An open-source hardware and software platform for vehicle embedded systems, built with Elixir, Nerves, Phoenix, and Flutter.
OVCS tackles vendor parts lock-in in transportation by redesigning the embedded systems in a vehicle. It allows parts from different brands to seamlessly communicate and creates an abstraction layer on top of them that can be standardized, extended, and monitored.
OVCS was started in early 2024 by Marc Lainez, Loic Vigneron, and Thibault Poncelet at Spin42. The project was born from a desire to make vehicle embedded computing accessible using simple, off-the-shelf components and high-level programming languages.
The first full-size platform, OVCS1, is a 2007 Volkswagen Polo converted to an electric vehicle using a Nissan Leaf AZE0 drivetrain, a Bosch iBooster Gen2 brake system, an Orion BMS2 battery management system, and custom Arduino-based controllers -- all orchestrated by Elixir running on Raspberry Pis via the Nerves framework.
A smaller-scale platform, OVCS Mini, replicates the same software and hardware stack on a Traxxas 4WD RC car, enabling safe development and testing of remote control and ROS2 features before deploying to the full-size vehicle.
- CAN bus abstraction -- The Cantastic library provides a YAML-driven CAN bus communication layer that handles frame encoding/decoding, signal extraction, and multi-bus routing via Linux SocketCAN.
- Multi-vendor component integration -- Seamlessly makes parts from Nissan, Volkswagen, Bosch, Orion, and custom OVCS components work together by isolating and bridging their CAN buses.
- Vehicle Management System (VMS) -- The central brain of the vehicle, running on a Raspberry Pi 4, that translates and orchestrates all vehicle components.
- Infotainment system -- An in-car touchscreen UI built with Flutter running on a Raspberry Pi 5, providing gear selection, vehicle status, and diagnostics.
- Remote control -- Drive the vehicle using a MAVLink-compatible RC transmitter via a dedicated bridge on a Raspberry Pi 3A.
- ROS2 integration -- A bridge for Robot Operating System 2 communication, enabling autonomous driving research with IMU data publishing and joystick interpretation.
- Generic controllers -- Arduino R4 Minima-based controllers that interface with specific vehicle components via CAN bus, receiving their configuration from the VMS through an over-the-air adoption process.
- OBD2 diagnostics -- A diagnostic mode for reading standard OBD2 data from any vehicle.
- Debug dashboard -- A real-time Vue.js web dashboard for monitoring vehicle metrics, CAN bus traffic, and component status during development.
OVCS is designed around multiple isolated CAN buses to prevent message conflicts between components from different manufacturers. The VMS acts as the central hub, connected to all buses.
+---------------------+
| Infotainment |
| (RPi 5 + Flutter) |
+---------+-----------+
|
OVCS CAN Bus
|
+------------------+ +-----------+-----------+ +------------------+
| Radio Control | | | | ROS Bridge |
| Bridge (RPi 3A) +----+ VMS (RPi 4) +----+ (RPi 4/5) |
+------------------+ | Central Brain | +------------------+
+-+---+---+---+---+---+-+
| | | | | |
+-----+ | | | | +------+
| | | | | |
Leaf CAN Polo CAN | BMS CAN Misc CAN
|
OVCS CAN
|
+----------+----------+
| | |
Controller Controller Controller
(Arduino) (Arduino) (Arduino)
See the hardware architecture documentation for more details.
