Why buy a random test device when you could just buy a CAN-USB adapter? It would let you test your code as well as monitor the bus when testing with an actual CAN device (ie. the CAN device you actually plan to use, and not some random one you are buying for testing purposes only)
This one is way cheaper but has command-line interface only which might get to be a pain in in the ass (though no more than RS-232 I guess) https://www.c-a-n.com/canusblite.html
Haha thanks, I considered that. Just would rather not have to program another device with CAN in order to test my own CAN. Doubles the work and if something doesn't work it makes things really annoying.
WIth the probe you don't need to program another device...you program your PIC to send something and read the received message off the PC to see if that's actually what you sent.