Overview
Easy to use PC based CAN bus analyser that communicates directly with CANdo
Supports 11 bit (CAN 2.0A) & 29 bit (CAN 2.0B) arbitrators
Displays data, remote & error frames
Displays a timestamp for each message
Allows up to 50 user specified transmit messages
Transmissions either periodic or key triggered
Selectable baud rate from 6.25k to 1M
Listen only mode for non-intrusive bus snooping
Receive message filtering for high bus loads
Multiple application instances connect to multiple CANdo on the same PC
References
CAN Specification Version 2 (1991), Robert Bosch
GmbH
ISO11898-1 Controller Area Network - Data link layer
2
and physical signalling.
ISO11898-2 Controller Area Network - High-speed
3
medium access unit.
1
Glossary
API
CAN
CRC
DLC
EMC
EU
ISO
LED
PC
RAM
ROM
SDK
USB
Application Programming Interface
Controller Area Network
Cyclic Redundancy Check
Data Length Code
ElectroMagnetic Compatibility
European Union
International Organization for Standardization
Light Emitting Diode
Personal Computer
Random Access Memory
Read Only Memory
Software Development Kit
Universal Serial Bus
System Requirements
CANdo application minimum PC system requirements
Linux (kernel v2.6 or newer) operating system
Pentium III 500MHz or equivalent
Display with a resolution of 1024x768 pixels & 256 colours
USB port (version 1.1, 2.0 or 3.0 compliant).
CD ROM drive
256M bytes of RAM
10M bytes of free disk space
New
'New', clears the current configuration.
The 'CAN View' mode, 'CAN Transmit' list, 'CAN Transmit Editor', & 'CAN Setup' are all
cleared to the default configuration. The configuration file name in the title bar is cleared &
the user is prompted to check the 'CAN Setup' for the new configuration.
Load
'Load', loads a previously saved configuration from a file on the PC.
The 'CAN View' mode, 'CAN Transmit' list, 'CAN Transmit Editor' & 'CAN Setup' are all
retrieved from the selected configuration file.
Save/Save As
'Save', saves the current configuration to a user specified file on the PC.
In the file dialog box that appears on pressing 'Save', type a file name for the current
configuration to be saved (the file extension is automatically added). The file name of the
saved configuration appears in the title bar. Pressing 'Save' again saves any changes to the
specified file without bringing up the file dialog box again.
Pressing 'Save As' allows a new configuration file name to be specified for the current
configuration.
Exit CANdo
'Exit', closes the CANdo application & the connection to CANdo.
If changes have been made to the 'CAN Transmit' list, 'CAN Transmit Editor' or 'CAN
Setup', then the user is prompted to save the configuration before exiting.
Clear
Clear, erases all the current messages displayed in the 'CAN View' window.
Fixed
In 'Fixed' view mode, the received & transmitted CAN messages are listed in the 'CAN
View' window in fixed positions. Any message with the same 'Type' & ID as one already
displayed automatically overwrites the currently displayed message. A new message with
no equivalent 'Type' & 'ID' as one already in the list, is appended to the end.
A context sensitive menu appears if the right mouse button is clicked while hovering over the
'CAN View' list. This menu allows either 'Fixed' or 'Cyclic' view mode to be selected.
Cyclic
In 'Cyclic' view mode, the CAN messages received & transmitted are listed in the 'CAN
View' in chronological order, with new messages being added to the end of the list.
After 500 messages have been added to the list, the list cycles back to the start, with the
newest message replacing the oldest one.
If the total (received & transmitted) message rate is greater than 250 messages per
second, the view mode automatically reverts back to 'Fixed' view mode.
A context sensitive menu appears if the right mouse button is clicked while hovering over the
'CAN View' list. This menu allows either 'Fixed' or 'Cyclic' view mode to be selected.
Start CANdo
'Start CANdo', initialises the operating mode of the CANdo unit & enables the reception &
transmission of CAN messages. The CAN message timestamp is reset to 0s.
The 'Esc' key is a short cut that toggles between 'Start CANdo' & 'Stop CANdo'.
Stop CANdo
'Stop CANdo', disables the reception & transmission of CAN messages.
The 'Esc' key is a short cut that toggles between 'Start CANdo' & 'Stop CANdo'.
CANdo Help
'CANdo Help', invokes this built in help.
About CANdo
'About CANdo', brings up a dialog box displaying the name & version number of the
CANdo application.
Overview
The 'CAN View' is the main CAN message display window. All CAN messages transmitted
& received on the CAN bus are displayed within this window. Error frames & CAN bus state
changes are also displayed as & when they occur.
