The purpose of this article is to document how to set up openpilot for use with the:

• 2017 and 2018 CR-V (EX, EX-L, and Touring)
• 2017 and 2018 Civic Hatchback (Any trim with Honda Sensing)
• 2018 Accord (All trims)

Unplug OEM connector from camera and plug bosch giraffe into camera. OEM connector should then be plugged into the front of the giraffe. Plug panda into the ODB port, then connect EON and Giraffe with mini USB cable.

Update 8/31/2018 — Official comma giraffe available

Comma’s giraffe only has two switches! Use 1 1 for stock Honda sensing (also must unplug USB from EON). …

This documents how openpilot works with a car and how support is added. In this article, I am focusing on a Honda Odyssey, but the concepts described can be applied to a Toyota or a new make not supported by openpilot once you grok how they are used.

You can find the openpilot github repository here:

https://github.com/commaai/openpilot

1. Database Container

The .dbc file is a key that describes all of the traffic on the car’s network. Openpilot requires this to read data from your car’s canbus. The DBC is referenced from opendbc which is used to decode traffic on the canbus in realtime.

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A DBC file describes a car’s network traffic, what modules are on it, and their messages and signals.

Example

BO_ 342 STEERING_SENSORS: 6 EPS
SG_ STEER_ANGLE : 7|16@0- (-0.1,0) [-500|500] “deg” EON
SG_ STEER_ANGLE_RATE : 23|16@0- (1,0) [-3000|3000] “deg/s” EON
SG_ COUNTER : 45|2@0+ (1,0) [0|3] “” EON
SG_ CHECKSUM : 43|4@0+ (1,0) [0|3] “” EON

Here is what it means:

BO_ 342 STEERING_SENSORS: 6 EPS

BO_342 A group of messages and their id (ID is in decimal numbering). 342 is equivalent to 0x0156 hexadecimal format.

STEERING SENSORS Describes the group of signals. All of the signals for one ID come from a single ECU so…