Copperhill Releases PiCAN3 HAT for the Raspberry Pi 4 with RTC and 3A SMPS

Copperhill Technologies has released their new PiCAN3 HAT for the Raspberry Pi 4, targeted for automotive and industrial automation. Like the previous model, the PiCAN 2, the new board retains Microchip’s MCP2515 CAN controller and MCP2551 CAN receiver, but adds an SMPS (Switch Mode Power Supply) and NXP’s PCF8523 CMOS RTC (Real-Time Clock) and calendar.

The RTC is also optimized for low-power consumption, and data is transferred serially via I2C, which has a maximum data rate transfer of 1000Kbps. The board’s alarm and timer functions are accessible and can produce a wake-up signal using an interrupt pin. An offset register allows fine-tuning of the clock. The PCF8523 is equipped with a backup battery switchover circuit as well, which detects power failures and automatically switches to a battery supply if power has been lost.

On the features side, the PiCAN 3 HAT offers CAN 2.0B (@ 1Mb/s), a high-speed SPI Interface (@ 10MHz), standard and extended data and remote frames, and a CAN Bus connection via 9-way sub-D connector or screw terminal. It’s also compatible with OBDII cables, has a solder bridge to set different configurations for DB9 connectors, has an onboard 120 Ohm termination resistor, is serial LCD ready, and is outfitted with an LED indicator. Copperhill is currently selling the PiCAN3 for $65.95 and has links for a user guide, schematics, and other documentation on the same page.