vFlash – Flexible and OEM-adapted Automated Programming Process at Valeo
Case Study Valeo
The Customer
Valeo is a technology company and partner to all automakers and new mobility players worldwide. As a technology company with 106,100 employees in 28 countries, Valeo innovates to make mobility safer, smarter and more sustainable. Valeo enjoys technological and industrial leadership in electrification, driving assistance systems, reinvention of the interior experience and lighting everywhere. These four areas, vital to the transformation of mobility, are the Group's growth drivers.
Valeo Light Division offers technologies to improve vehicle visibility for drivers and other road users such as innovative, intelligent exterior and interior lighting systems: headlamps and lights; intuitive interior lighting.
Contact Valeo:
Le Breton Erwan | Expert System Vehicle integration and calibration
Valeo light division | Exterior Electronic Headlamp/Rearlamp
The Challenge
Cross-manufacturer and Flexible Flash Solution at the End of Production Line for the Parameterization of LED Matrix Headlights.
At Valeo, a high-quality generic PCBA (Printed Circuit Board Assembly) controls each LED in a matrix system or headlight. These systems consist of up to 25,000 individual LEDs arranged in different strings of equivalent LEDs.
To ensure perfect homogeneity of the entire light beam, the ECU supplies each LED string with a current adjusted by the vehicle manufacturer (OEM) to match the efficiency class of the LEDs. This ensures that the maximum permissible luminous flux is maintained in accordance with the regulations and that power consumption is optimized. The necessary parameterization and its traceability are carried out at the end of the production and assembly line. Each LED string is identified and parametrized via a vehicle-specific flash process. For the automation of production at Valeo Vision, a standardized, efficient and flexible flash solution was required that is suitable for all OEM projects worldwide.
The Solution
vFlash - Flexible and OEM-adapted Automated Programming Process.
vFlash is an easy-to-use, vehicle manufacturer-independent tool for programming and updating ECUs. vFlash is suitable for all diagnostic-relevant bus systems and networks (CAN, CAN FD, Ethernet, FlexRay, LIN). Thanks to its Template (plug-in) concept, vFlash is suitable for all OEM projects, supporting more than 200 different flash specifications from over 100 vehicle manufacturers. vFlash uses the cross-product Vector Security Manager for OEM-specific authentication.
At the Valeo Light, production line in Angers (France), vFlash is used exclusively for the programming process. The Vector flash tool enables the use of a standardized C/C# API interface for the automation of the programming process in the production of LED matrix headlamps across all OEM projects. With increased production throughput, automation is quickly ported to the vFlash Station variant, which can be used to concurrently program up to eight different ECUs.
Depending on the OEM, the following additional vFlash flexibility options are used on the generic PCBA on the Valeo Vision production line:
- vFlash Template Customization: Adaptation of an existing OEM flash sequence with supplier-specific extensions such as security procedures or additional flash attributes.
- Flash Attribute: Transfer of parameter values which, for example, influence the flash sequence or enable the writing of ECU-specific values.
- Pre Flash Custom Action: Execution of sequences before programming, e.g. checking preconditions or reading out and saving ECU values to restore them after successful software update.
- Post Flash Custom Action: Execution of sequences after programming, e.g. coding the current setting values of the LED strings after recording the matrix QR code and storing the appropriate values in a central database.
The Advantages
By using the flexible and OEM-independent flash tool vFlash, Valeo Vision can produce different OEM variants with just one tool without having to adapt the automation, increasing accuracy and efficiency. It is only necessary to exchange the flash specifications implemented with the vFlash Templates and contained in the so-called vFlashPacks.
An OEM-specific flash tool and the tedious license re-activation potentially associated with it is no longer necessary. In addition, the flash process with vFlash is faster overall than with many OEM flash tools, and unlike some OEM tools, the process in vFlash can always be fully automated.
Another time and cost saving is realized due to the extremely high quality and reliability of ECU programming with vFlash. In the last three years, Valeo Vision has not had a single return due to incorrect programming.
vFlash is also used in outsourced production lines abroad (China, Spain, Poland). Collaboration between the R&D team in Angers and the local automation partners, as well as the exchange of new software and coding specifications by the OEM, is easy with vFlash and is done very quickly - without time-consuming training.
