Re: [avr-gcc-list] Anyone interface an AVR with a CAN bus?

[Alan Kilian]

> I need to control a CAN bus from an AVR, probably using the PCA82C251
> can trransiever.  Does anyone have any experience with this IC or with
> interfacing CANs?   At this point I just need to know if it'll suffice
> to attache the TX and RX pins to any of the PORTx pins on an atmega, or
> if I should attach them to some proprietary pins like the ouput/input
> counter pins?


  Reza,

    It depends on how fast your CAN bus is operating and which exact
    AVR processor you want to use.

    Some CAN busses run at 1 megabit-per-second, and trying to sample
    I/O pins to read and write the bus will be difficult I think.

    If you choose to wait for the AT90CAN128, then you can just
    wire the AVR to the interface chip and be done. Although getting
    a 64-pin QFP package on a PCB will also eb a challenge.

    I'm not planning on trying to bit-bang CAN anytime soon, so I 
    think I'll look at a CAN controller like the SJA1000 and
    then I can use any old AVR to talk to it.

    What are you planning on using CAN for?

                             -Alan

-- 
- Alan Kilian <alank(at)timelogic.com> 
Director of Bioinformatics, TimeLogic Corporation 763-449-7622