TT3201 CAN Cape User's Manual

Prerequisites

A good knowledge of Linux and SocketCAN is suggested before operating the TT3201.

Hardware

The TT3201 has an 8 pin spring-cage connector on the front side. Pin 1 is marked on the PCB, on the left side when looking at the cape from the front. The connector accepts AWG 26-20 rigid wires. The cables must be pushed in the round holes, while the rectangular holes are used to unlock the spring and allow cable removal.

Notice CAN bus controllers will report an error if there is only one device on the bus or the termination is not appropriately set.

Warning Do not try to remove the cable from the connector by force or the board will be damaged. Insert an appropriate tool, or a paper clip, in the rectangular holes on the connector to remove the corresponding cable.


pin signal device (kernel 3.2) device (kernel 3.8+)
1 GND
2 NC
3 CAN3L can0can2
4 CAN3H
5 CAN2L can2can1
6 CAN2H
7 CAN1L can1can0
8 CAN1H

Notice The binding between the device name and the hardware interface could change if you modify the kernel or if there are hardware failures, so be prepared for that. You might want to employ udev to rename the interfaces.

Dip-switch S1 allows to enable the 120ohm termination resistor of each CAN channel. Termination must be enabled on the first and last physical device on the bus. If you are snooping an existing bus, keep the termination off. Use termination appropriately or the bus will not work.

Dip-switch S2 can be used to set the address of the configuration eeprom, from 0x54 to 0x57. Factory default is 0x57.

Installing the drivers

Notice The Angstrom distribution is not supported anymore

  1. Be sure to install the latest Debian image from BeagleBoard.org
  2. Verify that your BeagleBone boots with the updated image
  3. Use ssh to login into your board
  4. Download the drivers using the provided link, unpack and follow the included README.txt
  5. Verify that the BeagleBone still boots
  6. Turn it off, install the TT3201 and you'll be ready to go
  7. You might want to remove the packages you don't need, like apache2

Software

Warning To configure the CAN controllers you need a recent version of the ip command, from the iproute2 package. The version bundled with Debian should be ok.

Runtime detection


# cat /sys/devices/bone_capemgr.*/slots | grep TT3201
 0: 54:P---L TT3201 CAN Cape,01,TowerTech,TT3201-001

# ip link | grep can[0-9]
3: can0:  mtu 16 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT qlen 10
4: can1:  mtu 16 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT qlen 10
5: can2:  mtu 16 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT qlen 10

# dmesg | grep mcp251x
[    7.170413] mcp251x spi1.0: mode 0, irq 259, awake 1, clkout 1, oscillator freq 16000000
[    7.186391] mcp251x spi1.0 can1: probed
[    7.257289] mcp251x spi1.1: mode 0, irq 261, awake 1, clkout 0, oscillator freq 16000000
[    7.371486] mcp251x spi1.1 can2: probed

#  dmesg | grep c_can  
[    6.712145] c_can_platform 481d0000.d_can: invalid resource
[    6.718084] c_can_platform 481d0000.d_can: control memory is not used for raminit
[    6.799197] c_can_platform 481d0000.d_can: c_can_platform device registered (regs=fa1d0000, irq=71)

Notice The invalid resource and the other warning are normal.

Examples

ip link set can0 type can bitrate 125000
ip link set can1 type can bitrate 125000

ip link set can0 up
ip link set can1 up


cansend can1 00000104#02aa
candump can0

...

Notice Don't mix bitrate with up in the same ip link command.

Links and downloads