The development of the CAN (Controller Area Network) Bus for in-vehicle networks was started at Robert Bosch GmbH in 1983; the protocol CAN2.0 was officially released in 1986 and the extended version 2.0B in 1991. It was designed to meet the increasing demands of data exchange between electronic modules, where the conventional point-to-point wiring system had failed to deliver.
Before the introduction of CAN, data exchange between electronic modules were connected together under the scheme of Master and Slave concept; in which a Master device is needed to act as the data traffic controller for the timely sequential access to the data bus among the inter‐connected electronic modules. Furthermore, with the lack of standards in both hardware and application protocols, the system is very much a proprietary design which led to a much higher unit cost, longer lead time to develop and commission such a system.
CAN is a multi‐master broadcast serial bus networking system; designed to be an intelligent, low cost and durable solution to replace dedicated point‐to‐point wiring harnesses; eliminating the need for a Master Controller to supervise the access right to the data bus; to simplify the explanation of this complex networking protocols; let us use a similar system like the CB(Citizen Band) communication over the celestial protocol i.e. When a unit wants to transmit, it first sees if the network is idling, it then takes control of the network and broadcasts the information. For the rest of the units connected to the network, they are in listening mode all the time and receive the information as it is broadcasted and filtered the data that is relevant to the individual unit.
The maximum data rate of the CAN bus is 1Mbit/s; but the commonly used data rates are
- High Speed: 500Kbit/s
- Medium Speed: 250Kbit/s
- Low speed: 50Kbit/s
The automotive industry quickly adopted CAN; and in 1993, it became the international standard know as ISO11898. Today CAN have gained widespread use and is used in industrial automation, medical equipment, home appliances as well as in automotives and mobile machines. CAN is one of five protocols used in the OBD‐II vehicle diagnostics standard, mandatory for all cars and light trucks sold in the United States since 1996, and the EOBD standard, mandatory for all petrol vehicles sold in the European Union since 2001 and all diesel vehicles since 2004.
Westpac Technology identifies the market needs for a reliable and fast CAN‐Bus solution to capture this fast growing CAN based business; Westpac Technology is in partnership with Kvaser AB of Sweden and its Technical associates, who is the forefront supplier of CAN advance hardware solution; (to name a few‐Mercedes Benz, BMW, Volvo, Audi, Ford, General Motors, ETAS, Softing AG, Microsoft, National Instruments, The Mathworks and the US Navy) to help you to capture this growing market.
With the combined force of over 20 years experience as the solution provider for CAN system , Westpac Technology and Associates have developed a series of CAN‐Bus tools and solutions; readily available to help you to cut development time/cost and increase your business market shares.
Please contact us for more details.