A Comprehensible Guide to Controller Area Network - Softcover

Voss, Wilfried

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0976511606 ISBN 13: 9780976511601

Publisher: Copperhill Media Corporation, 2005

Synopsis

A Comprehensible Guide to Controller Area Network by Wilfried Voss represents the most thoroughly researched and most complete work on CAN available in the marketplace. Controller Area Network (CAN) is a serial network technology that was originally designed for the automotive industry, especially for European cars, but has also become a popular bus in industrial automation as well as other applications. The CAN bus is primarily used in embedded systems, and as its name implies, is a network technology that provides fast communication among microcontrollers up to real-time requirements, eliminating the need for the much more expensive and complex technology of a Dual-Ported RAM. This book provides complete information on all CAN features and aspects combined with a high level of readability. The author, Wilfred Voss, is the President of esd electronics, Inc., a company that specializes in CAN technology. The company is located in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Mr. Voss has worked in the CAN industry since 1997 and before that was a specialist in the paper industry. He has a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wuppertal in Germany. Mr. Voss has conducted numerous seminars on CAN and CANopen during various Real Time Embedded And Computing Conferences (RTECC) and ISA (Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society) events all over the United States and Canada.

About this title

Review

Controller area networks (CAN) are finding their way into more embedded control systems, in addition to vehicles where it has enjoyed a great deal of success. CAN controllers are found in most 8-, 16- and many 32-bit microcontrollers but few know how they work. If you need a crash course in CAN then this is the book for you.

Voss provides plenty of timing diagrams, logic tables, schematics and images that make understanding CAN and its basics a snap. Sprinkled throughout are useful notes and tips (Hear ye, hear ye's). All these combine for a quick read as well as making the book a quick reference.

The book is from a logical system perspective rather than taking a specific microcontroller as an example. This means you don't have to worry about specific implementation details, limitations or advantages.

This is one book I keep within reach on the shelf because most CAN-based microcontrollers rarely have documentation at this level--which is indispensable when dealing with CAN multiple platforms. -- electronic design - William Wong

I'll keep this brief, but I wanted to give this book the 5-star rating it deserves.

This book is a one-stop shop to go from "What the hell is CAN?" to "OK, now I know everything I need to know about *CAN*."

This book doesn't - and can't & shouldn't -- discuss higher layer protocols, nor the specifics of the CAN controller chip on your board. It (thankfully) sticks to the subject without getting distracted on tangential topics. (Note: I believe the author has a book coming out in early 2008 regarding the higher-layer J1939, I'll be waiting in line for that one too.)

The book is very clearly written, has lots of pictures (a must in any technical book), and is thorough & complete.

*Anyone* starting with CAN should start here. -- Amazon.com USA - Customer Reviews

The book is so well structured and narrative that even a newbie to CAN may learn essentials in a few days. Tough themes like bit timing and synchronization are introduced clearly with smart illustrations. The author is not trying to blow out pages with unnecessary details but rather selects content very carefully and builds a self-consistent guide based on (his) evident conscious experience. The guide's index is rather lean but covers all the main features I found useful for myself when was coding fw/sw CAN suite.

This small book gives intermediate-level description for low-level side of bus communication. For high-level CAN stuff see another rather good book, the "Embedded networking with CAN and CANopen" by O. Pfeiffer et al.

With the knowledge you get from the guide you most likely will not be able to create your own chip from the scratch ;-)... but definitely can develop your custom low-level s/w or f/w driver, as well as interpret waveforms on your scope with a greater confidence. -- Amazon.com USA - Customer Reviews

From the Author

The main reason to write this book was the lack of good printed English literature on CAN basics, which is somewhat disconcerting considering that the technology was first officially introduced in 1986.

There are three official documents describing the CAN standard, the Bosch CAN Specification Version 2.0, the CiA CAN Specification and ISO 11898. The CiA (CAN-in-Automation) specification is a mere copy of the Bosch document, while ISO 11898-1 is an expanded copy with a more scientific approach. All these documents, more often than not, leave ample room for interpretation of the explained topics by omitting elaborating comments, examples or pictures.

It was surprising to find that some special topics, for instance, the CAN Overload Flag, the Bit Stuffing procedure, Bit Resynchronization, and more, are still insufficiently documented. Other documents did provide interesting details, but were somewhat vague on other topics or, in some rare cases, plain wrong.

Some additional works, originally written in German (due to the origination of the technology) are hurt by poor translation, which in turn has a damaging effect on the readability.

There is also a vast amount of web sites that contain information on CAN, but they mostly provide only bits and pieces and, after all, they all have commercial aspects in mind.

Edition details

• Publisher: Copperhill Media Corporation
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0976511606
• ISBN 13: 9780976511601
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 164