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To be environment- and climate-friendly, automobiles have been shifting rapidly away from internal combustion engines towards electric vehicles (EVs). Large-scale adoption of EVs relies on their supporting infrastructure, such as charging stations, that need to be accessible in urban and rural areas where EVs go, and reliable communications (between the charging stations and the EVs) that are needed for efficient charging process and management. Among the commonly used communication technologies for EV charging systems are controller area network (CAN, also known as CAN bus) and power line communication (PLC).

This Master thesis project aims to implement CAN bus and PLC systems for a Master’s program education in Uppsala University, particularly for the lab session of a Master course, Infrastructure for Electric Propulsion. Both systems consist of four nodes: three sensor nodes connected with a voltage sensor, a current sensor, and a temperature and humidity sensor, respectively, and one data collecting and displaying node connected with an LCD display. These sensor measurements are selected because they are relevant to battery charging conditions.

The CAN bus communication has a well-established standard, ISO 11898, released by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). A CAN node, also known as an electronic control unit (ECU), in the CAN bus consists of three basic components: a transceiver, a CAN controller, and a microcontroller. There are different CAN bus development boards (modules) available on the market from different manufacturers. The modules can be made in different circuit forms, e.g., a module having both a transceiver chip and a CAN controller chip on it (in this case a microcontroller module is needed to make the CAN node); or a module having all three components on it. The CAN bus system was built using modules from three different manufacturers to look into the compatibility of the modules from different manufacturers. The system has been tested and worked as it should. Then the implementation of the system is modified in a form suited for the lab and the lab instruction has been created. The students took the lab and built the CAN bus system which worked well.

Unlike the CAN bus, the PLC does not have a well-established standard. Using two different PLC modules for making PLC nodes, two PLC systems were built. One was built using an Arduino Mega 2560 microcontroller board and a KQ330 PLC module which is equipped with the modulation techniques of QAM 256/64/16, DQPSK, DBPSK, and ROBO and with the frequency range of 120-135 kHz. The other was made using a STM32 Nucleo-F401RE microcontroller, an X-NUCLEO-PLM01A expansion board, and an STEVAL-XPLM01C01 board for AC coupling and isolation. The X-NUCLEO-PLM01A board is based on the ST7580 FSK, PSK multi-mode power line networking system-on-chip. It provides a reliable and easy-to-use solution for PLC.

Two PLC systems have been tested. The results have shown that both PLC systems work as they should. However, these two PLC systems have not been made into a form suited for the lab yet. This needs to be done and the instruction needs to be written in the future work.