and successful repair of a Scenic II dashboard with lots of tips and great advice. The best video on this topic online. If you don't speak Serbian, turn on automatic subtitle translation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f3Z28OoKZQ - Thank you, Radovan for the time and effort you put into this. Great work!
- A good repair video that also shows how to desolder the large display properly (unfortunately in French, but the subtitle function should help): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUcnZQbhVvc
Tip
For an initial test on your desk, you can partially switch on the dashboard (only the small clock display) even without a CAN-bus emulator.
Connect the gray connector to your power supply as usual:
- Pin1 +12V
- Pin2 GND
And on the red connector (Check this link for connector pinout & schematic of the steering wheel remote and its sense circuit)
- Pin1 via a 1kΩ resistor to +12V
This simulates turning on your car's radio, which causes the clock display to turn on.
- Thanks to David Douard, there is now a fork based on ESP32 + SN65HVD230 as CAN transceiver available. Check https://github.com/douardda/Scenic2DashCanEmu for details.