Customer Reviews

CAN System Engineering: From Theory to Practical Applications

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book was hard to follow. As a mature and experienced hobbyest, I found the text totally lacking as far as providing what I needed to know, and lacking answers to questions I had about CAN. I think this would be a good textbook for the engineering student. It definitly is not for the reader who has only a casual interest in CAN.

First, this book is copyright 1997, and six years is a heck of a long time in this industry. Second, the book makes almost no reference to vehicle applications, which are a very important CAN applications and in fact where CAN started. For example there is no mention of SAE J1939 heavy truck bus standard, which is CAN based, and J1850 appears only once.

This book is very good for engineering professionals that want to design distributed embedded control systems based on CAN. It covers all the versions of CAN except TTCAN with is a fairly new concept. It explains in detail the whole CAN specification through all the network layers. It also covers all the major HLP's (Higher Level Protocols), but not enough to be used as a reference for a specific CAN HLP. This book is more of a primer on HLP's. If you are looking for a reference on any specific CAN HLP, look elsewhere. It has extensive coverage on the hardware implementation of CAN which is still valid at this stage; the hardware section might become dated in a few years as CAN semiconductor devices develop. The only negative point I have on the book is that some of the figures and diagrams are poorly formatted and it gives the book a somewhat unfinished look. The figures and diagrams are usable, but they don't look professional. This book will enable anyone with an engineering background to design and build a CAN network from scratch without any prior knowledge on CAN or embedded networks, like I have done.

Apart from the usual disclaimer for software, that the software may not work at all it reads 'Springer-Verlag or, its designee, has the right to audit your computer and electronic component usage to determine whether any unauthorised copies of this package have been made.' This is unacceptable and it means I have not been able to look at the software, apparently a CAN simulator that accompanies the book.

This is the best book I have seen on CAN. Well written with real practical examples and well written chapter.

This is a real good book. Well written. Whether you have never heard about CAN before or you are looking to find how to apply CAN for the application you have thinking of, this is the book.

Its practical examples and chapters are well written.

While this book provides quite some information on CAN (even to a degree where you don't care anymore) it is overwhelmingly hard to read. The educational value is practically zero. Since reading this book was a futile attempt, I used it several times to look for references on specific CAN topics and was disappointed every single time.

In the description section on-line at amazon
SPELLING networks.... newtorks AND the....th
Good Luck with sales.