Embedded Systems Academy

Embedded Systems Academy (EmSA), a leading provider of embedded software solutions for CAN
based industrial networks, is pleased to announce the release of its Micro CANopen libraries as
Open-CMSIS-Pack following the Common Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS) by
Arm. This new integration enables developers to easily implement CANopen communication
protocols in their embedded systems.

Until now, these Micro CANopen libraries were already available as part of selected NXP
MCUXpresso Software Development Kits (SDKs). Along with NXP’s recent release of support for MS
Visual Studio Code, SDKs and third-party libraries are moving to Open-CMSIS-Packs, ensuring
compatibility with a wider range of development tools and microcontrollers. For more information on NXP’s step towards VS Code and Open-CMSIS-Packs, follow this link.

The Micro CANopen libraries from EmSA offer a minimalistic implementation of the CANopen and
CANopen FD communication protocols for I/O devices and basic managers/controllers. They are
designed to simplify the development process by providing a compact and efficient solution, saving
valuable time and resources for embedded system developers. Through the Open-CMSIS-Pack
format, developers can leverage the libraries seamlessly, further enhancing the efficiency and
reliability of their CANopen-enabled applications.

The published Micro CANopen libraries may be used at no license charge and are adequate to
implement basic I/O devices with a limited number of parameters or a controller with a limited
number of nodes to handle.

“We are excited to bring our Micro CANopen libraries to the Open-CMSIS-Pack ecosystem,” said Olaf
Pfeiffer, CEO of Embedded Systems Academy. “By making our libraries available as Open-CMSIS-
Packs, we aim to empower developers to effortlessly integrate CANopen or CANopen FD support
into their embedded projects.”

Developers can use any tool that supports Open-CMSIS-Packs to access these CANopen libraries such
as NXP MCUXpresso, Visual Studio Code, Arm Keil MDK and IAR Embedded Workbench. The libraries
are compatible with the latest Arm CMSIS releases and initial support covers several popular NXP
LPC and i.MX microcontroller derivatives.

The current beta release features the Micro CANopen release for selected NXP microcontrollers. Future releases will support NXP’s auto-configuration and more derivatives with CAN or CAN FD interfaces.

The current list of available releases is availabe at: www.keil.arm.com/vendors/emsa/packs

NXP and EmSA are inviting you to the one hour seminar “Accelerate Development of Robust Network Communications with CANopen and CANopen FD” on Tuesday April 21st 2020. This webinar is a hands-on session about customized CANopen (FD) development on NXP MCUs.

In the hands-on part, we take the CANopen (FD) device/slave example included with the NXP MCUXpresso SDK and use the free CANopen Architect Mini software utility to modify and configure the CANopen (FD) communication of the device. Code modifications are made using the MCUXpresso SDK to support the custom generated CANopen (FD) object dictionary entries. Click here to register for this webinar.

The webinar requires some basic CANopen (FD) and MCUXpresso knowledge. See our courses at www.em-sa.com/video to learn the basics about these technologies.

February 24, 2020 – Embedded Systems Academy (EmSA) and NXP® Semiconductors announce the integration of the free-to-use EmSA Micro CANopen libraries into the NXP MCUXpresso Software Development Kit (SDK) for developing with NXP’s microcontrollers (MCU) and crossovers based on Arm® Cortex®-M.

For years, many MCUs have been equipped with the Controller Area Network (CAN) interfaces including CAN FD. These interfaces are optimized for embedded communication and make it easy to transmit and receive single messages.

“To take full advantage of the capabilities of such interfaces, middleware communication protocols are required,” says Olaf Pfeiffer, General Manager of EmSA. “One of the most
popular protocols for embedded CAN applications is CANopen, for which EmSA has delivered its Micro CANopen software for more than 20 years, and remains highly used among embedded developers.”

Free-to-use versions of EmSA’s Micro CANopen library are now fully integrated into the MCUXpresso SDK for a selection of NXP LPC MCUs and i.MX RT crossover MCUs.

“This integration further simplifies the process of prototyping and integrating sophisticated and reliable communication into embedded systems.” said Brendon Slade, director of MCU ecosystem for Edge Processing at NXP Semiconductors. “For most systems, the libraries can be used in production without further licensing.”

