Analog to CAN Bus: Solutions for SAE Snowmobile Project

[honkerhornet]

Hello,
My senior design group is working on an SAE sponsered zero emissions snowmobile. The motor and controller we are using uses CAN protocol. Our biggest issue is figuring out a way to convert the analog throttle to a CAN message. Is there a circuit a person could construct or a product out there that's worth buying without being excessively expensive. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[yungman]

Hello,
My senior design group is working on an SAE sponsered zero emissions snowmobile. The motor and controller we are using uses CAN protocol. Our biggest issue is figuring out a way to convert the analog throttle to a CAN message. Is there a circuit a person could construct or a product out there that's worth buying without being excessively expensive. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Five years ago, I designed a CAN bus interface using embedded controller by Analog Devices [itex]AD\mu C831[/itex] using a very common Intel 8 bit 8051 base with EEPROM and RAMs together with a multi channel multiplexed 12 bit ADC and 12 bits DAC. I use that to read various analog voltage, driving control voltages. It also have SPI serial bus etc. I use a FPGA to change it to CAN bus format and interface to CAN bus. Basically you need an open collector driver for CAN bus.

Now, I want to make it clear, there is firmware involve in this, it is not a small project.