CAN Info Mail

This monthly email is for all CAN fellows.
December 2023

A word from the CiA Managing Director

The last exhibition, where CiA was present with an own both, has closed the doors. The SPS industrial automation tradeshow was well visited: About 50000 attendees came to Nuremberg, Germany. Many CiA members presented their CAN-related products as well as non-members. The CiA 402 profile for drives and motion control is the dominating approach for frequency inverters, servos, and stepper motors. Although, the companies show in majority CANopen CC (classic) products, the request for CANopen FD is increasing.

On the fairground, there were some discussions about the future of CANopen Safety. After 20 years, it seems to be necessary to update the EN 50325-5 (CANopen Safety) standard to meet the upcoming requirements of referenced standards such as IEC 61508. CiA is going to start beginning of next year to review the CANopen Safety protocol. It could be that CANopen FD with data-field length up 64 byte is an appropriate and future-proofed option.

In October, CiA participated in the Interlift exhibition. CANopen Lift as specified in the CiA 417 series gains increasingly acceptance as the only open approach of elevator control systems. CANopen Lift is not only used for new elevators, but also in many retrofit projects. Retrofitting elevators is an important business. There was some discussion on the fairground, how to fulfill the requirements regarding the European Cyber Resilience Act. CiA has already started to discuss this topic in the SIG (special interest group) CANopen Lift. In a first proposal, the second part of the ID field (18 bit) is used to implement cybersecurity measures. The next Interlift takes place in Nuremberg in 2025.

Earlier this year, CiA exhibited at the WCX tradeshow by SAE in Detroit and the Embedded World exhibition in Nuremberg. On both events, CiA spread information about the CAN XL ecosystem. In May, CiA has organized a CAN XL plugfest testing interoperability of IP cores and CAN SIC XL prototype transceivers. NXP and STM provide first engineering samples of micro-controllers with on-chip CAN XL protocol controllers. Infineon and Renesas have pre-announced CAN XL support. Prototypes are expected by end of this year or beginning of the next year. Perhaps, we will see first engineering samples at the Embedded World 2024.

Looking forward to the next year, I assume more CAN FD devices (sensors, actuators, human-machine interfaces, and host controllers) for non-automotive applications. Of course, carmakers will continue to migrate from CAN CC (classic) to CAN FD (flexible data-rate) networks. Increasingly, they will apply CAN SIC (signal improvement capability) transceivers. Additionally, CiA has started to specify 3,3-V transceivers, which can be mixed with traditional 5-V transceivers in the same network. CiA members have established a related SIG chaired by Texas Instruments. The parent group is the IG (interest group) lower layers.

The year comes to its end. CiA closes as usual the office between Christmas and the new year. On January 2, the CiA continues to serve the CAN community. On behalf of the CiA board of directors and the CiA staff, I wish you peaceful days between the years.

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CANopen Safety improvement: CiA meeting in January

The European EN 50325-5 CANopen Safety standard (released in 2016) is not more up to date. In the meantime, some of the referenced documents have been updated or are currently under review. The European standardization body has demanded to improve the EN 50325-5 to meet the requirements of the referenced standards such as the IEC 61508. If the standard will be not revised within three years, it is a candidate to be withdrawn.

Therefore, CiA organizes an online meeting on January 30, 2024 (14:00 to 17:00, UTC+2), to start the discussion about the future of the CANopen Safety approach. The agenda includes:

  • Current status of CANopen Safety (EN 50325-5)
  • Current status of IEC 61508 and IEC 61784-3
  • Open discussion on required improvements

The meeting is intended for CiA members, but also non-members implementing or using CANopen Safety may participate. Registration is possible by email to secretary(at)can-cia.org.

ISO 15765-5 second edition

The standard specifies the connection of CAN-based in-vehicle networks to the diagnostic link connector. The 2nd edition of this document has been technically revised. The network-address translation between OSI-layers has been improved, for example.

Full house: CiA technology day in Taiwan

The Taiwanese CiA technology day on November 21, 2023 was participated by about 230 attendees. The one-day event in Kaohsiung was organized in co-operation with the Rotary Club.

Reiner Zitzmann and Holger Zeltwanger presented the latest trends in CAN technology. The participants and organizers are interested in more similar events in the future.

New CAN Dictionary edition and CANopen Lift poster

The 12th CAN Dictionary edition in English language includes the latest terminology and according explanations regarding the third CAN generation: The CAN XL. The brochure can be downloaded from the CiA website as a PDF file. CiA has also created a poster explaining the principles of CANopen Lift applications according to the CiA 417 specification.

On request, CiA can send printed dictionary and/or poster copies to interested parties free of charge. Therefore, please contact marketing(at)can-cia.org.

CAN Newsletter magazine

The December 2023 issue of the CAN Newsletter has been released. It includes four articles about trade shows participated or visited by CiA. These are ‘Interlift 2023: CANopen Lift is set!’, ‘CANopen for manual welding’, ‘Wind power and CANopen’ and ‘SPS 2023: Smart product solutions’. ‘Motion systems for intralogistics and robotics’ from Delta Line, ‘AGVs – Safety through smart sensors’ by Wachendorff as well as ‘CANopen servo amplifier used for screwdriving control’ by Sieb & Meyer report about the according applications.

The category engineering contains news about ‘Standards and specifications’ and introduces ‘The program of the 18th iCC’. It also congratulates the Ethernet community with the ‘Ethernet’s 50th birthday’ and starts with the first part of the article series ‘Real-time communication: Part I – Selecting the right real-time timeframe’ by Embedded Systems Academy. ‘System-level testing of CAN FD transceivers’ based on information from Analog Devices is also part of this section.

Further published articles are ‘Tester for physical network diagnostics’ from Gemac, ‘Using ChatGPT to analyze large CAN data sets’ by CSS Electronics, and ‘Making NOX measurements easier’ from Kvaser.

The articles can be downloaded individually or you can download the entire magazine.

CAN Newsletter Online

Reference design: Digital instrument cluster and connectivity platform

NXP has launched a design platform comprising the i.MX RT1170 micro-controller, the AW611 Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth single-chip, and the KW45 secure wireless access MCU. It is intended for two-wheelers.

New video on Youtube


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CiA workshop

  • 2023-12-14: Digital construction site 4.0 1

1 in English language

New CiA members since the last CAN Info Mail (CIM)

  • Analog Devices (US)
  • Aros Electronics (SE)
  • IGF Link (AU)
  • Vitibot (FR)

CiA has 763 members (December 01, 2023)

CiA Product Guides

Renewed entries:

  • CANopen: esd electronics, Beckhoff Automation, WIKA Mobile Control

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