Need PCMCIA CAN bus pin out

Hi gurus, I have in my possession a PCMCIA-CAN card made by National Instruments. However the problem is I don't have the dongle (pcmcia cable) that goes with it :(

SO the thing is pretty much useless right now. I went on their website and check to see if I can purchase one, yes I certainly can but it cost $200 :(

I am wondering if there is a cheaper solutions. Since the pcmcia connector (on the card) is just a 68 pin one I wonder if its possible to make your own cable. If so has any one done it before and know the pin layout? ie. which of the 68 pins goes to where.

CAN connector only needs to present 5 wires really. They are CAN_High, CAN_Low, Shield, V-, V+

Someone out there must know what the National Instruments PCMCIA-CAN wire pinout is. Right? Could u please help.

Reply to
Stephen
Loading thread data ...

I'm no NI-CAN guru, but reading the manual at:

formatting link
(5.5MB download)

suggests that the cable or dongle is not just a passive multicore cable with a connector at each end. It seems that the traditional PCMCIA bit contains just an IO interface to the host PC and the bulk of the physical layer of the CAN network is actually in the little tin box at the end of the cable - the bit you refer to as the dongle. That would explain why the PCMCIA bit is quite cheap and the "cable" is quite expensive.

Page 3-21 of the above manual (and the following) pages goes into a fair amount of detail of what pieces are where.

So in short, you need to shell out the cash for the "cable". Just asking someone to continuity test an existing cable to establish a "pinout" won't tell you much about the active interface electronics inside the dongle and I don't think that NI will give you a schematic to allow you to clone their hard work ;-)

Looking at the price of the Softing cards (seem to be popular) at:

formatting link
(prices in GBP which is what I am familiar with)

then $200 for the cable doesn't look too outrageous. It would seem that if you have "inherited" the PCMCIA bit of the NI-CAN solution then $200 for the NI cable would seem to be the cheapest way to get going, but if you are starting from scratch then using a USB to CAN converter from another manufacturer is the cheapest all in one solution.

Lots of data out there if you Google on:

can bus pc interface card

and

canbus pc interface card

since there seems to be some disagreement as to whether controller area network bus in acronym form is one word or two.

Best Regards, Dave Slee

Reply to
Dave Slee

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.