Post by thread:[PIC]: can bus

RE: Microchips can bus controller 2510. What is the minimum code required to initialize a node that will only send or receive 2 or 3 commands? Can the 12C508 handle the task? If not what is the minimum microcontroller required based on code size and functionally? (Remember the existing code is C level not Assembly, and is 4.8K of code in full size. I don't believe that all of the code is totally necessary.) I am looking for ideas and suggestions.... Gordon Varney Director of Engineering Translectric Inc. spam_OUTvarneyTakeThisOuTclas.net 573-243-5186 -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.

Gordon, I've not used the MCP2510, but I took a good look at it. Here's my thinking: Communication with it uses SPI, that'll take 4 pins (CS, SI, SO and CLOCK). You can use a fifth pin for interrupt driven processing. You'll either need a PIC with hardware SPI, or you'll have to bit-bang the SPI (not very difficult). The chip is rather complex, with a lot of registers. I would guess that you'd want more than the 1/2K of code space a 12C508 provides. I would think a 16C505 might be a good 'bottom-end' chip here - more pins, more code space. If you really don't need many pins for anything else a 12C509 could do the trick. Bob Ammerman RAm Systems (contract development of high performance, high function, low-level software) {Original Message removed}