CAN Bus Isolation

This is with regards to the Isolated CAN Transceiver used in most of the Toradex reference designs(ADM3053). I’m using it with the on-chip peripheral CAN of the Colibri i.MX6.

While I understand the positive points for using an isolated CAN transceiver, in my particular application, all the CAN nodes are powered by a common power supply(To be specific it’s a formula type car with an Isolated DCDC converter providing 12V converted from the accumulator). In such a case, where the ground voltages of all the nodes will be rather close to each other, would it suffice to just use something simpler like an MCP2551 and just connect CAN H and L? My main concern here is the physical size(and PCB area) of the ADM3053. Every other node in our project uses the MCP2551 and the ADM3053 seems like an overdesign.

I’m asking here instead of a general electronics forum because I want to make sure there aren’t any factors in this decision due to the Colibri Module itself.

Dear @anoopanand, thank you very much for contacting the Toradex community. I am really sorry I was not able to provide you a quicker answer, please accept my apologies.
Regarding your issue, I would like first of all to point out that the Colibri iMX6 CAN interface voltage is 3.3V.
We normally connect the isolated side of the can interface (including the MCP2551) to 5V. This could be an issue.
Maybe you could use an isolated transceiver, something similar to the ISO1050 (this is probably not the best option, I only did a really quick search) and an isolated power supply. That would allow you to be really compliant.
Anyway the ADM3053BRWZ it is probably the better choice because it features also the isolated DC/Dc.
I really hope this helps, please don’t hesitate to contact us again if you need further help.