Streamlining Automotive Testing With Real-Time Documentation: Kober’s Success Story With SimpleBLE

Streamlining Automotive Testing With Real-Time Documentation: Kober’s Success Story With SimpleBLE

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

• Kober Engineering revolutionized automotive testing by implementing a *hands-free audio documentation system* to eliminate workflow pauses.
• Their solution, powered by SimpleBLE, seamlessly integrated with a Linux-based car computer, abstracting complex D-Bus interactions.
• The initiative resulted in *significantly improved productivity*, faster development cycles, and reliable data capture in demanding test environments.
• The project demonstrated the importance of prioritizing abstraction, embracing real-time data capture, and selecting cross-platform solutions for future scalability.
• SimpleBLE offers a robust, production-ready foundation for C++ developers across various industries needing precise BLE management.

• The Bottleneck: Too Many Pauses, Too Little Progress in Vehicle Testing Workflows
• SimpleBLE: The Foundation for Kober’s Hands-Free Solution
• Tangible Outcomes: Kober’s Road to Enhanced Efficiency
• A Glimpse Into the Real-World Application
• Actionable Steps for Your Own Projects
• Apply SimpleBLE to Your Projects
• Frequently Asked Questions

“Can you imagine a production line that comes to a halt every time a worker has to log data? It sounds unthinkable; yet that’s exactly what happens during many vehicle testing workflows. Automotive testing usually faces a similar bottleneck: testers are forced to pause to manually document observations, *disrupting workflows and delaying results*. It’s important to keep in mind that these interruptions not only affect productivity, but also increase the risk of errors, incomplete data, and missed issues during fast-paced testing scenarios.

Faced with this challenge, Kober Engineering, a leading automotive firm with teams in both Austria and Germany, set out to build a smarter solution. The result? A hands-free audio documentation system powered by SimpleBLE. Their solution allowed testers to record findings in real time, improving efficiency, safety and keeping projects on schedule. Curious how Kober Engineering solved this challenge using SimpleBLE?

Interested in what other technical teams can take away from their approach? Let’s take a closer look.

The Bottleneck: Too Many Pauses, Too Little Progress in Vehicle Testing Workflows

In automotive development, vehicle testing plays a critical role in validating whether key systems, such as electronic control units (ECUs) and CAN-bus interfaces, perform reliably under real-world conditions. However, traditional testing methods often lead to inefficiencies: if a tester detects a CAN-bus error during a test drive, they must pull over, retrieve a notebook or tablet, and manually log the issue. This disruption not only breaks concentration, slowing the session, but also *increases the risk of missing or inaccurately recording critical data*. Over time, these repeated interruptions can become a significant bottleneck in the overall testing cycle.

Kober Engineering was tasked with developing a hands-free documentation system that would allow testers to record observations without stopping the vehicle or interrupting the test. The solution had to integrate with their Linux-based in-house car computer, already connected to the vehicle’s CAN-bus, and communicate in real time with a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) peripheral to handle voice input and command execution. It needed to deliver low latency and high reliability while meeting the demanding standards of the automotive industry, and all of this had to be completed within tight project deadlines.

The core problem was clear: every pause to manually document data represented *lost time, potential errors, and a significant drag on project timelines*. Kober recognized that an innovative approach was required to maintain continuous, accurate data collection during dynamic testing scenarios, ultimately leading to faster development cycles and more reliable vehicle systems.

SimpleBLE: The Foundation for Kober’s Hands-Free Solution

The solution Kober Engineering developed leveraged real-time audio logging with seamless BLE integration. Without SimpleBLE, Kober Engineering would have faced the additional complexity of interfacing directly with BlueZ, Linux’s Bluetooth stack. This is done using an inter-process communication system called D-Bus. To interact with BlueZ, developers must create object representations of the Bluetooth system, using D-Bus to model BlueZ’s hierarchical structure of objects, such as adapters and devices, each identified by unique paths. BlueZ organizes its functionality internally as a tree of D-Bus objects, where each object exposes interfaces with methods and signals to handle property updates. This requires crafting D-Bus method calls, monitoring signals for events, and parsing responses, a *tedious and error-prone process* that wasn’t suitable given the available time to deliver the project.

Kober Engineering selected SimpleBLE for its compatibility with their Linux environment, where all the interactions with BlueZ over D-Bus were completely abstracted away in its *intuitive C++ API*, as well as its proven reliability in real-world applications.

The development process was straightforward. Kober integrated SimpleBLE into their system to manage communication with the BLE peripheral, which handled voice input and executed commands such as starting or stopping recordings. This allowed testers to document findings, like a CAN-bus fault or sensor anomaly, without disrupting their workflow. For instance, a tester could say “intermittent signal drop at 60 km/h” while driving, and the system would capture and store the audio for later transcription. The testing session could *continue smoothly and without interruptions*.

Under the hood, the implementation made full use of SimpleBLE’s capabilities, which allowed for:

• Scanning for BLE peripherals and retrieving advertised data, such as device names and signal strengths, to identify the target peripheral.
• Initiating and terminating connections to the BLE peripheral with configured timeout periods and callbacks to track connection status.
• Querying the peripheral’s services and characteristics, including their UUIDs and properties like read or write permissions.
• Subscribing to characteristic notifications to receive real-time data from the peripheral for logging during vehicle tests.
• Sending control messages to the peripheral to manage its operation.

