CANtime Bit Timing and Bus Length Calculator

CANtime is a Windows-based program that helps engineers and programmers to calculate optimal values for programming into a CAN controller's Bit Timing Registers. To enable communication on a CAN bus, the bit-time for each CAN node must be adjusted to be the same. CAN bus bit rates are set by programming values into the Bit Timing Registers (BTRs) of CAN controllers. Doing the calculations to get the bit rate you want is tedious and error-prone. CANtime uses specific CAN controller timing characteristics as well as the timing rules specified in the published CAN protocol.

Additional problems can arise if you are using different types of CAN controllers: each may have to be programmed with different values to produce the same bit-rate. If bus length, different crystal or oscillator frequencies and tolerances also have to be taken into account then this adds to the complexity. Problem solved with CANtime! CANtime calculates all legal BTR values and bus length.

Devices supported by CANtime (running under Windows 3.x, 95, 98, and NT) include 7 CAN controller families: Intel 82527, 87C196CA and 87C196CB (both >variants), Motorola 68HC08 (+ devices with msCAN08 module), 68HC12 (+ devices with msCAN12 module), Philips 82C200, 80C592, 80C598 and SJA1000 (all four devices), Siemens C164CI and C167CR (both devices), C505C and C515C (both devices).

CANbus is a high-integrity serial data communications bus for real-time applications which operates at data rates of up to 1 Mbits/s; with excellent error detection and confinement capabilities. Originally developed for use in cars, CANbus is now being used in many other industrial automation, instrumentation and control applications.

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