This article is part of CAN Bus Embedded Development, my growing online book about practical CAN Bus hardware, software, and embedded system development.
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Shopping for a CAN bus monitoring and analysis system can quickly become a research project of its own. Amazon and other marketplaces offer inexpensive interfaces, while professional suppliers provide systems whose total cost can grow considerably once software, protocol options, and support are included.
Both ends of the market have their place. The challenge is determining how much of the work the system will do—and how much it will leave to you.
A device that displays CAN identifiers and hexadecimal data may be sufficient for checking your own firmware. Diagnosing a network, interpreting higher-layer protocols, or running repeatable tests requires more than a list of received messages.