Type
The 'Type' Column in the 'CAN View' window displays the type of message on each row in
the list, using an icon & either a numerical value or some text. The type identifies the
message as either receive, transmit or status. The numbers '11' & '29' appended to the
type icon in the case of a receive or a transmit, identify the message as either a CAN 2.0A
(11 bit standard arbitrator) or CAN 2.0B (29 bit extended arbitrator) message, respectively.
The table below details the possible message types.
Icon
Type
Receive message with 11 bit arbitrator
Receive message with 29 bit arbitrator
Remote receive message with 11 bit arbitrator
Remote receive message with 29 bit arbitrator
Transmit message with 11 bit arbitrator
Transmit message with 29 bit arbitrator
Remote transmit message with 11 bit arbitrator
Remote transmit message with 29 bit arbitrator
Less than 128 receive/transmit errors
More than 128 receive/transmit errors
More than 255 transmit errors
Error frame detected
Time
The 'Time' column in the 'CAN View' window displays a timestamp for each message. The
timestamp is the arrival time of the message in seconds elapsed since CANdo started.
The timestamp is displayed to a resolution of 100us & is accurate to within +/- (20ms +
100ppm). The timestamp wraps back to 0s on reaching 109952s, approximately 30.5
hours.
ID
The 'ID' column in the 'CAN View' window displays the 11 or 29 bit message arbitrator in
hexadecimal (radix 16) format.
11 bit arbitrators (CAN 2.0A) lie in the range 000 to 7FF & 29 bit arbitrators (CAN 2.0B) in
the range 00000000 to 1FFFFFFF.
Data
The 'Data' column in the 'CAN View' window displays the data field associated with each
CAN message. The data field may occupy from 0 to 8 bytes, these are displayed in
columns D1 to D8. If the number of bytes in the data field is less than 8 then the remainder
are filled with blanks. The data is displayed in hexadecimal format & each byte lies in the
range 00 to FF.
Remote receive/transmit messages are requests for data & so the data fields are blank.
The requested number of data bytes is indicated by the corresponding number of '?'s in the
D1 to D8 columns.
Overview
CANdo transmits messages on the CAN bus as specified by the user in the 'CAN Transmit'
list, on the 'CAN Transmit' page.
Transmit messages are created & modified using the 'CAN Transmit Editor'.
Up to 50 transmit messages may be specified in this way.
Tx
The 'Tx' box in the 'CAN Transmit' list allows the transmission of individual messages to be
enabled/disabled. Any message with the box ticked is enabled for transmission.
Bit
The 'Bit' value in the 'CAN Transmit' list identifies the number of bits in the arbitrator of the
message, either 11 or 29.
ID
The 'ID' is the message arbitrator, displayed in hexadecimal format.
11 bit arbitrators (CAN 2.0A) lie in the range 000 to 7FF & 29 bit arbitrators (CAN 2.0B) in
the range 00000000 to 1FFFFFFF.
Frame
The 'Frame' is displayed as either 'Data' for a standard frame containing data or 'Remote'
for a remote frame requesting data.
DLC
The 'DLC' or Data Length Code, is the length of the data field in the message in bytes,
ranging from 0 to 8.
Data
The 'Data' field contains from 0 to 8 bytes of data for a data frame message. For a remote
frame message, the 'Data' field bytes are padded with a '?' to indicate the number of bytes
requested by the message.
The data bytes D1 to D8 are displayed in hexadecimal format with a range from 00 to FF.
OnTime
Transmit messages in the 'CAN Transmit' list with an entry in the 'OnTime' column are cyclic
messages that repeat continuously (when enabled), at the rate specified by the 'OnTime'
parameter.
The 'OnTime' repeat value is displayed in milliseconds.
OnKey
Transmit messages in the 'CAN Transmit' list with an entry in the 'OnKey' column are
transmitted (when enabled) in response to pressing the indicated key.
Transmit messages are either triggered 'OnTime' or 'OnKey', but not both.
ID
The 'ID' box in the 'CAN Transmit Editor' is used to specify the length & value of the transmit
message arbitrator. The arbitrator value is entered in hexadecimal format.
11 bit arbitrators (CAN 2.0A) lie in the range 000 to 7FF & 29 bit arbitrators (CAN 2.0B) in
the range 00000000 to 1FFFFFFF.
Frame
The 'Frame' box in the 'CAN Transmit Editor' is used to specify the transmit message as
either a 'Data' frame or a 'Remote' frame.
'Remote' frames are a request for data & therefore do not contain any data fields.
