Voice Needed! Do you know XIAO ESP32C3 can CAN?
Hey, community! We launched the Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C3 on July 7th, 2022. A new family member of Seeed Studio XIAO series, with the rich onboard interface, thumb-sized design, and most importantly, at only a cost of $4.99. The first batch sold out in a few hours.
Product cooking time.
Notice that the XIAO ESP32 supports a two-wire automotive interface (TWAI), which is compatible with ISO11898-1 classical frames (CAN 2.0).
For CAN 2.0: XIAO ESP32C3 supports TWAI controller, so you only need one additional TWAI transceiver.
For CAN FD: If you want to use CAN FD, you need an outside CAN FD controller as well as a CAN FD transceiver.
This is great for automotive, multiplexing for use within road vehicles and other control applications. So, we are planning to combine XIAO ESP32C3 and CAN BUS, aiming at a cost-effective and compact prototyping kit or device. It could be as a tiny CAN analyzer, a CAN-to-MQTT data logger or we could add additional onboard sensors, etc. Do you think it is a good idea to meet your demand? We will listen carefully and take action to respond to your passion.
During the past few months, Seeed builds the Wio-E5 CAN Development Kit together with the community. Based on valuable suggestions from our community, we moved a few more steps towards production with updates to the design. Finally, we launched the Wio-E5 CAN Development Kit on June 2nd.
Now and again, we need to get your valuable input and feedback before we finalize the product design.
- Dose CAN+XIAO ESP32C3 a good choice for you?
- What functions do you want us to add to ESP32C3+ CAN to meet your scenarios, like onboard TWAI transceiver, CAN FD controller+transciver, OBD-Ⅱ, Long Range, GPS, RS232, RS485, AI camera, some Grove connectors, or anything?
We’ve sent out the call for inputs on our channels. Shout-out your voices here in the comment section or on your preferred platform listed as follows:
Or if you prefer, feel free to join our Discord for a more in-depth discussion.
About Author
I found a link for CircuitPython for a similar board:
https://circuitpython.org/board/adafruit_qtpy_esp32c3/
The link says there are many similarities. Will CircuitPython work on SEEED’s XIAO ESP32C3 ? If not is there any plans to create the CircuitPython firmware for the device?
I would love to see a compact ESP32C3 board with an onboard CAN 2.0 transceiver and a CANFD controller and CANFD transceiver so it could be a CAN 2.0 to CANFD gateway or run 2x CAN 2.0 buses. Other nice-to-have features would be an automotive-grade voltage regulator so it could be powered by the vehicle and a Grove connector for a display or additional sensors. There aren’t many boards available that offer CANFD and wifi/bluetooth.
Hi Tom, thank you for your advice. Yes, it is doable to get two isolated onboard CAN FD buses, which ares CAN 2.0 compatible. What do you think? Is that work or do you think one CAN FD bus plus one CAN 2.0 BUS are better than two isolated CAN FD?
It will be perfect, I want to develop a CAN bus – MQTT for my car. I will use GSM module also. or lora. Low power, can bus,… perfect!!!
Yes, juan. GSM is the function that a lot of people chose.
We use canbus extensively in our commercial product. Making a board with the foot print the size of the XIAO for can would be perfect for our application. I would envision a board with screw terminals for CAN H, CAN L, CAN GND, 12v+, and power ground. Adding power connectors would be something exceptional in the market. For example, this would make the board capable of running from the OBD2 power pin.
Thank you, Eric, for your valuable input!!