Does anyone know a converter from AB DF1 to SAE J1708 ? Regards, Mark Riche, P. Eng. Electrical Design Engineer Northwest Territories Power Corporation 4 Capital Drive Hay River, Northwest Territories X0E 1G2 ph (867) 874-5266 Fax (867) 874-5264

 

Hello Mark, J1708 I presume is a CAN-BUS based protocol, while DF/1 is a good old AB serial protocol. There are two obstacles one needs to overcome to get the two systems to talk to each other. First is the physical/electrical interface - RS232 being a maximum baud rate of 115kbs, CAN 1Mb. RS232 signal is more than likely a different voltage than the CAN. Secondly the DF/1 will communicate a long ASCII string that complies with AB specifications. CAN is a protocol consisting of 64 min to 128 max bits. CAN has no predetermined commands as such. DF/1 consists mostly of predetermined commands. One possible solution would be to place a computer of sorts, perhaps even a CE device that would translate DF/1 strings to CAN and vice versa based on a specified protocol. The computer could also use commercially available DF/1 OPC driver, and a CAN OPC driver (I am not sure if an OPC driver for CAN exists). I am currently working with both protocols for two different customers. In either case a computer communicates to a device via one of the two communication protocols and then either stores information to a database or presnts in a graphical format to operators. If you need any more info, do not hesitate to contact me. Peter Veselovsky, P.Eng [email protected] konnexis Dunrobin, Ontario