CAN I do this?

Quite some time ago, I tried connecting my central heater to a tiny computer in an attempt to read data from it for my home automation system. Well, that failed in such a big way that the WiFi chip on the computer literally started emitting light instead of a WiFi signal. This computer is supposed to run on 3.3 or 5 V, but I managed to fry it with 24 volts. Luckily the tiny computer only cost me a couple of euros and the heater itself is unharmed.

I since then found out that my central heater has a CAN bus connection instead of the serial connection I was expecting. All very technical for most blippers I suppose, but the bottom line is that (1) it is certain that the heater has a CAN bus connection and (2) no one except the manufacturer officially knows what data exactly can be exchanged over the CAN bus.

I’ve ordered a converter thingie that should allow me to connect a computer to the central heater through a standard USB port. If I can get that to work, it will still be quite a challenge to understand the data that the heater sends. Let’s see! Tonight I looked into the details of how a CAN bus works and this YouTube video was very helpful.