This is a monorepo containing multiple independent applications:
ovcs/
+-- vms/ Vehicle Management System
| +-- core/ Elixir library - VMS business logic, component drivers, vehicle composers
| +-- api/ Phoenix JSON API + WebSocket server for the debug dashboard
| +-- dashboard/ Vue.js real-time debug dashboard (Vite + ECharts + TailwindCSS)
| +-- firmware/ Nerves firmware targeting Raspberry Pi 4
|
+-- infotainment/ Infotainment System
| +-- core/ Elixir library - infotainment business logic, layout, pages
| +-- api/ Phoenix JSON API + WebSocket server for the Flutter dashboard
| +-- dashboard/ Flutter/Dart in-car touchscreen application
| +-- firmware/ Nerves firmware targeting Raspberry Pi 5
|
+-- bridges/ Communication Bridges
| +-- radio_control_bridge/ MAVLink RC transmitter bridge (Nerves on RPi 3A)
| +-- ros_bridge/ ROS2/Zenoh bridge with IMU support (Nerves on RPi 4/5)
|
+-- controllers/ Arduino Controllers
| +-- generic_controller/ PlatformIO C++ project for Arduino R4 Minima
|
+-- libraries/ Shared Libraries
| +-- cantastic/ CAN bus communication library (Elixir, SocketCAN)
|
+-- scripts/ Utility Scripts
| +-- setup_can.sh Setup physical CAN interfaces
| +-- setup_virtual_can.sh Setup virtual CAN interfaces for local development
| +-- setup_flutter.sh Flutter environment setup
| +-- bind_remote_can.rb Bind to remote CAN interfaces over network
| +-- faker.rb Generate fake CAN data for testing
|
+-- config/ Global Configuration
| +-- bms_config.o2bms Orion BMS2 configuration
|
+-- candumps/ CAN bus capture logs for offline testing and replay
+-- docs/ Project documentation
+-- ovcs CLI tool for building, burning, and uploading firmware
| Vehicle | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| OVCS1 | 2007 VW Polo converted to EV with Nissan Leaf AZE0 motor, Bosch iBooster Gen2, Orion BMS2, VW Polo 9N original systems | Drivable (manual + remote) |
| OVCS Mini | Traxxas 4WD RC car with the same OVCS software/hardware stack for development and testing | Operational |
| OBD2 | Diagnostic mode for reading OBD2 data from any vehicle via a standard OBD plug | Operational |
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Vehicle control logic | Elixir |
| Embedded firmware | Nerves (Linux + Erlang/OTP on Raspberry Pi) |
| Web APIs | Phoenix Framework 1.7 |
| In-car UI | Flutter / Dart |
| Debug dashboard | Vue.js 3 + Vite + ECharts |
| CAN bus communication | Cantastic (Elixir + Linux SocketCAN) |
| Controllers | C++ / PlatformIO on Arduino R4 Minima |
| Database | SQLite via Ecto |
| Real-time communication | Phoenix Channels (WebSocket) |
| ROS2 integration | Zenoh + MQTT |
See the full Getting Started guide for detailed instructions.
- Linux (or a Linux VM on macOS -- see getting started)
- asdf version manager
- Erlang 27.3+, Elixir 1.17+, Node.js 24+, Ruby 3.3+
can-utilsandlibsocketcankernel support- Nerves (for firmware builds)
# Setup virtual CAN interfaces
./scripts/setup_virtual_can.sh
# Start the VMS API (in one terminal)
cd vms/api
mix deps.get
mix phx.server
# Start the VMS debug dashboard (in another terminal)
cd vms/dashboard
npm install
npm run devSee Applications for more details on running each component.
Build, burn, or upload firmware using the ovcs CLI tool:
# Build firmware
./ovcs -c build -a [vms|infotainment|radio-control-bridge|ros-bridge] -v [ovcs1|ovcs-mini]
# Burn to SD card
./ovcs -c burn -a [vms|infotainment] -v [ovcs1|ovcs-mini]
# Upload over the network
./ovcs -c upload -a [vms|infotainment] -v [ovcs1|ovcs-mini] -h [host|ip]| Event | Date | Links |
|---|---|---|
| ElixirConf EU 2024 | April 2024 | Video: Retrofitting a Car and Running it with Elixir -- Slides |
| Makilab | November 2024 | Slides |
| FOSDEM 2025 | February 2025 | Video: Converting an '07 car to an RC EV using open source software -- Video: Building a robot from a Traxxas RC car -- Slides |
| OVCS Teaser | 2025 | Video: Open Vehicle Control System teaser |
Subscribe to the Spin42 Engineering YouTube channel for video updates, demos, and build logs.
Full documentation is available in the docs/ directory:
- Getting Started -- Environment setup and installation
- Applications -- Application descriptions and local development
- Hardware Architecture -- Hardware design and component overview
- Running on Hardware -- Firmware deployment and configuration
- Testing CAN Messages -- Simulating CAN traffic for development
- Testing Generic Controllers -- Controller adoption and I/O testing
OVCS is provided as-is without any warranty. Use it at your own risk. It is not road-certified and therefore does not meet all required criteria to be so. We decline any responsibility for any incident resulting from the usage of OVCS. OVCS is a hobby research project.
MIT License -- Copyright (c) 2026 Spin42 SRL