CAN

[WIP] A guide on communicating over CAN/SLCAN using NavQ and UCANS32K146

Introduction

If you're thinking about using the CAN protocol on your drone, this guide will walk you through using our UCANS32K146 to create a CAN interface.

Since there isn't a native CAN bus on the NavQ, we can use a protocol called SLCAN to communicate CAN messages across a UART connection. We have built a binary for the UCANS32K146 that acts as an SLCAN transfer layer. This means that we can add a CAN bus to NavQ by just connecting the UCANS32K146 to the UART3 port.

Diagram of setup

Setting up SLCAN on NavQ

SLCAN support is enabled in the October image coming out this month.

To enable SLCAN on NavQ, run these commands:

$ sudo modprobe slcan
$ sudo slcand -o -t sw -s8 /dev/ttymxc2 -S 115200
$ sudo ip link set up slcan0

Now you can use SocketCAN or python-can to send and recieve CAN messages over the slcan0 interface. As an example, here is how to send a CAN message from the command line:

$ cansend slcan0 123#deadbeef

Flashing your UCANS32K146 with the SLCAN conversion binary

This binary is not yet available. This page will be updated with a link to the binary when it is ready.

Follow the guide at the link below to flash the SLCAN binary to your UCAN board:

Flashing HoverGames boardsNXPMobileRobotics