CanCan gateways — Overview

A CanCan is the small box that lets equipment that is not MUXEN appear on a MUXEN boat as if it were.

The boat's screens read one bus: the MUXEN CAN bus. A Scheiber lighting system, a Fischer Panda genset, a watermaker or an NMEA 2000 network each speak their own language on their own wire. A CanCan sits between the two, with one CAN connector on each side, and translates — continuously, in both directions where the equipment allows it. Once it is installed and configured, the third-party equipment shows up in the boat's interface next to native MUXEN devices, with no indication that it came from somewhere else.

Not every application only watches. Some command what they are connected to — a genset that starts on battery state of charge, a trim pump, a shaft generator loading itself to produce. The application's own manual says which, and it matters before you wire anything.

One box, one job. The hardware is the same for every application; what the box does is decided by the firmware loaded into it. That firmware carries a product ID — the nine-digit number that names the finished product in the MUXEN catalogue — and the boat's Brain uses it to know which firmware belongs in which box. Loading the wrong firmware turns a Scheiber gateway into an NMEA 2000 gateway; nothing physically prevents it, and the product ID is how you tell them apart.

Every CanCan, whatever its application, is also a small generic I/O device: two relay outputs, two dry-contact inputs and two analog inputs, usable for anything the installation needs — a bilge float switch, a tank sender, a relay driving a valve.

The catalogue

Product ID	Application	What it connects	v1	v2
010010003	Bell Marine	Bell Marine electric propulsion controllers (read-only)	✔	—
010010004	NMEA 2000	Victron, MG, Arco Zeus and Vetus energy equipment on an NMEA 2000 network	✔	✔
010010005	Scheiber	Scheiber SFSP switches and lighting blocks	✔	✔
010010006	Fischer Panda	one Fischer Panda genset: monitoring, remote start/stop, auto start on battery	✔	—
010010020	Aquabase	one Aquabase watermaker	✔	✔
010010026	Magic Trim	the motor drive of a Magic Trim hydraulic trim system	✔	—
010010027	Eco Sistems	one Eco Sistems watermaker	✔	✔
010010032	bus extender	a second MUXEN segment — repeats every frame both ways	✔	✔
010010034	J1939	Fischer Panda and Cummins Onan gensets (J1939)	✔	✔

"v1" and "v2" are the two generations of CanCan hardware — see The hardware. A ✔ means a signed firmware is built and published for that combination; a dash means that application has never been released on that generation, and asking for it is a question for MUXEN rather than a matter of loading a different file.

Each application has its own manual — follow its name in the table above. Start there for wiring, supported equipment models and commissioning. What you are reading covers what is true of every CanCan, whatever firmware it carries.

What is common to all of them

• The MUXEN side. Always CAN 1, always 500 kbit/s, always the same addressing: a function (what kind of device this is) and an instance (which one of them). See Reference.
• Configuration. No screen, no buttons, no web page. Every setting is read and written over the CAN bus from the Brain, with muxen-uds. A factory-fresh box answers on the bus but publishes nothing until it has been given an instance number.
• Firmware updates. Over the same bus, without opening the box — see Loading and updating a firmware. A failed update cannot brick a box: the previous firmware comes back by itself.
• One LED. The single system LED is the whole local diagnostic. Its blink rate is the box telling you whether it is running, stuck at startup, or refusing its own firmware — see Common mistakes.

Where to go next

I want to…	Read
know what to order and how to wire it	The hardware
load or update a firmware	Loading and updating a firmware
understand why it is not working	Common mistakes
look up an ID, a function code, a LED code	Reference
commission one specific application	its own manual — see the catalogue