1 Overview

The MPLAB Code Configurator (MCC) Melody LIN Responder library provides an easy-to-use graphical interface to set up a LIN Responder node.

Local Interconnect Network (LIN) is a low-cost serial communications protocol primarily used in automotive networks and industrial applications. A LIN bus is a single-wire interface composed of one Commander node and up to 15 Responder nodes. The Commander is responsible for controlling the flow of communication in the bus. Responder nodes listen to the Commander and “respond” based on the received commands.

Figure 1-1. LIN Bus

The Melody LIN Responder driver serves as the interface between the Responder node’s physical layer and the higher-level application firmware. The Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) is the critical hardware component enabling LIN communication. It functions as the serial communication engine to reduce software overhead and allow concurrent processing tasks during data transmission or reception. A hardware Timer is used to generate time-outs that can help identify nonresponsive nodes and network issues. The LIN transceiver operates as a bidirectional, half-duplex physical layer interface, bridging the UART module and the LIN bus.

More information about the protocol is provided in the Microchip Developer Help’s LIN Overview page.

1.1 Features

The Melody LIN Responder library is designed to facilitate rapid prototyping of LIN Responder nodes by abstracting the low-level driver complexities, thereby enabling users to focus on higher-level application development.

It offers the following features:

  • Supports all PIC16/18 and AVR devices in Melody(1)
  • MISRA C—Compliant firmware
  • Intuitive GUI with LIN Description File (LDF) parsing capability
  • LIN-compliant read/write APIs based on user-defined frames and signals
  • Blocking and non-blocking frame processing modes
  • Provision for custom error handling
Note:
  1. Refer to the MCC Melody PIC® and AVR® Release Notes for the list of supported devices.