CCS News

CAN Bus Variations

Friday 19 February, 2021

The CAN protocol is a serial communication protocol that is used in the automotive industry for communicating between devices inside of a vehicle, the engine control unit and dashboard for example. Data is sent in frames and is done in such a way that if more then one device transmits at the same time the highest priority device is able to continue while the other device back off. There are two CAN standards that are in use today, CAN 2.0 and CAN FD. CAN 2.0 is the older of the two protocols and has two parts; part A is for the standard format with an 11-bit identifier, commonly called CAN 2.0A, and part B if for the extended format with a 29-bit identifier, commonly called CAN 2.0B. Both parts can transmit data with bit rates up to 1MBit/s with up to 8 data bytes.

CAN FD is a newer protocol that has flexible data-rate, an options for switching to a faster data rate, up to 5 Mbits/s, after the arbitration bits, which is limited to 1Mbits/s for compatibility with CAN 2.0, and it increases the max number of data bytes that can be transmitted in a frame to 64. CAN FD is compatible with existing CAN 2.0 networks so new CAN FD devices can coexist on the same network with existing CAN 2.0 devices.

There are several PIC® microcontrollers that have a built-in CAN 2.0 or CAN FD modules. For these devices, the CCS C Compiler comes with drivers for communicating with these protocols. There are separate drivers depending on the device being used. Additionally, the CCS C Compiler comes with several external CAN controllers. The following are a list of can drivers that are currently available in the CCS C Compiler:

can-pic18f_ecan.c - PIC18 CAN 2.0
can-pic24_dsPIC33.c - PIC24 and dsPIC33 CAN 2.0
can-dspic30f.c - dsPIC30 CAN 2.0
can-mcp2515.c - External MCP2515 controller CAN 2.0
can-dspic33_fd.c - dsPIC33 CAN FD
can-mcp2517.c - External MCP2517 controller CAN FD

J1939 is an upper level protocol that specifies how to send messages in a vehicle using the CAN 2.0 and CAN FD protocols. J1939 is maintained by SAE and the full J1939 specifications can be obtained from them. The J1939 is broken into several layers including, but not limited to, the Data Link Layer, Network Layer and Application Layer. These layers contain information about how to communicate on the network, how to claim an address, the format of messages, how often a message can be transmitted, etc. The CCS C Compiler comes with a J1939.c driver which is a library for the Data Link Layer running on a CAN 2.0 protocol network. The library has functions for claiming an address, responding to address claim messages, transmitting J1939 messages and receive J1939 messages.

Additionally, CCS also has several CAN development kits that can be used to aid in developing CAN Bus and J1939 projects. Each development kit has four nodes on it that can communicate with each other, as well as headers allowing the kit to be connected to an external Bus.

The first development kit CCS has is the CAN Bus development kit which has a PIC18F45K80 on the primary node and a PIC16F1938 on the secondary node. The primary node the PIC® MCU uses its built-in CAN peripheral for communicating on the Bus. The secondary node the PIC® MCU uses an external MCP2515 CAN controller for communicating on the Bus.

The second development kit CCS has is the CAN Bus 24 development kit which has a PIC24HJ256GP610 on the primary node and a dsPIC30F4012 on the secondary node. Like the previous kit, the primary node the PIC® MCU uses is its built-in CAN peripheral for communicating on the Bus and the secondary node PIC uses an external MCP2515 CAN controller for communicating on the Bus.

Finally coming soon, CCS with have the CAN Bus FD development kit which features a dsPIC33CH128MP506 on the primary node and a PIC16F18346 on the secondary node. The primary node the PIC® MCU uses is its built-in CAN FD peripheral for communicating on the bus, and the secondary node the PIC® MCU uses an external MCP2517 CAN FD controller for communicating on the Bus.


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About CCS:

CCS is a leading worldwide supplier of embedded software development tools that enable companies to develop premium products based on Microchip PIC® MCU and dsPIC® DSC devices. Complete proven tool chains from CCS include a code optimizing C compiler, application specific hardware platforms and software development kits. CCS' products accelerate development of energy saving industrial automation, wireless and wired communication, automotive, medical device and consumer product applications. Established in 1992, CCS is a Microchip Premier 3rd Party Partner. For more information, please visit https://www.ccsinfo.com.

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