The CANPIC CAN232 from Embedded Micro Software (www.emicros.com) is a very economical way to connect a computer with a serial port to a Controller Area Network (CAN). The CANPIC CAN232 is designed to be easy to use and easy to design applications to interface to a CAN network. The CANPIC CAN232 connects to the computer’s serial port.

• Send and receive CAN messages
• Develop powerful CAN applications using PC software
• Compact design is ideal for portable applications
• Simulate network traffic to test module applications

The CANPIC CAN232 is intended to be a low-cost alternative to the PCMCIA, PC Bus Cards, and serial interface cards used to connect a PC to the CAN network. In order to keep the cost low while maintaining a high degree of functionality, the CANPIC CAN232 relies on a PIC18F258 processor from MicroChip.

The software included is general in nature and is intended to aid in getting your application up and running quickly.

The following block diagram shows the hardware and software model.

The CANPIC CAN232 uses the PIC18F258 microcontroller from Microchip with an integrated CAN controller to connect to the network.

• Support for CAN Specification 2.0
• Standard 11 bit message identifier data and remote frames
• Extended 29 bit message identifier data and remote frames
• Global Identifier Masks (Acceptance filters)
• 3 Transmit message buffers
• 2 Receive Message buffers
• Programmable Bit Rate

The physical layer is a Phillips 82C250.

The CANPIC CAN232 provides a user interface consisting of simple ASCII commands as well as binary commands for custom applications. Using terminal programs such as the TERMINAL.EXE program under Windows, a user can access the CAN network with simple text commands. Binary commands are also included for optimized interfacing to computer program control such as applications written using Delphi, Visual Basic, or C++.