CANard is a library for dealing with Controller Area Network (CAN) data from Python.

The CANtact tool is directly supported by CANard. Using it requires pySerial, which can be installed with pip:

pip install pyserial

This examples goes on bus and prints received messages:

from canard import can
from canard.hw import cantact

dev = cantact.CantactDev("/dev/cu.usbmodem14511")

dev.start()
while True:
  print(dev.recv())

You will need to set the serial port (/dev/cu.usbmodem14511 in this example) correctly.

Peak CAN tools (also known as GridConnect) are support through SocketCAN. This functionality is only available on Linux

For kernels 3.6 and newer, skip to step 5.

1. Download the Peak Linux driver.

2. Install dependancies:

   sudo apt-get install libpopt-dev

3. Build the driver:

   cd peak-linux-driver-x.xx
   make
   sudo make install

4. Enable the driver:

   sudo modprobe pcan

5. Connect a Peak CAN tool, ensure it appears in /proc/pcan. Note the network device name (ie, can0)

6. Bring the corresponding network up:

   sudo ifconfig can0 up

The device can now be accessed as a SocketCanDev. This examples goes on bus and prints received messages:

from canard import can
from canard.hw import socketcan

dev = socketcan.SocketCanDev("can0")

dev.start()
while True:
print(dev.recv())