CAN Bus Application
What is CAN Bus?
The Controller Area Network (CAN) Bus is a robust vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other without a host computer. It’s widely used in automotive applications, industrial automation, and increasingly in other fields like medical equipment and maritime.
What is CAN bus used for?
CAN Bus (Controller Area Network Bus) is used for efficient, real-time communication between electronic devices (nodes) in various systems where reliability and speed are essential — especially in automotive, industrial, and embedded environments.
What is the speed of CAN bus?
The speed of a CAN Bus depends on the type of CAN protocol and the network’s length. Here’s a breakdown:
Standard CAN (Classical CAN)
- Maximum speed: 1 Mbps (megabit per second)
- Common in automotive and industrial systems
- Speed decreases as the length of the cable increases
- Example: At 40 meters, 1 Mbps is achievable; at 500 meters, max speed drops to around 125 kbps
- CAN FD (Flexible Data-rate CAN)
- An upgraded version of classical CAN
- Up to 5–8 Mbps in the data phase
- Still uses standard CAN infrastructure (with some upgrades)
- Allows for larger data payloads (up to 64 bytes vs. 8 bytes in standard CAN)
- Speed vs Distance Trade-off (Standard CAN)
- Why It Matters:
- Faster speeds are great for real-time control (like braking, engine management)
- Lower speeds are used for diagnostics, infotainment, or remote subsystems
| Cable Length | Max. Speed |
|---|---|
| 40 meters | 1 Mbps |
| 100 meters | ~500 Kbps |
| 250 meters | ~250 Kbps |
| 500 meters | ~125 Kbps |
| 1000 meters | ~50 Kbps |