One of the first adopters is PEAK-System Technik: Their industrial I/O module PCAN-MicroMod FD is based on NXP’s LPC54000 MCU series and uses a variation o

f EmSA’s Micro CANopen libraries. “Using a proven CANopen (FD) protocol implementation for our I/O devices greatly reduced our development time and opens up additional use-cases for our customers.”, says Uwe Wilhelm, General Manager of PEAK-System Technik.

For more information about the NXP microcontrollers currently supported by EmSA’s free to use CANopen libraries and video tutorials, visit www.em-sa.com/nxp

About MCUXpresso SDK
Available in downloads based on user selections of MCU, evaluation board and optional software components, the MCUXpresso SDK merges customization and quality in a suite of production-grade runtime software. Complete with pre-integrated RTOS middleware, stacks and middleware, reference software, and MISRA-compliant drivers analyzed with Coverity® static analysis tools, it’s the ultimate software framework and reference solution for application development with NXP MCUs and crossover MCUs based on ARM® Cortex®-M cores.

About Embedded Systems Academy
Embedded Systems Academy (EmSA) is an NXP gold partner and has locations in Barsinghausen, Germany and San Jose, California. EmSA provides tools, training and services for planning, implementing, debugging, commissioning and testing of embedded networking technologies including CAN, CAN FD, CANopen, CANopen FD, CiA447, J1939 and others. EmSA’s tutors Olaf Pfeiffer, Christian Keydel and Andrew Ayre published two books about CAN, CANopen and security on CAN systems. They regularly publish related articles and papers for various international conferences.

Contact
Embedded Systems Academy GmbH
Olaf Pfeiffer
info@esacademy.de

Over the last years we published more than 50 articles, papers, books, webinars and we also continuously updated our training materials. However, some of the training material and especially scientific papers only reach a small percentage of the embedded community. Therefore we decided to publish more free educational videos to reach more of you. As a start we created several playlists on our EmSA Youtube channel. These include:

• CANopen FD Intro:
  Introductory videos to CANopen FD, also covering some basics like an introduction to the CANopen Object Dictionary concept
• CAN (FD) Security:
  Video collection about CAN and CAN FD security challenges and solutions
• MCUXpresso Middleware:
  Video collection about NXP’s MCUXpresso and CANopen libraries included

We plan to publish more videos in the upcoming month, further focusing on CAN, CAN FD, CANopen, CANopen FD topics including introductory videos as well as in-depth technology classes.

Please subscribe to the channel to stay informed about new videos published.

EmSA is pleased to announce the release of version 10 of CANopen Magic. This version adds some exciting new features.

• Initial support for CiA-454 EnergyBus, including high-level message interpretation
• Simplified read and write windows with easy switching to advanced versions
• J1939 trace interpretation script
• User interface improvements

Users on a maintenance contract can obtain the new release as usual. To try out CANopen Magic with a fully-operational trial visit http://www.canopenmagic.com.

Darmstadt and Hannover, June 12th, 2019. PEAK-System Technik GmbH (www.peak-system.com) and Embedded Systems Academy GmbH (www.esacademy.de) have deepened their partnership to provide common CANopen, CANopen FD, and J1939 solutions. For more than 15 years, Embedded Systems Academy GmbH (EmSA) has offered numerous CANopen software products including monitors, analyzers, simulators, configurators, and protocol stacks for the CAN (Controller Area Network) hardware of PEAK-System Technik GmbH (PEAK). Building on that partnership, PEAK has now become a shareholder and partner of EmSA.

“By formally joining the PEAK Group of companies, we can now more easily share resources and are better positioned to streamline development processes that involve both CAN hardware and software,” says Olaf Pfeiffer, General Manager of Embedded Systems Academy GmbH.
Current projects of PEAK and EmSA include CANopen (FD) generic input and output devices, CANopen (FD) protocol libraries, security options for CAN and diagnostics and test systems for CANopen (FD) and J1939.

“The deepened partnership with EmSA will provide our hardware customers with a variety of easy-to-use software products for CANopen, CANopen FD, and J1939 applications,” says Uwe Wilhelm, General Manager of PEAK-System Technik GmbH. “We’ll announce our new joint CANopen and CANopen FD solutions on our websites and blogs over the coming months.”

