[GeeTwo]

Combining a lot of what has already been said with a bit more, here's the CAN plan we use, and why:

• CAN is designed as a bus, not a star topology. Doing a modestly deep dive, it appears that wiring in a star topology will work just fine until it fails, when it is most likely to do so with no useful diagnostic clues. Bottom line: star topology is bad juju for CAN.
• From a practical standpoint, CAN devices come in two main flavors: incorporated wires, or wire clips. (male vs female). To the extent you can, alternate the male and female devices along the bus to minimize the number of connections. This is just a specific application of KISS.
• Putting the PDP at the end of the bus is great because it has an internal terminator, but if your design has a device (e.g. the PCM on our 2016 robot) well away from the main control board, don't be afraid to use your own 120Ω resistor.
• Don't put any permanent connectors, cuts, or solder on the CAN wires. This allows you to re-use them from year to year assuming the rules don't change drastically. We had considered the new molex 2-pin genderless connectors for CAN, but when we realized how often we really needed wire ends to go in connectors on female devices, we decided not to do this - ever.
• If you have too many "male" devices compared to "female", use the VEX CAN connectors to make the necessary links. They are specifically designed for CAN impedance, and are really inexpensive - use them.
• If you have too many "female" devices compared to "male", use approx 20 AWG wire, preferably stranded, and most definitely twisted to at least "CAT 3" specs, that is a twist every 3 inches.