Technical Articles & Documents
These articles offer tips, tricks and information about programming embedded microcontrollers, with a focus on the Controller Area Network.
CAN and CANopen
Balancing Speed and Priority Crafting Embedded Networks for Diverse Real-Time Communication Demands
A guideline on how to utilize CANopen compliant communication channels to implement boot loader and debugger cores into microcontrollers with on-chip flash memory.
Since first publication of this article, the Controller Area Network (CAN), often referred to as CANbus, has solidified its position as a vital network in the embedded systems sector. Learn what has changed.
Article From 2003: An article giving answers to questions like: In which market segments are CAN, the Controller Area Network and CANopen used today? How many CAN bus nodes are out there? In which market segments will CAN and CANopen be used?
Introduction to CANopen including Device Profiles, Object Dictionary, Electronic Data Sheets, Process Data Objects, Network Management and implementation. CANopen is a higher-layer CAN protocol running on the CANbus. First published in Circuit Cellar.
CANopen application example that shows how CANopen can be modified to best match the requirements of a specific application.
More and more sensors are required to have networking capabilities. CANopen and DeviceNet are a good choice for simple sensors such as encoders or valves.
It is time to give this an update as with the evolution of technology and the proliferation of microcontrollers, there's an ever-expanding range of options when it comes to selecting a CAN controller.
Article from 2003: There are some 22 or so chip manufacturers producing microcontrollers with on-chip CAN bus interfaces. Many differ substantially from each other - what are the selection criteria we can go by?
Embedded Internetworking
Looks at various aspects of implementing Internet functionality in microcontrollers, including a case study on a CAN to TCP/IP gateway. First published in EE Times.
8051 Programming
Store and read variable and configuration data from within an application
Giving you yet another reason to use C and NOT Assembly
Selecting the right memory model using the Keil and Raisonance C compilers
Still unsure how pointers, arrays, structures and unions are used? Or how they can be set/located to specific addresses? This article is for you!
Miscellaneous
Shows how to test for the most common memory problems with a set of three efficient, portable, public-domain memory test functions
Describes a set of guidelines for formatting source code
Overview and technical information on Microcontrollers
Frequently asked questions for Infineon C16x family
Frequently asked questions for the 8051 microcontroller core
An introduction to technical aspects of I2C from NXP
Resources for Controller Area Network
Resources for the CAN higher layer protocol CANopen