CAN

The CAN Connector connects the gateway to a CAN bus, reads data from CAN nodes, and forwards it to ThingsBoard as device attributes and telemetry. It can also send data to CAN nodes in response to shared attribute updates and RPC commands from ThingsBoard.

To enable this connector, add it to the connectors list in tb_gateway.json — see the General Configuration reference.

The connector reads its settings from a JSON file. Below is a full example:

{
  "interface": "socketcan",
  "channel": "vcan0",
  "backend": {
    "fd": true
  },
  "reconnectPeriod": 5,
  "devices": [
    {
      "name": "Car",
      "sendDataOnlyOnChange": false,
      "enableUnknownRpc": true,
      "strictEval": false,
      "attributes": [
        {
          "key": "isDriverDoorOpened",
          "nodeId": 41,
          "command": "2:2:big:8717",
          "value": "4:1:int",
          "expression": "bool(value & 0b00000100)",

The root section configures the CAN interface connection and lists the devices.

The full list of supported CAN interfaces is available in the python-can interface documentation.

Optional. Passes interface-specific options to the underlying python-can library. Each option has a default value defined by the interface. See the python-can interface documentation for available options per interface.

For example, the SocketCAN interface supports receive_own_messages, fd, and can_filters:

"backend": {
  "receive_own_messages": true,
  "fd": true
}

This enables receipt of transmitted messages and CAN-FD frame support (both disabled by default).

An array of device configurations. Each entry represents one logical device on the CAN bus.

Optional. Specifies custom uplink and/or downlink converter classes. When omitted, the built-in converters are used.

The uplink converter receives a CAN payload (byte array) and the attributes/timeseries configuration entries, and returns a dictionary with attributes and telemetry lists:

{
  "attributes": [{ "isDriverDoorOpened": "true" }],
  "telemetry": [{ "rpm": 100 }, { "mileage": 300000 }]
}

The downlink converter receives the value(s) to send and the attributeUpdates or serverSideRpc configuration, and returns a CAN payload (byte array).

Both sections share the same field structure. Each entry describes which bytes to extract from an incoming CAN message and how to convert them to a ThingsBoard attribute or time-series value.

An optional filter. When set, the connector processes the entry only if a specific slice of the CAN payload matches the expected value. This allows a single CAN node to report different parameters using the same arbitration ID, distinguished by a leading command byte.

String format:

"command": "<start>:<length>:[byteorder]:<value>"

Object format:

"command": {
  "start": 0,
  "length": 2,
  "byteorder": "big",
  "value": 12345
}

Example — process only when 2 bytes at position 0 (little-endian) equal 12345:

"command": "0:2:little:12345"

Describes how to extract bytes from the CAN payload and cast them to a primitive type.

String format:

"value": "<start>:<length>:[byteorder]:<type>:[encoding|signed]"

Object format:

"value": {
  "start": 0,
  "length": 2,
  "byteorder": "big",
  "type": "int",
  "encoding": "ascii",
  "signed": "unsigned"
}

Examples:

// 1 byte at position 2, big-endian, unsigned int
"value": "2:1:int"

// 8 bytes at position 0, big-endian, double
"value": "0:7:double"

// 4 bytes at position 0, little-endian, float
"value": "0:4:little:float"

// 2 bytes at position 4, little-endian, signed int — then divided by 4
"value": "4:2:little:int:signed",
"expression": "value / 4"

An optional Python eval() expression applied to the extracted value. Two variables are available in the expression context:

• value — the result of applying the value configuration to the CAN payload
• can_data — the full CAN payload as a byte array

"expression": "bool(value & 0b00000100)"

Optional. When omitted, the connector only receives data that the CAN node sends spontaneously. When set, the connector sends a message to the CAN node to request data — either once on startup (once) or repeatedly on a fixed period (always).

When a ThingsBoard shared attribute changes, the connector converts the new value to a CAN payload and sends it to the CAN node.

Processing steps:

1. If dataExpression is set, evaluate it with value = the incoming attribute value. Otherwise use the value as-is.

2. Pack the result from step 1 to a byte array based on its Python type (detected via isinstance()) and the data* configuration.

3. If dataBefore or dataAfter are set, convert them to byte arrays and prepend/append them to the packed value bytes.

4. Send the final byte array as the CAN message payload to the CAN node.

Maps ThingsBoard RPC commands to outgoing CAN messages. Two RPC modes are supported:

Without-parameters example — sends a fixed payload every time sendSameData is called:

{
  "method": "sendSameData",
  "nodeId": 4,
  "isExtendedId": true,
  "isFd": true,
  "bitrateSwitch": true,
  "dataInHex": "aa bb cc dd ee ff aa bb aa bb cc dd ee ff"
}

With-parameters — value from RPC payload — when dataExpression is not set, the RPC payload must contain a value property:

{
  "device": "Car",
  "data": {
    "method": "setLightLevel",
    "params": { "value": 70 }
  }
}

With-parameters — value from expression — when dataExpression is set, all RPC params are available as variables. For example, to cap speed at a maximum allowed value:

// RPC payload
{
  "device": "Car",
  "data": {
    "id": 1,
    "method": "setSpeed",
    "params": {
      "userSpeed": 150,
      "maxAllowedSpeed": 100
    }
  }
}

// Connector configuration
{
  "method": "setSpeed",
  "nodeId": 16,
  "dataBefore": "09",
  "dataAfter": "aabb",
  "dataExpression": "userSpeed if maxAllowedSpeed > userSpeed else maxAllowedSpeed"
}

The resulting CAN payload is [ 0x09, 0x64, 0xAA, 0xBB ] — the value 0x64 (100) is used because the requested speed (150) exceeded the allowed maximum (100).