Introduction

Owned by Marcus Tangermann
Last updated: Mar 02, 2021
3 min read

Applicability of the manuals

The documentation of the CANopen Library by port consists of a user manual and a reference manual. The user manual serves as an introduction for using the CANopen Library, describing the procedure to use this library and the process of integration into the customer’s application.

This document and the reference manual together describe the properties of all distributions of the CANopen Library. The CANopen Library source code is delivered in different configurations:

  • Master/Slave, single-line with global variable model

  • Slave, single-line with global variable model

  • Master/Slave, multi-line with global variable model

  • Slave, multi-line with global variable model

  • Master/Slave, single-line with non-global variable model

  • Slave, single-line with non-global variable model

The version/revision number of the user manual and the reference manual correlates to the version/revision of the CANopen Library software.

Product overview

port is a member of the CAN in Automation (CiA). Our engineers are involved in the standardization activities in many of the Special Interest Groups of the CiA.

With this knowledge, port ensures that all CANopen products are conform to CiA standards. Because CiA does not certify software but rather CANopen devices, ask our support team for a reference of certified custom CANopen devices.

The CANopen Library by port has been developed with respect to the following points:

  • CANopen functionality for both master and slave

  • scalability to use only the kind and numbers of services the application needs

  • independence of hardware and operating systems

  • support of more than one CANopen network (up to 255 CANopen network lines)

  • easy application interfaces

  • high portability and full ANSI-C conformity

All provided CANopen functionality fulfills the standards of CiA e.V., but not all optional functionality is supported. Please contact our sales team for detailed information, see chapter 1.6.

The CANopen Library is very flexible, allowing a wide range of possible applications. In control systems in which resulting CANopen devices are used, implementing the CANopen technology can possibly infringe existing application patents. port GmbH cannot be held responsible for that.

System requirements

The CANopen Library has been written in ANSI-C with a high degree of portability in mind. Therefore it is possible to compile the sources with any ANSI-C compliant compiler. The CANopen Library was tested with a lot of different compilers. The functions of the CANopen Library run on any system which can guarantee: 

  • an interrupt handling for CAN, or available CAN device drivers

  • a hard- or software timer

For applications using an active CAN interface or providing CAN operating system drivers, a CAN interrupt handling is not necessary.

Additional tools

The usage of the CANopen Library is supported by the following tools from port:

  • The Industrial Communication Creator supports the configuration and optimization of the CANopen Library, the configuration of the hardware interface and the design of the object dictionary.

  • The CANopen Device Monitor is a testing tool, simulating a CANopen device used to confirm proper CANopen communication in a CANopen network.

Demo versions of these tools are available on port’s web-page. The user manuals of these tools provide more details. The usage of the Industrial Communication Creator is especially recommended.

Installation

The CANopen Library and the CANopen Driver packages are delivered as zip-archiv for Windows™ and for Linux. 

All examples expect the recommended structure shown in Figure 1 for successful compilation.

Figure 1: directory structure of the CANopen Library delivery

Set the shift-width to 4 and tab-stop to 8 in your editor to get best performance while viewing the CANopen Library C files.

Support by port

port GmbH is one of the leading suppliers of CANopen communication technologies. The senior engineers at port you can contact by e-mail or by phone. port GmbH provides training courses for CAN/CANopen to help you get started. Additionally, consultations in the entire field of CAN i.e. network planning, network configuration, message distribution, selection of devices and CANopen Device Profile implementations are available. Specific adaptations of our products according to customer requirements can be carried out on request.

Please contact us for sales: 

  • e-mail:  service@port.de

  • phone: +49 345 777 55 - 0 

  • fax:      +49 345 777 55 - 20

Please contact us for technical support: 

The engineers at port will assist you as soon as possible.