SPI-CAN 40-pin Hat

Product codename: can_hat_40.

A 40-pin (2x20) GPIO hat that adds a CAN bus interface to single-board computers such as the Raspberry Pi series. It seats directly on the standard 40-pin header and bridges the host’s SPI bus to a CAN transceiver, so any compatible SBC can talk CAN without an integrated controller.

Key features:

  • Standard 40-pin (2x20) GPIO header for direct mounting on Raspberry Pi and compatible SBCs.
  • SPI host interface for Classic CAN and CAN FD via the MCP2518FD controller.
  • Switch selectable bus termination (split 2x 60 Ohm + centre-tap capacitor).
  • Jumper selectable silent mode (listen-only) for bus monitoring.
  • Operates at fixed 3.3 V logic.

Getting Started

  1. Power down the host and seat the hat on the 40-pin GPIO header, aligning pin 1 to pin 1.
  2. Set bus termination on (120 mark) or off (NC mark) depending on where the board sits on the bus (enable 120 Ohm only at the physical ends of the bus).
  3. Connect the 3-pin CAN side to your bus (GND, CAN high, CAN low).
  4. Power on the host and follow the Linux setup to enable SPI, load the MCP2518FD overlay, and bring up the CAN interface.
  • By default, the hat uses the host’s SPI0 bus (CE0) with the controller interrupt on GPIO22, which matches the device-tree overlay shown in the examples.

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