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Che cos'è il bus CAN? La comunicazione CAN industriale spiegata

TSL Automation Solutions 11 marzo 2025 Aggiornato il 18 mag 2026

Cablaggio della rete industriale CAN bus, TSL Automation Solutions

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What Is CAN Bus?

CAN bus (Controller Area Network) is a robust, multi-master serial communication protocol originally developed by Bosch in the 1980s for automotive electronic control units (ECUs). It uses two wires (CAN High and CAN Low) carrying differential signals, making it highly resistant to electrical noise from motors, solenoids, and ignition systems.

How CAN Bus Works

CAN bus uses a multi-master architecture, any node can initiate communication, and message priority is resolved automatically by the message ID (lower ID = higher priority). If two nodes transmit simultaneously, the higher-priority message wins without any data corruption. This collision-free arbitration makes CAN exceptionally reliable in noisy environments.

CAN Bus in Industrial Automation

CANopen, application layer protocol for industrial machinery control (IEC 61131)
DeviceNet, Allen-Bradley field network using CAN physical layer
SAE J1939, heavy vehicle and construction machinery
CAN FD, newer standard with up to 8 Mbps data rate

CAN Bus in Embedded Computing

Many Avalue industrial motherboards and SBCs include CAN bus interfaces, enabling direct connectivity to CANopen drives, sensors, and actuators without a separate gateway. This is particularly useful in mobile equipment, AGVs, and specialised industrial machinery. Contact TSL Automation to identify Avalue boards with native CAN bus support for your application.

Domande frequenti

CAN (Controller Area Network) bus is a serial communication protocol originally developed for automotive applications, widely adopted in industrial automation for connecting sensors, actuators, drives, and controllers at up to 1 Mbit/s. CAN provides built-in error detection, message priority arbitration, and multi-master operation over a simple 2-wire differential bus, making it robust in electrically noisy environments.

CAN bus is the physical and data link layer protocol, it defines how bits are transmitted and framed. CANopen is an application layer protocol built on top of CAN bus, it defines device profiles, object dictionaries, and communication objects (PDO, SDO) for interoperability between devices from different manufacturers. In industrial automation, CANopen is typically what engineers work with, while CAN bus is the underlying transport.

CAN bus industrial applications include: connecting servo drives in multi-axis motion systems, automotive test equipment, AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) internal communications, medical device control networks, elevator drive and safety systems, off-highway vehicle instrumentation (construction, agriculture), and building automation via CANopen. In newer installations, CAN is often replaced by EtherCAT for higher speed, but remains prevalent in existing systems.

CAN bus cable length depends on bit rate: at 1 Mbit/s, 40 metres maximum; at 500 kbit/s, 100 metres; at 250 kbit/s, 250 metres; at 125 kbit/s, 500 metres; at 50 kbit/s, 1000 metres. Use twisted-pair cable with 120Ω termination resistors at each end. For longer distances or higher noise environments, use CAN repeaters or switch to industrial Ethernet alternatives.

Yes, Avalue industrial PCs can be configured with CAN bus connectivity via PCIe expansion cards or built-in CAN interfaces on selected models. TSL Automation Solutions can advise on CAN bus hardware selection for your specific application. Contact our Mumbai team for CAN connectivity requirements.

Tag: what is CAN bus CAN bus industrial Controller Area Network CANopen industrial CAN bus vs Modbus embedded CAN communication

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TSL Automation Solutions

Responsabile marketing, TSL Automation Solutions

Sanjana si occupa di tendenze dell'automazione industriale, lanci di prodotto e approfondimenti tecnologici per TSL Automation Solutions, distributore con sede a Mumbai di HMI, Panel PC e sistemi di computing embedded al servizio dei produttori in India e nel mondo.