Embedded Systems Academy

It was a lengthy process. Along with other experts we from Embedded Systems Academy participated in the CANopen FD definition group for more than 2 years now. Initially some only wanted a few changes. However as CAN FD is not backward compatible to CAN (classic CAN controllers produce error frames when they see a CAN FD message) the majority saw the chance to “dump complete backward compatibility” and add new and advanced features. The previous SDO communication (request-response scheme between one master and multiple devices) was replaced with the USDO communication – the Universal Service Data Object.

A first version of the definition of CANopen FD (CiA 1301) was released by the CiA in October this year. It is available from the CiA on request (www.can-cia.org/services/publications/). Some of the new features include:

• TPDOs can now have up to 64 bytes of data (previous 8)
• Full USDO mesh definition – every node can send client requests to every other node
• USDO communication may be a broadcast to all nodes

The USDO service allows any device to send service requests to any other device, without the need for a master or manager to be involved. This greatly improves plug-and-play support and self-configuring systems, as now each device independently can analyse its surroundings: which devices are on this network and what kind of communication objects do they have available.

We at Embedded Systems Academy are now adding CANopen FD support to all our CANopen products. The first line of products supporting CANopen FD is our CANopen Magic software for the analysis and test of networks. As of the latest release (V9.0) all CANopen Magic products support both CANopen and CANopen FD. For CANopen FD an appropriate CAN FD interface must be connected. All of our current tests have been made with the PCAN-USB FD and PCAN-USB Pro FD interfaces from PEAK System.

We are currently in the process of contacting all current CANopen Magic users to inform them about their upgrade options. If you are using CANopen Magic and have not yet received an email from us about your upgrade options, please contact us.

The last two weeks were very exciting for us: We held several papers at the International CAN Conference and Embedded World (both in Nuremberg, Germany), participated in the first CANopen FD demonstrator at both events – with the new NXP LPC54618 – and finally released our book “Implementing scalable CAN security with CANcrypt”.

The CANopen FD demonstrator at the CiA (CAN in Automation) booth showed one of the new features of CANopen FD: segmented broadcast of larger data blocks with “Universal Service Data Objects” (USDOs). This feature can be used to broadcast images, configuration tables or even firmware updates. Here, any participant could be commanded to broadcast an image to all other participants. Such use cases were almost unthinkable with classic CANopen communication.

At Embedded World, PHYTEC showed a Nano Dimension 3D printer for PCBs. Prototyping your printed circuit boards just became a lot easier and faster. The circuits are printed with a highly conductive ink. It looks like the machine can directly produce boards from Gerber files.

At the NXP booth, one of the demos featured the NXP LPC54618 microcontroller with two CAN FD interfaces. The “FD” (Flexible Data rate) allows the data portion of a CAN message to be transmitted at higher bit rates. So far, classical CAN was limited to 1 Mbps. With currently available transceivers the data rate can now be up to 5 Mbps. Also in CAN FD, the maximum payload for each message is 64 bytes compared to eight bytes in traditional CAN. The demo compared different firmware download speeds. Using CAN FD, updates can now be transferred multiple times faster than before.

The release of our book about CANcrypt (www.cancrypt.net) stirred a lot of interest and we had many engaged discussions, also with some security experts. CANcrypt is a security framework and the security level actually used is configurable. As usually, there is a trade-off: the more security you require, the more resources both in CPU time as well as in memory space you need. For a configuration on the upper end of security, proven encryption methods like AES-128 can be used. It will be interesting to see if the lower-end lightweight “Speck” cipher reaches adequate security levels, too.

A first potential weak spot in one of the initial published configurations (user section, where user’s are setting up their own security configuration) was already discovered and is currently improved. The encryption of the secure heartbeat accidentally used only limited parts of the shared dynamic key, reducing the effective key to 32-bit. However, CANcrypt supports key sizes of up to 1024-bit. The next release will use a demo where a larger key is applied properly.

To learn about our bounty program, stay tuned by joining our mailing list or following us on twitter . Within the next few weeks we will start such a program to encourage others to search for possible flaws in the CANcrypt implementation.

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.

ESAcademy recently released an update for its Micro CANopen source code software including an update to the CANopen Architect EDS editor and code generator. This update includes changes that were made to pass the latest Version 1.0.1 of the official CANopen conformance test by the CiA. The changes required mainly consisted of adapting SDO abort codes to the required values. For further changes, please refer to the release notes of the individual products. Customers with ongoing support service may download the latest versions from www.esacademy.org