We are interfacing to a device which transmits the output of a real-time clock chip over CAN. I went through the steps of setting up a PGN and mapping the parameters to a device I created on CanPort1. This did not work in that the database variables were all zero. I then attempted the same thing using FreeFormCan and it did work. My question is why did the J1939 approach not work? Here is what I did:
1. Added PGN 61354 and called it RTC. The CAN message id is 0x18EFAA00.
2 .Added parameter mappings for all the bytes. Year, Month, Day, etc.
3. Added HED device to CANPort1.
4. Mapped parameters from step 2 to J1939.HED.Year, J1939.HED.Month, etc. with AutoCreate checkmarked.
5. Created Text Gauge "TG Year" and mapped it to variable J1939.HED.Year

6. I did something similar with FreeFormCAN, and displayed FFC.Year, FFC.Month, etc. and the values matched the data on the CAN bus.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Unless your device is using address 0xAA, you need to insure that the box marked treat PDU1 as PDU2 in the j1939 port manager application is checked. Using PGN 0xEFAA, is a PDU1 message with a destination address of 0xAA.

Worked great! Thanks.