Literature Release: A Comprehensible Guide to Controller Area Network

May 17, 2008 - PRLog -- 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.

To quote a review from Amazon.com:
"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. "

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.

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.

This book intends to provide profound information on Controller Area Network (CAN) paired with readability.

For more information log on to:
http://www.copperhillmedia.com/CANbook.htm

To order the book through Amazon.com log on to:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0976511606