CAN PROTOCOL

  Introduction to CAN: -

            The Controller Area Network (CAN) is a serial communications protocol. CAN is
widely used in automotive electronics for engine control, sensors etc.  

Layers of CAN: -

            The CAN functionality is divided into two layers.

1)      Data link layer.

2)      Physical layer.

                       Data link layer: -

                                    Data link layer is subdivided into two layers

1)      Logical link layer: -

            Accept the messages by filtering process, overload notification and

recovery management tasks will be taken care by this layer.

2)      MAC (medium access control) layer: -

This layer will do the data encapsulation; frame coding, media access
management, error detection and signaling and acknowledgment tasks.

                        Physical layer: -

This layer deals with the bit encoding and de coding, bit timing, synchronization
processes. 

CAN properties: -
  Multicast reception with time synchronization: Simultaneously multiple nodes can
receive the frame.

 Multimaster: When the bus is free any unit may start to transmit a message. The unit
with the message of higher priority to be transmitted gains bus access.

 Prioritization of messages: Depending on the importance of messages the priorities will

be given to the different messages.

 Arbitration: Whenever the bus is free, any unit may start to transmit a message. If 2 or
more units start transmitting messages simultaneously, which unit gets the bus access that will
be depend on bitwise arbitration using the identifier. The mechanism of arbitration guarantees
that neither information nor time is lost.

 System wide data consistency.

 Message Routing: An identifier names the content of a message. The identifier does not
indicate the destination of the message, but describes the meaning of the data, so that all nodes
in the network are able to decide by message filtering whether the data is to be acted upon by
them or not.

 Remote Data Request: By sending a remote frame a node requiring data may request
another node to send the corresponding data frame. The same identifier names the data frame
and the corresponding remote frame.

 Error detection and signaling.

 Automatic retransmission of corrupted messages as soon as the bus is idle again.

 There is a distinction between temporary errors and permanent failures of nodes and
autonomous switching off of defect nodes.

CAN Controller -MCP

The MCP2510 18-pin stand-alone CAN (Control Area Network) controller features an industry
standard SPI serial interface, enabling an easy connection to virtually any microcontroller. The
MCP2510 provides immediate CAN support across the entire breadth of Microchip’s 100+ PICmicro
microcontrollers, providing a seamless migration path and maximum design flexibility for CAN
designs. The MCP2510 contains on-board features, such as interrupt capability, message masking and
filtering, message prioritization, multi-purpose I/O pins, and multiple transmit/receive buffers which
significantly offload the microcontroller overhead required to handle CAN message traffic.

Features
• Implements Full CAN V2.0A and V2.0B at 1 Mb/s:
- 0 - 8 byte message length
- Standard and extended data frames
- Programmable bit rate up to 1 Mb/s
- Support for remote frames
- Two receive buffers with prioritized message storage
- Six full acceptance filters
- Two full acceptance filter masks
- Three transmit buffers with prioritization and abort features
- Loop-back mode for self test operation

• Hardware Features:
- High Speed SPI Interface
- Supports SPI modes 0,0 and 1,1
- Clock out pin with programmable prescaler
- Interrupt output pin with selectable enables
- ‘Buffer full’ output pins configurable as interrupt pins for each receive buffer or as general purpose
digital outputs
- ‘Request to Send’ input pins configurable as control pins to request immediate message transmission
for each transmit buffer or as general purpose digital inputs
- Low Power Sleep mode
• Low power CMOS technology:

CAN Transceiver –MCP2551

The MCP2551 is a high-speed CAN transceiver, fault-tolerant device that serves as the interface
between a CAN protocol controller and the physical bus. The MCP2551 provides differential transmit
and receive capability for the CAN protocol controller and is fully compatible with the ISO-11898
standard, including 24V requirements. It will operate at speeds of up to 1 Mb/s.

Features
• Supports 1 Mb/s operation
• Implements ISO-11898 standard physical layer requirements
• Suitable for 12V and 24V systems
• Externally-controlled slope for reduced RFI emissions
• Detection of ground fault (permanent dominant) on TXD input
• Power-on reset and voltage brown-out protection
• An unpowered node or brown-out event will not disturb the CAN bus
• Low current standby operation
• Protection against damage due to short-circuit conditions (positive or negative battery voltage)
• Protection against high-voltage transients
• Automatic thermal shutdown protection
• Up to 112 nodes can be connected
• High noise immunity due to differential bus implementation