CAN Cables

[Henksta]

Where do you guys get your CAN cables for your jaguars? Do you make them? Are they just regular rj12 cables I could pick up at a store? If not, where do you suggest getting these cables?
Thanks much!
-Matt

[otherguy]

We have a writeup on our site of what parts we use, links to suppliers, and instructions on making the cables:
http://team2168.org/index.php/resources/electrical/210-can-jaguars

Note that the CAN landscape is changing in the upcoming season. You will no longer need to communicate to the bus through a serial connection. External terminating resistors may not be required depending on how you're wiring components.

So the consise disclaimer is: The above link will work fine for use with the cRIO, I would personally make changes for the 2015 season, but I don't have something put together to share yet.

[Henksta]

Thanks a lot! :)

[Jon Stratis]

Also, note that the parts and instructions listed in the above link work for the Jaguars, which have been discontinued (yet are legal for 2015, according to the FRC blog). The new control system components that use can do not require any special connectors - just a pair of wires stuck into the built in connectors.

[FrankJ]

You can use commercial phone cables. Make sure you get the 6 wire variety. Pin 1 should connect to pin 1 ... Technically only necessary for the RS-232 port. The canbus only uses the center to pins.

[s1900ahon]

You can also check out the videos posted on the Texas Instruments E2E website. Since these hard to find on the E2E site (unless you know where to look) I've provided direct links (below).

But, before you watch, a couple of apologies: First, for the 20s intro/disclaimer that they tacked on the beginning of each. And second, for the obvious influence of Craig Ferguson, access to Folkmanis puppets, and late hour that the videos were shot/created.

Introductory CAN cabling comments (http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/extwidget/openGraph/wid/0_6gd9p2f7)

Creating a CAN cable (that is also suitable for use with Black Jaguar's serial-to-CAN bridging) (http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/extwidget/openGraph/wid/0_blu73zlb)

Creating a CAN Terminator (http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/extwidget/openGraph/wid/0_30hvs7yl)

[cfair]

We make our own, but if you want to survive the season, it is really important that you be able to test the cables, especially if we were making them for you. My kids made an arduino based tester that works really well - we could probably dig up the documentation if you like, but it's a right-sized project for students. It's important that you test them while wiggling the cable... Intermittent CAN cables are no fun to debug if there's more than one.