Adafruit PiCowbell CAN Bus for Pico - MCP2515 CAN Controller

SKU: ADA5728 Brand: Adafruit
Ding dong! Hear that? It's the PiCowbell ringing, letting you know that the new Adafruit PiCowbell CAN Bus is in stock and ready to assist your...
$24.15 AUD, inc GST
$21.95 AUD, exc GST

In stock, ships same business day if ordered before 2PM
Delivered by Tue, 10th of Dec

Quantity Discounts:

  • 10-25 $21.30 (exc GST)
  • 25+ $20.85 (exc GST)
- +

3 from local stock, 1 supplier stock; your order will dispatch between Dec 1 to Dec 10. And yes, stock levels and lead times are accurate!

Shipping:

  • $7+ Standard (5+ days*, tracked)
  • $11+ Express (2+ days*, tracked)
  • FREE Pickup (Newcastle only - must order online*)

Shipping costs may increase for heavy products or large orders.

Exact shipping can be calculated on the view cart page.

*Conditions apply, see shipping tab below.

Ding dong! Hear that? It's the PiCowbell ringing, letting you know that the new Adafruit PiCowbell CAN Bus is in stock and ready to assist your Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico W project connect to CAN bus networks for automotive or robotics projects.

CAN Bus is a small-scale networking standard, originally designed for cars and, yes, busses, but is now used for many robotics or sensor networks that need better range and addressing than I2C and don't have the pins or computational ability to talk on Ethernet. CAN is 2 wire differential, which means it's good for long distances and noisy environments.

Messages are sent at about 1Mbps rate - you set the frequency for the bus and then all 'joiners' must match it, and have an address before the packet so that each node can listen in to messages just for it. New nodes can be attached easily because they just need to connect to the two data lines anywhere in the shared net. Each CAN device sends messages whenever it wants, and thanks to some clever data encoding, can detect if there's a message collision and retransmit later. 

If you'd like to connect your Raspberry Pi Pico to a CAN Bus, the Adafruit PiCowbell CAN Bus has a MCP2515 controller and TJA1051/3 transceiver! The controller used is the MCP2515, an extremely popular and well-supported chipset that has drivers in Arduino and CircuitPython and only requires an SPI port and two pins for chip-select and IRQ. Use it to send and receive messages in either standard or extended format at up to 1 Mbps.

Adafruit have added a few nice extras to this PiCowBell to make it useful in many common CAN scenarios:

  • 5V charge-pump voltage generator, so even though you are running 3.3V on a Pico board, it will generate a nice clean 5V as required by the transceiver.
  • 3.5mm terminal block pre-soldered in to get quick access to the High and Low data lines as well as a ground pin.
  • 120-ohm termination resistor on board, you can remove the termination easily by cutting the jumper marked Term on the top of the board.
  • Pre-connected CS and INT pins on Pico GPIO #20 and #21. You can cut the bottom solder jumpers and use the breakout pads to connect to any two IO pins you like

Each order comes with an assembled PCB and header. You will need to solder in the header yourself, but it's a quick task.

Please Note! There are a lot of possible configurations, and Adafruit stock various headers depending on how you want to solder and attach. Especially if you want the Pico on top so that the BOOTSEL button and LED are accessible.

  1. Use the Pico Stacking Headers if you want to be able to plug into a breadboard or other accessory with sockets.
  2. Use the Pico Socket Headers if you want to plug directly in and have a nice solid connection that doesn't have any poking-out-bits.
  3. Use the Short Socket Headers for a very slim but pluggable design; note that you'll want to trim down the Pico's headers or use the short plug headers on the Pico to have a skinny sandwich.
  4. Solder the PCB directly to the Pico headers - of course, this is very compact and inexpensive, but you won't be able to remove the PiCowbell.

The PiCowbell CAN Bus provides you with:

  • Right angle JST SH connector for I2C / Stemma QT / Qwiic connection. Provides 3V, GND, IO4 (SDA), and IO5 (SCL)
  • Reset button - Press to restart your program
  • Every pad on the 'bell has a duplicate hole pad next to them for solder-jumpering
  • The ground pads have white silkscreen rectangles to easily identify, plus one long ground strip near the reset button
  • Gold-plated pads for easy soldering

If using the Philhower Arduino core, the Wire peripheral is already set up to use IO4 and IO5, and SPI is default on IO16, IO18 and IO19. If using CircuitPython or MicroPython, you'll need to let the code know to look at 4+5 for SDA+SCL pins, and configure the SPI port for SCK=18, MOSI=19 and MISO=16.

