S15: Protocol Interface: I2C - CAN Bridge

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Serial Protocol Convertor

Abstract

This project is aimed at developing a device, which is able to convert the incoming data from one protocol to another (I2C, UART, SPI, CAN). In a system operating over a CAN architecture, there is a need of an inbuilt CAN peripheral interface in every controller. Because of hardware limitations, many controllers do not support the CAN peripherals; therefore they are restricted to communicate over the limited number of protocols. This device provides a flexibility to the designers so that they can choose any communication protocol at the input, and convert the data to the desired protocol.

Objectives & Introduction

Basically, this device will convert the incoming data from one protocol to the other desired protocol. Considering the problems faced in an industry, the main goal of this project is to enable the designers to use a controller, that supports any serial protocol, to the system using CAN bus.

For designing a protocol converter, there are some aspects such as speed synchronization and bi-directional communication, which are necessary to make this device useful. A practical example would be connecting an I2C device to the CAN system. Since the I2C protocol consists of a master - slave approach, it is not possible to control the I2C master by I2C slave. In this project, these conditions are handled using hardware interrupts. Also speed synchronization is a crucial aspect, as every protocol supports different data speed. The concept of Queues and Mailboxes is used to handle the speed limitations. FreeRTOS is used for designing the software of this system.

Team Members & Responsibilities

Schedule

Show a simple table or figures that show your scheduled as planned before you started working on the project. Then in another table column, write down the actual schedule so that readers can see the planned vs. actual goals. The point of the schedule is for readers to assess how to pace themselves if they are doing a similar project.

Team Schedule
Sl. No Start Date End Date Task Status Actual Completion
Date
1 03/08/2015 03/14/2015 Develop drivers for GPIO and interrupt based UART Completed 03/14/2015
2 03/15/2015 03/21/2015 Develop driver for interrupt based SPI Ongoing YTD
3 03/22/2015 03/28/2015 Develop driver for interrupt based I2C Completed 03/28/2015
4 03/29/2015 04/04/2015 Develop driver for CAN (using API) and Study of FreeRTOS Queues Ongoing YTD
5 04/05/2015 04/11/2015 Develop algorithms for controlling SPI and I2C devices through UART, SPI, CAN and I2C controllers Ongoing YTD
6 04/12/2015 04/18/2015 Develop algorithms for controlling UART and CAN devices through UART, SPI, CAN and I2C controllers Scheduled YTD
7 04/19/2015 04/25/2015 Develop algorithms for controlling Bluetooth device through UART, SPI, CAN and I2C controllers Scheduled YTD
8 04/26/2015 05/02/2015 Develop hardware for configuring input and output from UART, SPI, CAN, I2C and Bluetooth Scheduled YTD
9 05/03/2015 05/09/2015 Final Testing Scheduled YTD

Parts List & Cost

Give a simple list of the cost of your project broken down by components. Do not write long stories here.

Design & Implementation

The design section can go over your hardware and software design. Organize this section using sub-sections that go over your design and implementation.

Hardware Design

Discuss your hardware design here. Show detailed schematics, and the interface here.

Hardware Interface

In this section, you can describe how your hardware communicates, such as which BUSes used. You can discuss your driver implementation here, such that the Software Design section is isolated to talk about high level workings rather than inner working of your project.

Software Design

Show your software design. For example, if you are designing an MP3 Player, show the tasks that you are using, and what they are doing at a high level. Do not show the details of the code. For example, do not show exact code, but you may show psuedocode and fragments of code. Keep in mind that you are showing DESIGN of your software, not the inner workings of it.

Implementation

This section includes implementation, but again, not the details, just the high level. For example, you can list the steps it takes to communicate over a sensor, or the steps needed to write a page of memory onto SPI Flash. You can include sub-sections for each of your component implementation.

Testing & Technical Challenges

Describe the challenges of your project. What advise would you give yourself or someone else if your project can be started from scratch again? Make a smooth transition to testing section and described what it took to test your project.

Include sub-sections that list out a problem and solution, such as:

My Issue #1

Discuss the issue and resolution.

Conclusion

Conclude your project here. You can recap your testing and problems. You should address the "so what" part here to indicate what you ultimately learnt from this project. How has this project increased your knowledge?

Project Video

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Project Source Code

References

Acknowledgement

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References Used

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Appendix

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