Summary of The CANable: a small USB to CAN adapter
The CANable is a compact, open-source USB to CAN adapter, derived from Eric Evenchick’s CANtact project, designed for improved usability with a screw terminal and smaller PCB. It uses an STM32L042 microcontroller with its internal high-speed oscillator and includes a micro-USB connector and a smaller 3.3V regulator. The hardware and firmware are open-source, with CANable support integrated into the CANtact firmware, allowing easy switching by modifying a define in the code. Although not currently manufactured commercially, users can fabricate their own boards from available source files.
Parts used in the CANable project:
- STM32L042 microcontroller
- Micro-USB connector
- 3.3V voltage regulator (smaller size)
- Screw terminal connector
- PCB (custom small-sized)
The CANable is a hardware clone of Eric Evenchick’s CANtact project, an open-hardware USB to CAN adapter compatible with socketcan. I took his design and reworked the hardware to be a bit more suitable for my personal needs, with a screw terminal instead of a DB9 connector and a much smaller PCB.
The design is open-source hardware and the schematic is nearly identical to CANtact except CANable uses the STM32L042’s onboard high speed oscillator, has a micro-USB connector, and has a smaller 3.3v regulator. Feel free to pull down the hardware source and the firmware (a forked version of the CANtact firmware that uses the internal oscillator instead of an external crystal).
Update: CANable support has been merged into the CANtact firmware. Just change the define in main.c for CANable and you should be good to go!
I’m currently not producing these boards, but you may fabricate your own from the source files linked above. If there’s enough interest I may consider fabricating and selling some boards. Drop a comment if you’re interested!
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