RE: CAN bus communications - design and analysis using Flowcode 6

michaelkellett — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 08:24:21 GMT

You have your part numbers wrong:

MCP2551 is a transceiver chip (and is obsolete - Microchip recommend the MCP2561)

MCP2515 is a CAN controller chip (not a driver - it's more than that being a complete CAN controller with and SPI interface for a micro but does not include a line driver or transceiver.)

I have never seen a serious application for CAN that did not use a transceiver chip and Microchip do not suggest that the MCP2515 should be used like this (your use of the terms "Internal" and "External" CAN is new to me and somewhat confusing. What, exactly are "external and internal flavors depending on your microcontroller device" - this is terminology that I have not seen in any CAN chip manufacturers data.

I think that perhaps you mean to say that some micro-controllers have a CAN controller built in and others would need to use an external controller like the MCP2515 - but it's not clear.