qCAN

qCAN - a simple CAN protocol #

Version

qCAN (“kwɪ-kæn” or “kju-kæn” ) is a standard based on the CAN protocol. The main goal of the standard is to provide a minimalistic but efficient robotic communication protocol for fast development and simple debugging.

qCAN extends bare CAN with the following features:

  • Each device sends periodically a message indicating that the device is accessible
  • Each message contains data about Source and Target devices
  • CAN frame is a message one of the following types:
    • 🔵 Data - e.g. sensor data
    • 🔴 Command
    • 🟡 Presence - each node says to the network that the node is connected

Data messages can be sent to the entire CAN network or to a specific device.

Commands can be send similarly to all devices or a particular device.

Presence messages must be sent at least once in 3 seconds by each device and can be addressed only to the entire CAN network.

Base CAN configuration:

  • Bitrate: 125 kbits/s
  • ID: 11 bits (standard mode) / 29 bits (extended mode)

Addressing and Message Descriptor #

Each device in the network has its unique Device ID. For the Standard Mode each device can have ID from 1 to 7, for the Extended Mode from 1 to 254.

The ID field of the CAN frame is used to describe the message. The descriptor contains:

  • Device ID of the sender
  • Device ID of the target (0 for broadcasting)
  • Message Type

This information is mapped in the ID bits in the way allowing easy reading in HEX.

On the picture bellow you can see a Standard CAN frame and a qCAN ID structure

An Extended CAN frame allows qCAN to put more information into the ID field:

Message Types #

Msg Type (extended)NameDescription
0x0Presence MessageUsed for presence declaration each 3 seconds (see details bellow).
0x1…0x15 (0x255)DeviceDataDevice specific data defined by each device.
0xF (0xFF)CommandCommand format is different for each device, but using this data ID all nodes in the network can understand that this message is an input for a particular node.

Examples of Message IDs:

  • 0x200 - a Presence message of the device with ID 0x2
  • 0x52F - a Command message of the device 0x5 to 0x2
  • 0x701 - a Data message of the device 0x7 for everybody
  • 0xAA00000 - a Presence message of the device with ID 0xAA
  • 0x01020FF - a Command message of the device 0x1 to 0x2
  • 0x0C00001 - a Data message of the device 0xC for everybody

Presence Messages #

A device is online if it declares its presence at least once per 3 seconds.

To declare being online the device should send a CAN frame with following content:

  • Identifier:
    • Source ID: ID of the device declaring the presence
    • Target ID: 0 - broadcast message
    • Message Type: 0x0 - presence message
  • Data:
    • Data0: qCAN Standard Major Version
    • Data1: qCAN Standard Minor Version
    • Data2: qCAN Standard Patch Version

Versioning #

Note: Until version 1.0.0 this section can be violated

The version consists of 3 numbers: Major.Minor.Patch (e.g. 2.3.9)

  • All devices using the same Major should be able to interact with other devices at least partly
  • All devices using the same Minor should be able to fully interact with each other and have to have the same feature set

Compatible libraries #

Libraries bellow are developed inside the Zakhar project and support ZakharCAN.