CAN for beginner

Jul 21, 2003 2 Replies

We want to implement CAN protocol in a 15-day project at the graduate level Does anyone have any suggestions for something which would be light on h/w though at thesame time should implement all the features ?


Don't know what you mean by "all the features", but an easy start would be Lawicel WiCAN modules. Dontronics sells them. These are cheap 28-pin DIL modules that include an Atmel AVR processor (ATMEGA161L) and an SJA1000 CAN controller with 82C251 CAN driver. The modules have an RS232 port which make it easy to hook it up to a standard PC RS-232 port with Hyperterm (or better alternative..).

Lawicel has C libraries available for several AVR C compilers that make it easy to send/receive CAN messages. If you write a basic CAN monitor for it you should have no trouble teaching CAN from there. If your students are bright, hand them the chip specs and have them write the monitor themselves ;-)

Mind you, this is just the low level CAN communication, not any of the higher level protocols..

Rob

It's pretty unclear what you mean with that.

CAN, for starters, is not so much a protocol as a physical and link layer definition. Protocols like CANOpen and others use CAN as their foundation.

I hope you don't want to implement CAN itself within 15 days --- that would almost certainly be impossible.

All features of _what_?

Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de) Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

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