Data
The 'Data' box in the 'CAN Transmit Editor' is used to specify the data field of the transmit
message. The 'DLC' (Data Length Code) specifies the number of bytes (0 to 8) in the data
field. The data is entered in hexadecimal format & each byte lies in the range 00 to FF.
'Remote' frames do not contain a data field, but do contain a DLC. For 'Remote' frames the
DLC specifies the number of bytes of data requested by the message.
Trigger
The 'Trigger' box in the 'CAN Transmit Editor' is used to specify the trigger method used to
send the message. The message may either be triggered on a periodic basis ('On Time') or
in response to a key press ('On Key').
While CANdo is running, the current message displayed in the 'CAN Transmit Editor' may
be sent immediately by clicking the 'Now' button.
A context sensitive menu appears if the right mouse button is clicked while hovering over the
'CAN Transmit' list. This menu allows a message selected from the list to be sent
immediately by clicking on the 'Now' menu item.
Add/Modify/Delete
The 'Add', 'Modify' & 'Delete' buttons in the 'CAN Transmit Editor' are used to either add,
modify or delete a message in the 'CAN Transmit' list using the settings in the 'CAN
Transmit Editor'.
The 'Add' button appends the message in the 'CAN Transmit Editor' to the end of the 'CAN
Transmit' list. If any of the values are out of range then a warning is given & the message is
not added. A maximum of 50 transmit messages may be added.
The 'Modify' & 'Delete' buttons modify & delete respectively, the message selected in the
'CAN Transmit' list. If no message is selected then a warning is given.
The 'Add' & 'Delete' buttons are disabled while CANdo is running.
CAN Baud Rate
The 'CAN Baud Rate' specifies the bit rate on the CAN bus. All nodes connected to a CAN
bus must operate at the same baud rate to within +/- 1.7%. The CANdo baud rate may be
set to any value in the range 6.25k to 1M baud. The currently specified baud rate is
automatically calculated & displayed in the status bar.
The baud rate is set by adjusting the following parameters
BRP - Baud Rate Prescaler
PHSEG1 - Phase Segment 1
PHSEG2 - Phase Segment 2
PRSEG - Propagation Segment
The baud rate is calculated by the following equation 20000000 / 2 * BRP * (1 + PHSEG1 + PHSEG2 + PRSEG)
For example 20000000 / 2 * 2 * (1 + 8 + 8 + 3) = 250k baud
Baud rates 125k, 250k, 500k & 1M are predefined, other baud rates are custom
programmable.
The baud rate cannot be changed while CANdo is running.
The sampling point of a bit on the bus is defined by the following equation (1 + PHSEG1 + PRSEG) * 100 / (1 + PHSEG1 + PHSEG2 + PRSEG)
For example (1 + 8 + 3) * 100 / (1 + 8 + 8 + 3) = 60.0%
The SJW (Synchronisation Jump Width) specifies the extent to which the PHSEG1 & 2
times may be adjusted by CANdo in order to synchronise the bit sampling to the received
signal edges on the bus.
The SAM (SAMple) value specifies the number of times each bit is sampled. This is usually
set to 1, except in noisy environments.
There are some rules that apply to setting the above values as they are to some extent
interdependent
PHSEG1 + PRSEG >= PHSEG2
PHSEG1 + PHSEG2 + PRSEG >= 7
PHSEG2 >= SJW
CAN Operating Mode
CANdo may operate in one of three modes
Normal
Listen Only
Loopback
'Normal' mode, allows full transmission & reception of CAN messages & is the normal mode
of operation.
'Listen Only' mode, only allows messages to be received by CANdo. No low level
acknowledgments are transmitted in this mode. This mode may be used to determine the
baud rate of a CAN bus in a non-intrusive way. At least two other active CAN nodes must
be present on the CAN bus for correct operation in this mode.
'Loopback' mode, is for testing purposes only & allows transmissions from CANdo to be
received & checked without any other CAN nodes present. In this mode CANdo does not
transmit on the CAN bus.
The operating mode cannot be changed while CANdo is running.
CAN Receive Filters
CANdo contains two CAN message receive buffers that operate independently, collecting
messages as they occur on the CAN bus. Normally these buffers are programmed to
collect all messages & display them in the list on the 'CAN View' page. However, filters may
be applied to the receive buffers to allow through only those messages with an ID that
matches the filters. This is sometimes useful when looking for a particular message or when
analysing a heavily loaded bus.
Each receive buffer contains a mask & a number of filters, two for 'Receive Buffer 1' & four
for 'Receive Buffer 2'.
