CAN presets
Applies to: IOcan · Standalone controller. What this means
A preset is a module someone has already decoded for you. Instead of finding a frame on the bus, working out which bits carry the value and building an input by hand, you pick the module from a list and its signals appear ready to assign.
This page explains what that buys you and how much of it already exists. It matters most before you commit to a build, because it is the difference between an afternoon and a project.
What a preset actually does
Without one, adding a signal means: capture the bus, find the frame, work out the byte offset, the length, the byte order and the scaling, build a CAN input, then discover under load that the byte order was wrong.
With one, you add the preset to a CAN bus, set its base ID if it has one, and
assign named signals — RPM, Pedal position, Oil temperature — to the
inputs your controller needs.
The preset does the decoding. You do the assigning.
What exists
Around ninety modules are decoded in the current firmware. Not all of them are engine ECUs — a preset covers any module worth talking to:
| What | Roughly how many | Where the list is |
|---|---|---|
| Aftermarket engine ECUs | 18 | Aftermarket ECU integration — one page each |
| OEM engine ECUs | 21 | Supported vehicles & modules |
| Transmission control units | 5 | ″ |
| Shifters | 13 | Shifter integration |
| Paddles | 5 | Supported vehicles & modules |
| Dashboards and clusters | 9 | ″ |
| ABS modules | 3 | ″ |
| Keypads, displays and switch boards | 6 | ″ |
| Vehicle body and chassis | 5 | ″ |
| Emulators | 5 | see below |
Supported vehicles & modules is the full list, by manufacturer and function. This page is about the mechanism; that one is the inventory.
Emulators work the other way round
Most presets read a module. A handful pretend to be one, so the rest of the car carries on as though the original were still fitted:
- Shifter emulators — E-series, F-series 8HP and F-series DCT
- Paddle emulator — BMW
- DME emulation — MSS54
These matter on a swap where a module has been removed but something else on the bus still expects to hear from it.
Presets do not cover everything
No supported ECU preset supplies every mandatory input. Every build sources at least one signal from outside its preset — most often the brake switch, which only one supported ECU stream carries at all. Plan on a device input for it. The per-ECU pages state exactly what each one is missing: Aftermarket ECU integration.
A preset is also not evidence that a signal is useful. Some presets expose fields the stream never populates — those are listed in Stated limitations.
If your module has no preset
You are not stuck. Any module that transmits on CAN can be integrated by hand, and the tooling for it is better than it used to be: the CAN Analyzer's Custom Input builds a definition against live traffic, shows the decoded value while you set it up, and transfers the finished input into your configuration.
Three ECUs are documented that way already — Syvecs, Link and ECUMaster EMU PRO. The route is on How to map an unsupported ECU.
If you get one working, send us the mapping at sales@apex-control.com. That is how a good number of the presets above came to exist.