The CANopen DeviceExplorer is a versatile tool for development, testing, diagnostics and service tasks. It provides CANopen master functionalities and allows the analysis and configuration of CANopen devices.
Information about each CANopen device are read from the electronic data sheet of the device, or they can be scanned directly from the device. Using standardized device configuration files (DCF) device configurations can be saved or imported. Additionally, data of entire CANopen networks can be stored in project files. The built-in scripting capability using QtScript allows users to create their own test and control applications with only little effort.
Highlights
- CANopen master functionalities like NMT commands, Heartbeat, Node guarding, SDO client, PDO producer and consumer, SYNC producer, emergency consumer
- Optional LSS master functionality
- Saving and importing of device and network configuration
- Firmware download acc. to CiA 302
- Scripting PlugIn to create user specific test or service applications
Object dictionary
Objects of a device are presented in a clearly arranged object browser. Access to each object – according to the access rights – is given for reading and writing. The CANopen DeviceExplorer supports all SDO services. Values of the objects can be displayed decimal, hexadecimal, binary or in ASCII format, depending on the data type. Large data, like domain blocks, can be read directly from – or written to files.
PDO – configuration and visualizing
The CANopen DeviceExplorer supports the simple configuration of the the PDO mapping by drag&drop function. PDOs can be sent, received and visualized with a single click. The SYNC message for sending of cycle PDOs can be sent once or cyclic for the purpose of tests or diagnosis.
Plugin Extension Modules
Optional extension modules (plugins) extend the functionality of the tool.
Following Plugins are available:
The J1939 PlugIn is an optional extension for the CANopen DeviceExplorer and CANinterpreter. It provides functions to interpret and to send J1939 messages. Selected SPN values can also be displayed in a chart.
The payload of the PGN are interpreted. BAM and TP.CMDT messages can be interpreted on protocol layer but the extension is also able to show the payload of these messages.
Safety Header Messages, NMEA2000 messages and diagnostic messages are also interpreted as shown in the images above.
J1939 Transmitter
The J1939 transmitter is able to transmit various J1939 messages. These are:
- Standard PGNs <= 8 bytes
- Request PGN and Address Claiming
- Broadcast PGNs > 8 bytes by BAM
- some diagnostic messages
- J1939 CAM11/CAM21 messages
J1939 SPN Plotter (Chart)
The SPN data plotter (chart) can be used to record and to visualize selected SPN values. The recorded SPN values can be exported afterwards and the chart supports SPN in ‘normal’ 8-byte-message but also SPNs that are transmitted via BAM, CMDT or Fast
The CDE scripting plugin provides a Javascript based scripting API with 50+ additional CAN/CANopen commands. Own graphical user interfaces (GUI) can be designed and used as well in these scripts.
CAN commands are provided to send and receive arbitrary CAN messages or even CAN-FD messages if supported by the CAN interface. CAN message reception is based on a registration for certain CAN-IDs so the script only needs to handle the CAN message it is interested in. On reception of a registered CAN message a defined call back function is called in the script. This can be used to trigger other actions or to implement own CAN based protocols.
For CANopen the services SDO, NMT Master, LSS, PDO, TIME and Sync are supported. A script can read data from a device by SDO or write data to a device using all variants of the SDO protocol (expedited, segmented and block transfer).
User Defined GUI
Using the Qt Designer own UIs may be defined as .ui files that can be used from scripts.
It is even possible to hide the main GUI of the CANopen DeviceDesigner and to show only the user-specific UI windows in order to develop test or service applications using the scripting API.
Additional API functions
Besides the normal control structures of Javascript and the mentioned CAN/CANopen functions there are several additional functions:
- modify CDE configurations
- single-shot timer
- cyclic timers
- file operations
- start of external programs
- play back of audio (wav) files
- Text-to-Speech functions: for example to say ‘bootup message received’ or ‘test completed’, …
The SRDO Plugin simplifies the configuration of SRDO producers and SRDO consumers in a CANopen Safety network. The SRDO settings and the SRDO mapping of specific devices can be configured in a straight-forward way.
The ‘Configuration Valid’ flag of the CANopen Safety device can also be set directly from the SRDO mask and the device can be started by NMT commands. Especially for device developers it is useful to see the current SRDO with its received data in the mask as well.
Additionally, the CANopen interpretation, which is included in the CANopen DeviceExplorer, is able to interpret SRDOs and to show the mapped objects as clear text.
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The Process DataLinker Plugin is for the parametrization of communication lines within CANopen networks. Linking of producer and consumer data works almost with one click and the Plugin creates the configuration for the device communication. Detailed knowledge of CANopen is not needed and the PDO linking is much easier than ever before.
Object linking
For the configuration, the objects of producer and consumer are presented in a table. Instead of the usual CANopen notation like 0x6041, subindex 1 the name of the object e.g. ‘Control word’ is shown. Objects of producer and consumer can now be connected with a single click. Invalid connections will not occur, since only those connections are presented where the CANopen data types match. It is possible to prioritize connections.
PDO linking
According to the settings made by the user, the CANopen DataLinker does the PDO configuration including the mapping and COB-IDs of the CANopen devices. Static mapping, fixed COB-IDs or other special cases are also considered. For experts there is the additional possibility for manual configuration given. Here it is also checked whether the configurations are valid.
Timing configuration
PDO-spezifische Timing parameter as in Inhibit Time and Event Timer as well as SYNC timings and node guarding can be configured by Heartbeat.
Support for CANopen PLCs
CANopen PLC according to CiA-405 are supported by the Process DataLinker. For each PLC network variables can be set and linked to the objects of other devices. More than one PLC in a project are possible.
Parametrizations
All manufacturer specific objects and device profile objects can be configured via the CANopen DeviceExplorer tool. The settings are then directly available in the Process DataLinker and transferred into the created configuration files (DCF). In addition it is possible to write the configuration data via CAN directly into the devices to start the network from the Process DataLinker.
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Versions
The CANopen Device Packages ‘Basic’ and ‘Full’ contain a defined set of plugins. Additional plugins can be licensed separately.
| PlugIns/Variant | Basic | Full | Separate |
| CANopen FD Support | x | x | |
| Object Browser|(U)SDO Client | x | x | |
| NMT master | x | x | |
| PDO configuration | x | x | |
| PDO visualization | x | x | |
| Multi-Data Plotter | x | x | |
| DCF editor | x | x | |
| configuration download | x | x | |
| CAN analyzer | x | x | |
| CAN replayer | x | x | |
| CANopen Interpreter | x | x | |
| LSS Master | x | ||
| CAN/CANopen Scripting | x | ||
| SRDO Configuration | x | ||
| Process DataLinker | x | ||
| J1939 Interpreter | x | ||
| ISO-TP Interpreter | x | ||
| EnergyBus Interpreter | x | ||
| CiA 402 Control | x | ||
| Multi-Interface-Support | x |
CPC Series PC CAN interface Support
- USB: CPC-USB/ARM7, CPC-USB/embedded
- PCI Express: CPC-PCIe
CiA 309-3 Support – CANopen over TCP/IP
The CANopen DeviceExplorer can also connect via TCP/IP to a CANopen-TCP/IP Gateway according to CiA 309-3. Using such a connection the majority of the CANopen functions can be used, but raw CAN view is not possible.
System Requirements
- Microsoft Windows 7, 10
- various Linux-variants
- supported CAN interface