Skip to content

Home

Jump to bottom
Simone Rondina edited this page Jul 10, 2026 · 2 revisions

DDD Tachograph Reader — User Manual

Welcome to DDD Tachograph Reader, an open-source tool for reading, exploring, and validating digital tachograph files (.ddd format). This manual covers everything you need to get started, whether you are a driver, fleet manager, workshop, or analyst.

The current release is v2.5.0 "Revolution", which adds interactive activity timelines, speed graphs, dashboards, and a re-engineered parser that recovers partial or malformed downloads.

Table of Contents

Section Description
Installation How to install on Windows, macOS, or from source
GUI Guide Using the Tacho Explorer desktop application
CLI Guide Command-line usage for scripting and automation
Export Guide Export formats: JSON, Excel, CSV, PDF
FAQ Frequently asked questions
Troubleshooting Common problems and solutions

What Is a .ddd File?

A .ddd file is a binary download from a digital tachograph. It contains:

  • Driver information: name, card number, issuing country, expiry date
  • Vehicle information: VIN, registration plate, country of registration
  • Daily activities: driving, work, rest, and availability periods with timestamps
  • GNSS positions: GPS coordinates recorded during trips (G2/G2.2)
  • Events and faults: driving without card, power interruptions, sensor faults
  • Digital signatures: cryptographic chain (ERCA → MSCA → Card/VU) proving file integrity

The tool supports all three generations of digital tachographs:

  • G1 (Generation 1): Classic digital tachographs, Annex 1B (Reg. 3821/85)
  • G2 (Generation 2): Smart Tachograph V1, Annex 1C (Reg. EU 2016/799)
  • G2.2 (Generation 2.2): Smart Tachograph V2, Reg. EU 2023/980

What's New in v2.5

  • Interactive daily activity timeline — driving / work / availability / rest on a 24-hour chart, with crew (dual-slot) support and out-of-scope markers.
  • Vehicles driven per day — for driver-card activity views, the vehicle(s) used each day, with switch-over times on multi-vehicle days.
  • Detailed speed graph — the speed curve with overspeeding event markers and a shaded over-speed zone.
  • Dashboards + monthly summaries — KPI cards and per-month totals for activities and speed.
  • Corrupt / partial download recovery — deterministic-first parsing with best-effort salvage; recovered data is clearly flagged.
  • TREP completeness inventory and origin detection (driver card vs VU download).
  • Full country names everywhere instead of raw nation codes.

A visual product tour is available on the project README.

Quick Start

  1. Download the build for your platform from GitHub Releases:
    • Windows: TachoReader-v<version>-windows-x64.zip
    • macOS: TachoReader-v<version>-macos.dmg
  2. Launch the application (extract the zip and run TachoReader.exe on Windows; open the DMG and drag TachoReader.app to Applications on macOS).
  3. Click "Open DDD file" and select your .ddd file.
  4. Explore the parsed data in the section tree, open the activity or speed charts, and export to PDF, Excel, CSV, or JSON.

For command-line usage, see the CLI Guide.

DDD Tachograph Reader — MIT License · Source · This wiki mirrors docs/user

Home

User Manual

Help

Links

Clone this wiki locally