candleLight FD

The candleLight is a low cost Open Hardware (CERN OHL) USB to CAN-FD adapter. Like a network card, the candleLight allows to equip a computer with a CAN bus and to communicate via the CAN or CAN-FD protocol.

The candleLight not only fits in any pocket and enables any developer to set up a CAN remote station even when on the road, it is above all an important building block for a reliable test infrastructure: The LXA-IOBus universe is based on the CAN bus infrastructure in order to have a stable communication channel to and between the "devices under test".

Technologies
  • USB-C with USB 2.0
  • CAN-FD
  • D-Sub 9
  • STM32G0
  • Native socketcan support
  • RX/TX Status LED

Assemble the Hardware

The candleLight will be supplied as a kit. For full functionality, the D-SUB 9 connector must be soldered to the contacts.

Features
  • Unlocked Bootloader to use your own Firmware
  • Open Hardware & Open Software
  • Long-Term Availability
  • Runs native on Linux and Raspberry Pi OS

First Steps

The candleLight adapter is supported from Linux kernel version v3.6. The associated CAN driver is CONFIG_CAN_GS_USB "Geschwister Schneider UG interfaces". To use the CAN-FD functionality at least Linux 5.18 is needed.

This driver is included on all modern Linux distributions, such as Debian, Ubuntu or Raspberry Pi OS.

Just plug the device in and check for a new network device using the ip tool:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ip a s can0
5: can0: <NOARP,ECHO> mtu 16 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 10
    link/can

Before we can connect it to a CAN bus, we must configure the bitrate that's used on the bus. The bus in the example uses 500 kBit/s bitrate and a 2 MBit/s data- bitrate:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo ip link set dev can0 up type can bitrate 500000 dbitrate 2000000 fd on

You are now ready to use the candeLight FD with every software that can use the Linux socketcan-interface. For low level access to the bus:

  • cansend to send arbitrary frames
  • candump to log frames and status information into a terminal
  • cangen to generate a series of frames
  • wireshark for deep, graphical protocol analysis
Further Information

Our Commitment to Quality

This device is manufactured in Germany. Each device is put into operation and tested by hand by Linux Automation.