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Associate II
December 16, 2024
Solved

Is a CAN Transceiver needed for a NUCLEO-F446RE?

  • December 16, 2024
  • 4 replies
  • 3349 views

That's basically it.  I'm thrown off because this page explicitly says it has a 'CAN FD Transceiver', however, nothing says CAN on the silkscreen and this graphic I found:

 
 

drtarr_2-1734362499044.png

Refers to the D14 and D15 pins as "CAN TD" and "CAN RD", which I assume is TX and RX implying that I would need a transceiver (CAN uses CAN High and CAN Low).

 

Am I right in understanding that I need a MCP2551 or similar transceiver despite what the product description page says?

Best answer by mƎALLEm

Hello,

There is no CAN transceiver on NUCLEO-F446RE board. "CAN TD" and "CAN RD" are just for CAN_Tx and CAN_Rx pins of the STM32 CAN peripheral and not CAN_H and CAN_L.

If you need to use CAN in normal mode you need to add a CAN transceiver. For example as you stated MCP2551. Also SN65HVD230 is another option.

Otherwise you can use CAN in loopback mode without any transceiver and you don't need any CAN bus to be established. 

Hope that answers your question.

4 replies

Andrew Neil
Super User
December 16, 2024

Have you looked at the schematics? Is a transceiver present?

And the User Manual ?

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.
mƎALLEm
mƎALLEmBest answer
Technical Moderator
December 16, 2024

Hello,

There is no CAN transceiver on NUCLEO-F446RE board. "CAN TD" and "CAN RD" are just for CAN_Tx and CAN_Rx pins of the STM32 CAN peripheral and not CAN_H and CAN_L.

If you need to use CAN in normal mode you need to add a CAN transceiver. For example as you stated MCP2551. Also SN65HVD230 is another option.

Otherwise you can use CAN in loopback mode without any transceiver and you don't need any CAN bus to be established. 

Hope that answers your question.

"To give better visibility on the answered topics, please click on ""Accept as Solution"" on the reply which solved your issue or answered your question."
Andrew Neil
Super User
December 16, 2024

@mƎALLEm wrote:

There is no CAN transceiver on NUCLEO-F446RE board ... If you need to use CAN in normal mode you need to add a CAN transceiver. .


So the Product Page is misleading.

AndrewNeil_0-1734363883673.png

Also the Data Brief:

AndrewNeil_1-1734363959333.png

 

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.
mƎALLEm
Technical Moderator
December 16, 2024

@Andrew Neil ,

DB mentions it's specific for some boards:

SofLit_1-1734365092527.png

And it seems NUCLEO-C092RC board  has indeed a CAN transceiver: 

SofLit_0-1734365016037.png

I think the board is not yet available on the market, but according to the image from CubeMx:

The transceiver is there:

SofLit_3-1734365253093.png

The board status is marked as Coming soon.

"To give better visibility on the answered topics, please click on ""Accept as Solution"" on the reply which solved your issue or answered your question."
Tesla DeLorean
Guru
December 16, 2024

A low cost diode based bench model would allow for quick evaluation in a tightly controlled environment.

https://www.keil.com/appnotes/files/apnt_236.pdf#page=4

The STM32F446 supports CAN 2.0 not FD modes

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drtarrAuthor
Associate II
December 17, 2024

Thanks for the feedback everyone - Sounds like my understanding is correct.  I do think the product page was very misleading, I actually chose this NUCLEO board just because I thought it had a transceiver, but at least I figured it out.