Question about difference between Photon and Photon 2

Hardware
1

Back in 2018 I used a Photon and a Carloop can-hitch to make a can bus simulator for an old car I retrofitted a Toyota Prius electric power steering (EPS) column into. Basically I programmed the Photon to output a set engine speed and wheel speed through the can-hitch module to the can bus wiring to the EPS control module so it thinks its still in a Prius.

I am in the process of setting up a second one of these on another older car and the Photon has been replaced by the Photon 2 and Carloop.io is shut down and no longer selling anything. I can buy a CAN transciever similar to the can hitch Carloop sold basically this: SN65HVD230 CAN Board Accessory board used for connecting MCUs to the CAN network, 3.3V, ESD protection

My question is will the Photon 2 support this combination. I assume the Photon sent a serial data signal the the tx/rx pins on the can hitch/ waveshare can module, and it converts the serial data to the CAN high and low needed to interface the EPS.

I saw something posted in the documentation about migrating from Photon to Photon2 this:

CAN (controller area network)

The Photon supports CAN on pins D1 and D2. There is no CAN on the Photon 2 or Gen 3 devices (except the Tracker).

  • The Tracker SoM includes CAN via a MCP25625 CAN interface with integrated transceiver.
  • Both the MCP2515 and MCP25625 work with the library used on the Tracker and can be used to add CAN to the Photon 2.

but I am not that technically savvy to figure out if the Photon 2 will work for me or if I need something else.

2

You have highlighted the solution in your post - use a CAN bus transceiver with the library indicated. You need to be mindful that the pins on the Photon2 are only 3v tolerant so depending upon the IC used (a module I would suggest) you may need a logic level shifter (5 to 3v). Fascinating use case.

3

Yes, you can use the MCP2515 or the MCP25625 on the P2, Photon 2, or M-SoM (RTL872x) to support CAN. Those chips use 3.3V logic and do not need a logic level shifter.