The mask identifies which bits within the ID are relevant for filtering. If the mask bit is set to
a logic '1', then this bit is used to match the corresponding bit in the received message ID
with each of the filters in turn. If there is a match between the relevant bits of the message
& the relevant bits of at least one of the filters, then the message is accepted by the
receive buffer.
Bits within the mask that are set to a logic '0' are ignored for filtering purposes. Hence, if
the mask is all zeroes, '000' for an 11 bit mask or '00000000' for a 29 bit mask, then the
receive buffer accepts all messages.
The receive filters cannot be changed while CANdo is running.
Using the example shown in the picture above, 'Receive Buffer 1' is configured to examine
the top 3 bits of the ID of any 11 bit received message because the mask is set to 700
(hexadecimal), 11100000000 (binary). Hence, only messages with the top 3 bits of their ID
matching at least one the filters are allowed through. The two filters are set to 100
(hexadecimal), 00100000000 (binary) & 200 (hexadecimal), 01000000000 (binary). Thus,
the top 3 bits of the message ID must also be either 001 or 010 in order to be accepted.
11100000000 - Mask
00100000000 - Filter
01000000000 - Filter
Hence, only 11 bit messages in the range 100 to 2FF (hexadecimal) are accepted.
Run State
The first panel of the status bar displays the CANdo run state. While running, the elapsed
time since starting CANdo is displayed in hours, minutes & seconds.
Baud Rate
The second panel of the status bar displays the configured baud rate based on the settings
on the 'CAN Setup' page.
CANdo Status
The CANdo device status is displayed in the third panel of the status bar. The status is
retrieved from the device on starting the application & then every second while CANdo is
running.
The CANdo device status contains the following fields
Product description
Serial number
Hardware version
Software version
Status code
The status code displays the current internal state of the CANdo device. Normal operation
is indicated by 'Status OK'. In the event of a detected fault, a code is displayed as 'Status
??', where ?? is an OR combination of one or more of the fault codes (in hexadecimal
format) detailed in the table below.
Code
01
02
04
08
10
20
40
80
Fault
USB port receive message overrun
USB port receive message invalid
USB port receive message CRC error
CAN receive message no data
CAN receive message overrun
CAN receive message invalid
CAN transmit message overrun
CAN bus error
Overview
CANdo is a compact USB to CAN interface that allows a PC to communicate directly
with an embedded CAN bus
CANdo is easy to install & use, deriving all necessary power from the USB port
CANdo fully supports the CAN Specification Version 2, by Robert Bosch
The CANdo firmware is flash programmable to allow for future upgrades
An SDK is available to allow CANdo to be embedded in any Windows or Linux PC
application written in a high level language
LED Indicators
The LEDs on the topside of the CANdo housing indicate the status of the unit. The green
LED indicates the system status & the yellow LED the CAN bus status.
LED State
Off
Flashing
Green LED
On
constantly
Mainly off
Yellow
Flashing
LED
On
constantly
Unit Status
No power to unit
System error
System OK
High CAN bus load
CAN messages received/transmitted
No CAN messages received or
transmitted
Pinouts
The CAN bus connections are on the 9 way 'D' type connector in the CANdo housing.
Pin No.
Signal
1
N.C.
2
CAN L - CAN bus low
3
CAN GND - CAN bus ground
4
N.C.
5
N.C.
6
N.C.
7
CAN H - CAN bus high
8
N.C.
9
N.C.
N.C. - Not Connected
The CAN bus connections within the CANdo unit are not galvanically isolated from the USB
connector.
Specification
Parameter
Min.
Typ.
USB
USB supply voltage
4.0
USB supply current
USB suspend current
CAN
Bus output voltage - dominant state
CAN Bus Low
0.5
CAN Bus High
2.45
Bus output voltage - recessive state
CAN Bus Low
CAN Bus High
Short circuit output current
-250
Environmental
Operating temperature range
-10
Storage temperature range
-40
Mechanical
Enclosure dimensions
65mm (L)
USB tethered cable length
1.0
Max.
Units
45
330
5.25
80
500
V
mA
uA
1.25
3.5
V
V
2.3
2.3
-
250
V
V
mA
50
85
Deg. C
Deg. C
x 35mm (W) x 15mm (H)
1.1
1.2
m
Certification
The CANdo unit is certified to comply with the essential requirements of the EU Directive
89/336/EEC, relating to EMC.
The CANdo unit specifically complies with the following standards.
EN 55022 (class B, interference emission, trade and small industrial sector)
EN 61000-6-2 (immunity, industrial interference immunity)
EN 61000-4-2 (air discharge 8kV, contact discharge 4kV)
EN 61000-4-3 (electromagnetic field compatibility 80MHz-1GHz, 10V/m)
