If you’ve worked with SAE J1939 long enough, you’ve probably experienced the frustration of connecting two devices to a CAN bus and seeing… absolutely nothing happen. No engine data. No diagnostic messages. No responses to requests. Just silence. The good news is that most J1939 communication problems are caused by…
Posts tagged as “CAN bus troubleshooting”
If you spend enough time around CAN bus systems, you eventually encounter the magical little box known as the CAN repeater. Depending on who is explaining it, the device is either: the cure for all network problems, a way to build “unlimited” CAN networks, a signal booster, or a mysterious…
Developing on the CAN Bus using higher-layer protocols—like SAE J1939, NMEA 2000, or CANopen—offers powerful features in vehicle, marine, and industrial systems. Yet this versatility comes with complexity. Whether you’re using off-the-shelf hardware (like PiCAN, Teensy, ESP32) or designing custom CAN hardware, having the right tools and a systematic troubleshooting…
In the world of embedded systems and vehicle networking, the Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol remains one of the most reliable and robust communication methods for distributed devices. Designed originally by Bosch in the 1980s, CAN is widely used in automotive, industrial automation, medical equipment, and marine systems. One crucial,…
This post is a bit more personal in nature—something I’ve been meaning to share for a while. I’ve been working with Controller Area Network (CAN) and SAE J1939 technologies for many years now, and, as you can imagine, I’ve gathered quite a bit of hands-on experience along the way. Naturally,…