We have released a new version of CANopen Architect, aimed at advanced users. The new Professional version builds upon the features found in the Standard version adding new functionality for quicker data entry and ideal for developers of CANopen products.

The Professional version can export Electronic Data Sheets as Word documents, allowing automatic generation of product manuals and internal documentation. Enter a descriptive text for each entry, choose the export options and save. The output can be used as a standalone manual or can be copied and pasted into an existing manual. Options are provided for using a template document and styling headings and tables.

A user-friendly PDO configuration window has been added. The new window allows quick and easy PDO creating and editing at a higher level than Object Dictionary entries. Mappings can be changed and reviewed without worrying about needing to keep the various underlying Object Dictionary entries consistent. Users of our CANopen Magic configuration and analysis tool will find the new window immediately familiar.

The new version provides an integrated command line interface allowing power users to quickly create and manipulate large amounts of PDOs. Commands can be placed into files and executed in a single step. Multiple commands for a variety of situations are provided and will be added to from time to time.

For details of the new features and to try the evaluation version please visit the CANopen Architect website.

Existing users of CANopen Magic Standard are able to upgrade. Please contact us for pricing.

It is a busy start into 2016 with several new products and the Embedded World 2016 coming up next week.

New product – CANopen Logxaminer
Last year, we spent a lot of time helping clients to evaluate long CAN trace recordings and searching for misbehaviour of CANopen devices as well as manually generating statistics about such behaviour. In order to simplify such trace evaluations we wrote a dedicated utility that evaluates CANopen trace recordings. It supports common file formats used by recording tools from PEAK, Vector and ESAcademy.

For more information about the CANopen Logxaminer, follow the link.

New book about CAN security
Within Q2/2016 we will publish a new book, this time about CAN security. Recent publicized hacks show that CAN/CANopen are quite vulnerable, once an intruder/attacker has access to the network. Our new book introduces a scalable method that addresses both authentication and encryption, is independent of the protocol used and free sample code will be provided. A more detailed announcement will be published in our blog at www.esacademy.com/blog next week.

New 2016 price list
Our new 2016 price list is now valid, for current prices visit our CANopen online stores in Europe or USA. Prices have been lowered for the low-level entry version of our CANopen Magic tool as well as for the CANopen Magic high-end version including DLL access for custom test tool developments.

Next week’s Embedded World 2016
This years show in Nuremberg from February 23rd to 25th has almost 1000 exhibitors. For a complete list see
www.embedded-world.de/en/ausstellerprodukte/exhibitorlist

You can meet Chris or me (Olaf) from ESAcademy at the PEAK system booth. Hall 1, booth 620.

If you can not make it to the show and are still interested in selected news and updates, follow Olaf at twitter.com/ESA_Olaf or re-visit our blog after the show for a summary of impressions.

Looking forward to seeing some of you in Nuremberg

Olaf Pfeiffer

At today’s 15th international CAN conference Olaf Pfeiffer of Embedded Systems Academy presented a paper about testing of highly dynamic CANopen systems. Such systems support plug-and-play and node ID assignment by LSS (Layer Setting Services, node ID gets assigned through the network). As a result, devices may change their node ID, making tests more challenging.

One of the test utilities introduced in this paper is now available as free download from ESAcademy’s web pages. It supports the extended concise DCF (Device Configuration File) as introduced in the paper. It allows you to easily write down configuration or test sequences in a table (save as .csv) and execute them using the free CANopen File Player.

The file format, the concise Default Configuration File is part of the basic CANopen definitions and has been in use for quite some time. The extension to it is simply a definition of a set of commands introducing the option to control things like addressing specific devices (identify by CANopen Identity record 1018h) and time delays / timeouts or user interactions.

In addition, the utility can re-play previously made CAN trace recordings, supporting a wide variety of formats from Vector, PEAK and others.

For more information on the format of the extended CDCF see the manual or download the free utility.

It now has an additional function to simulate driving at a fixed speed for a fixed duration. The odometer, speed indicator and wheel pulse counter are updated accordingly.

This new feature especially helps with testing applications that measure distance traveled, like taximeters or board computers for telematic applications.

The main simulation DLL can be exchanged. If a car manufacturer publishes the required details about their gateways, the simulation provides exactly those data objects that the real car uses.

For more details and pricing please contact us.