Technical Details

Bitrate Max [MBits/s]1
CAN Controllers1
Internal CAN ClockNo
LPM Current Max [uA]0
Message RAM [KB]0
Operating Voltage Min. [V]2.7
Operating Voltage Max. [V]5.5
Rx Buffers2
SPI InterfaceYes
Serial Bus Speed [MHz]10
Standby Current Max [uA]0
Operating Temperature Min. [°C]-40
Operating Temperature Max. [°C]125
Time Stamp (Bits)0
TX Buffers3
TX Event FIFO0
TX Queue0
CAN FDNo

Product Dimensions: 52.0mm x 20.2mm x 10.0mm / 2.0" x 0.8" x 0.4"

Product Weight: 5.1g / 0.2oz

    RoHS 2 2011 65 EU CompliantRoHS 2 2015 863 EU Compliant

    Product Comments

    Exact shipping can be calculated on the view cart page (no login required).

    Products that weigh more than 0.5 KG may cost more than what's shown (for example, test equipment, machines, >500mL liquids, etc).

    We deliver Australia-wide with these options (depends on the final destination - you can get a quote on the view cart page):

    • $3+ for Stamped Mail (typically 10+ business days, not tracked, only available on selected small items)
    • $7+ for Standard Post (typically 6+ business days, tracked)
    • $11+ for Express Post (typically 2+ business days, tracked)
    • Pickup - Free! Only available to customers who live in the Newcastle region (must order online and only pickup after we email to notify you the order is ready). Orders placed after 2PM may not be ready until the following business day.

    Non-metro addresses in WA, NT, SA & TAS can take 2+ days in addition to the above information.

    Some batteries (such as LiPo) can't be shipped by Air. During checkout, Express Post and International Methods will not be an option if you have that type of battery in your shopping cart.

    International Orders - the following rates are for New Zealand and will vary for other countries:

    • $12+ for Pack and Track (3+ days, tracked)
    • $16+ for Express International (2-5 days, tracked)

    If you order lots of gear, the postage amount will increase based on the weight of your order.

    Our physical address (here's a PDF which includes other key business details):

    Unit 18, 132 Garden Grove Parade
    Adamstown
    NSW, 2289
    Australia

    Take a look at our customer service page if you have other questions such as "do we do purchase orders" (yes!) or "are prices GST inclusive" (yes they are!). We're here to help - get in touch with us to talk shop.

    Have a product question? We're here to help!

    Write Your Own Review

    Videos

    View All

    Guides

    Raspberry Pi 5 Vs Raspberry Pi 4 Model B | Comparison & Benchmarking

    The Raspberry Pi 5 is here and one of the biggest questions is, how does it stack up against the pr...
    The Raspberry Pi 5 is here and one of the biggest questions is, how does it stack up against the pr...

    Raspberry Pi 5 | Review, Performance & Benchmarks

    The Raspberry Pi 5 is here! Our favourite credit card-sized computer has just gotten an update and ...
    The Raspberry Pi 5 is here! Our favourite credit card-sized computer has just gotten an update and ...

    3D Printed Case For Raspberry Pi Pico and PiicoDev Boards

    Let me introduce a new 3D printable case for the Raspberry Pi Pico and the PiicoDev ecosystem. There...
    Let me introduce a new 3D printable case for the Raspberry Pi Pico and the PiicoDev ecosystem. There...

    Upgrade your Project for the Raspberry Pi 4

    The New Version of the Raspberry Pi 4 has started going out to makers everywhere. If you are wanting...
    The New Version of the Raspberry Pi 4 has started going out to makers everywhere. If you are wanting...

    Projects

    safePower

    I like working with the Pi Zero W and Pi 4 as they are very compact, very powerful and very cheap fo...
    I like working with the Pi Zero W and Pi 4 as they are very compact, very powerful and very cheap fo...

    ESP32 IR-Triggered Camera with Home Assistant Integration

    I love the ESP line-up. I started by messing around with the ESP8266 and I completely fell in love w...
    I love the ESP line-up. I started by messing around with the ESP8266 and I completely fell in love w...

    LuMa 1 - The Neo Disco Ball

    It is real and here it is! Including everything you need to make one a Luma 1 for yourself! S...
    It is real and here it is! Including everything you need to make one a Luma 1 for yourself! S...

    Educational Workshops

    Raspberry Pi Workshop for Beginners

    Welcome to the Raspberry Pi Workshop for Beginners! Here you'll be able to follow along with our s...
    Welcome to the Raspberry Pi Workshop for Beginners! Here you'll be able to follow along with our s...
    Feedback

    Please continue if you would like to leave feedback for any of these topics:

    • Website features/issues
    • Content errors/improvements
    • Missing products/categories
    • Product assignments to categories
    • Search results relevance

    For all other inquiries (orders status, stock levels, etc), please contact our support team for quick assistance.

    Note: click continue and a draft email will be opened to edit. If you don't have an email client on your device, then send a message via the chat icon on the bottom left of our website.

    Makers love reviews as much as you do, please follow this link to review the products you have purchased.