By *abstracting away the intricacies of D-Bus* and providing a robust, easy-to-use C++ API, SimpleBLE empowered Kober Engineering to focus on the core logic of their hands-free system rather than getting bogged down in low-level Bluetooth communication details. This significantly accelerated their development timeline and ensured a stable, high-performance solution.

Tangible Outcomes: Kober’s Road to Enhanced Efficiency

The results were *immediate and practical*:

• Improved Productivity: Hands-free documentation eliminated pauses, allowing testers to focus on driving and diagnostics. This mirrors voice-activated systems in medical settings, where doctors dictate notes during procedures to maintain efficiency. Testers could now maintain full concentration on the vehicle’s behavior, leading to more thorough and efficient test drives.
• Faster Development: SimpleBLE’s intuitive API enabled Kober’s team to implement the solution quickly, *meeting tight project deadlines*. Development speed was crucial, as delays in automotive testing can ultimately delay product launches. The rapid integration allowed Kober to deliver value to its clients much faster than anticipated.
• Reliable Performance: The solution delivered consistent connectivity, ensuring audio recordings and commands were handled without errors, even in demanding test environments. This reliability is paramount in automotive applications, where *precision and data integrity are non-negotiable*.
• Future Flexibility: While focused on Linux, SimpleBLE’s support for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android gave Kober’s team the confidence to adapt the solution to other platforms if needed. This cross-platform compatibility ensures the solution’s longevity and scalability for future projects or expansions.

Kober’s success highlights how a well-chosen library can *dramatically impact project outcomes*, moving from a concept to a fully functional, production-ready system with efficiency and confidence.

A Glimpse Into the Real-World Application

Imagine a test engineer, cruising at 120 km/h on a test track, monitoring a new engine control unit. Suddenly, an unusual vibration is detected. Instead of fumbling for a tablet and breaking concentration, the engineer simply states, “Vibration detected, RPM 4500, specific frequency 120 Hz, occurring intermittently.” The SimpleBLE-powered system captures this audio, tags it with real-time vehicle data (speed, GPS coordinates, timestamps), and *continues logging without a single interruption* to the driving session. This immediate, hands-free data capture ensures no critical detail is missed, improving the quality and completeness of testing results.

Actionable Steps for Your Own Projects

Kober Engineering’s experience offers valuable lessons for any technical team facing similar integration challenges or looking to optimize workflows:

1. Prioritize Abstraction for Complex Systems: Just as Kober avoided direct D-Bus interaction by using SimpleBLE, identify areas in your project where low-level system interactions are time-consuming and error-prone. Seek out libraries or frameworks that provide a clean, intuitive API to abstract these complexities, allowing your team to focus on core application logic and *accelerate development*.
2. Embrace Real-Time Data Capture for Uninterrupted Workflows: Kober’s success hinged on eliminating pauses. Evaluate your own workflows to identify bottlenecks caused by manual data entry or intermittent logging. Investigate solutions that enable *continuous, real-time data capture*, whether through voice, sensors, or automated processes, to maintain flow and enhance productivity and data accuracy.
3. Select Cross-Platform Solutions for Future Scalability: SimpleBLE‘s multi-platform support provided Kober with invaluable confidence for future expansion. When choosing tools and libraries, consider their compatibility across various operating systems and devices. This foresight can save significant re-development effort and costs down the line, ensuring your solution remains *adaptable and scalable*.

Apply SimpleBLE to Your Projects

Kober Engineering’s experience shows how SimpleBLE can address real-world challenges in automotive testing. By enabling real-time, voice-based documentation, they improved tester productivity, accelerated development, and delivered a reliable solution that met industry standards. But this approach is not limited to the automotive sector. SimpleBLE’s versatility makes it equally valuable across a wide range of industries. With intuitive APIs, platform abstraction, and low-level control, SimpleBLE is ideal for C++ developers who need precise management of connections, services, and characteristics. Whether your project involves telemetry, remote configuration, or sensor data streaming, SimpleBLE provides a *robust, production-ready foundation*.

Kober’s success is a strong proof of what’s possible. Whether you’re building tools for device management or real-time monitoring, SimpleBLE offers a proven, efficient path forward.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the primary problem Kober Engineering aimed to solve?

Kober Engineering aimed to solve the problem of workflow interruptions during automotive testing, where testers had to pause to manually document observations. This led to lost time, potential errors, and delayed project timelines.

How did SimpleBLE help Kober Engineering achieve their solution?

SimpleBLE provided an intuitive C++ API that abstracted away the complexities of directly interfacing with BlueZ (Linux’s Bluetooth stack) via D-Bus. This allowed Kober’s team to focus on the core logic of their hands-free audio documentation system, accelerating development and ensuring reliable BLE communication for voice input and command execution.

What tangible benefits did Kober Engineering realize from implementing the SimpleBLE-powered system?

Kober Engineering saw improved productivity by eliminating pauses, faster development thanks to SimpleBLE‘s API, reliable performance with consistent connectivity, and future flexibility due to SimpleBLE‘s cross-platform support (Linux, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android).

Can SimpleBLE be used in industries other than automotive?

Yes, SimpleBLE‘s versatility makes it valuable across a wide range of industries beyond automotive, such as telemetry, remote configuration, sensor data streaming, and device management. Its intuitive APIs and platform abstraction make it suitable for any C++ developer needing precise control over BLE connections, services, and characteristics.

Where can I find more information or get started with SimpleBLE?

You can explore SimpleBLE and get started by visiting the SimpleBLE GitHub repository.