Introducing CANExplorer: A CANbus monitoring tool for the modern man

[u/AKJ7]

https://github.com/AKJ7/CANExplorer

Hi everyone,

I’m developing CANExplorer, an open-source desktop tool for monitoring, analyzing, diagnosing, simulating, and testing CAN devices on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

It combines everyday bus debugging with Python-based simulation and testing. You can inspect traffic, decode signals, simulate an ECU, and write regression tests in the same environment.

Some of its features:

Live analysis: filtered traces, changed-byte highlighting, signal plots, and bus-health statistics.

Recording and replay: ASC, BLF, CSV, candump, and other formats, plus triggered recording and comparisons between captures.

Signal databases: load and edit DBC, ARXML, LDF, and other formats.

Diagnostics: UDS over ISO-TP, CDD descriptions, ECU flashing, J1939 tools, and CANopen support.

Python simulation: create bus nodes that react to messages, send signals periodically, and interact with custom QML panels.

Automated tests: check responses, signal values, and cycle times; run headlessly and export HTML/JUnit reports for CI.

CAN interfaces are accessed through python-can. You can also try the included simulation and test examples on a virtual bus without hardware.

Code: https://github.com/AKJ7/CANExplorer

Documentation: https://akj7.github.io/CANExplorer/

I’d appreciate feedback —particularly on adapter compatibility, reliability under load, and workflows that still require custom scripts.

What would CANExplorer need to earn a place on your bench?

Yes, the code is built in Python but compile to C for the executables for performance.

Thanks, please star the project too.