About Us
Our administrative office is in Hertfordshire, England with most of our UK based engineers working in the South East of the country. We have engineers working from a number of regions in Germany, Belgium and also in Spain. We have additional management functions operating from Switzerland.
Typical projects our engineers are currently involved in include:
- Specification development, and testing against these requirements
- Upfront design, development, and validation of new diagnostic tests to support new ECUs
- Liaison with Calibration, Core Design Teams , Program teams and suppliers with respect to deliveries, technical issues and overall timing
- Set Up/Lead/Participate in technical workshops with affected parties, these can be focused on a single ECU or cover an entire vehicle
- Involvement in vehicle build and debug, providing technical support to assist teams in a Research & Development and Production environment
- Launch, maintenance and upgrades of End of Line Test Systems
- Installation and configuration of IT equipment and software for Test Systems
- Technical training
Over the years Tumarc have worked with a number of organisations including Ford Motor Company, Durr Production Systems, Cosworth Technology Inc., Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Fiat, and Microsoft.
Some of the innovative product solutions we have developed since the company was formed are described below:
Product Summary
Vehicle Diagnostics Products
Tumarc has utilised its years of experience in the testing arena to develop state of the art vehicle diagnostics products. Products have been developed to encompass the varied areas of vehicle diagnostics including:
Assembly plant End-of-Line electrical testing for low and high volume manufacturers. Tumarc offer products for manual testing, which are ideal for prototype vehicles, and automated systems targeted for higher production volumes.
Diagnostic tools for service centres and garages, for independents and main dealer networks.
We have developed a range of products to assist all users of vehicle diagnostics. Products include a Handheld Diagnostics Tool, a Scan Tool, a Telematics Gateway, a suite of diagnostics cables, a protocol interface test box, and a comprehensive End of Line Test System.
t-box
Tumarc Telematics Gateway
The t-box or Tumarc Telematics Gateway is a black box device that connects to the vehicle network, and communicates with the outside world via a choice of wireless technologies. Essentially a dedicated computer, it interacts with diagnostics enabled ECUs on the vehicle through the manufacturer's diagnostic interface, and the Onboard Diagnostics (OBD) interface. The device provides a number of functions:
- Access Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs), and Parameter Identifiers (PIDs) from ECUs
- Write data to ECUs to configure or update ECUs software
- Activate on-board diagnostic routines and ECU self-tests and commands
- Report module data to external web services
The t-box captures and forwards core information, using 'data push-up' techniques, on various aspects of the vehicle to assist in its lifecycle management. t-box can be viewed as a service broker between the car and the outside world and vice versa, capable of publishing to web services which others can use, and allowing companies to integrate their value chain.
t-scan
Automotive Diagnostic Tool
Tumarc's t-scan is a highly flexible and portable automotive diagnostic tool that can access all the Electronic Control Units (ECUs) in a vehicle through the supported protocols. t-scan is available in both Handheld (Pocket PC) and PC (Windows) formats.
t-scan is designed to support an expanding number of protocols — and manufacturer specific versions of these protocols — to enable the user to work with any of a vehicle brand's ECUs.
The t-scan software works in conjunction with the Tumarc Vehicle Interface (TVI) to connect to a vehicle through the standard SAE J1962 diagnostics connector.
t-scan's simple and intuitive interface allows the user to review faults from an ECU, retrieve the code and write back updates and corrections.
t-scan is invaluable in the development and testing of pre-production vehicles and its rich functionality, portability and relative low-cost make it equally attractive to low-volume vehicle manufacturers, service centres and dealerships as a replacement for cumbersome and expensive diagnostic equipment in many situations.
t-scan is available in two forms. The "PRO" version can be engineered to work with all of the ECUs for a brand or model. t-scan OBD is the lighter weight version of the product that can retrieve information from OBD compliant modules.
t-script
Facilitating The Testing Of ECUs
One problem with many end-of-line ECU test systems is that the tests have to be written by software developers, rather than the engineers who understand the vehicle and its sub-systems. Adaptation or alteration of the test sequence can be both a time consuming and costly procedure.
t-script brings the development of diagnostics closer to the automotive engineer through a graphical interface that allows the creation of individual tests, or sequences of tests, without the need for programming expertise.
Tumarc t-script is an intuitive, easy to use flowcharting tool which allows engineers to quickly create tests, which are both self-documenting and simple to modify. Tests are generated using a basic "Test Author" template, which allows the elements of the test to be sequenced and manipulated through a "drag and drop" interface. The parameters of each element — for example ECU type, the PID to be read etc. — can also be edited as necessary.
Tumarc Vehicle Interface (TVI)
Accessing The Vehicle Network
The Tumarc Vehicle Interface hardware implements a number of common diagnostic protocols and uses the vehicle J1962 connector to connect to the vehicle bus. The number of protocols installed in the Vehicle Interface is customisable by the client.
Each protocol, and communications medium is implemented as a separate module allowing the customer to choose the configuration. The modular hardware design allows for component obsolescence and future implementations of communications protocols to be introduced quickly with minimal impact on the existing system.
A robust design has been developed, using up-to-date components, enabling the diagnostics protocols to be transmitted via RS232, 418MHz radio frequency, and Bluetooth.
Tumarc Diagnostics Suite
Facilitating The Automated Testing Of ECUs
Tumarc has a great deal of experience in testing vehicles at the end of a production assembly line and this knowledge has been put to use in developing a specialist automated test system. The system hardware is structured to enable the simultaneous use of multiple protocols, greatly enhancing testing speed and reducing cycle times. The system design paradigm of modularity enables Tumarc to provide small and large-scale systems. Built for the individual needs of the customer but using the same foundation and functionality units. It incorporates a graphical user interface allowing engineers to develop individual tests or sequences of tests, in a simple and efficient manner, without the need for programming expertise. Incorporation of an optimised database will allow users to interface with Intranet and Web technologies to generate reports on the test results.