About the Project
Controller Area Network (CAN) communication is standard throughout the automotive and construction equipment industries. This is due to its low-cost, durability, and communication structure that enables it to broadcast messages to each device on the network in real time with a given priority. Testbenches in these industries commonly use CAN bus technology to detect faults in products that are both existing and under development. These testbenches provide the environment that is required to validate proper operation and ensure quality. This project aims to create a low-cost and easily-repurposable testing and development platform for academic projects relating to CAN communication. To achieve this, we mounted six Raspberry Pi 3b single-board computers with commercially available CAN shields, along with an Ethernet switch, and power supply. This topology also allows for direct access to each device, enabling a developer to easily control them over Ethernet. The result of this projects yields a viable testing and development bench for CAN network communication at a low cost due to the use of common off-the-shelf components. The accessibility of this test bench will make for smoother development of future projects related to networking or automotive applications.