In order to enable manufacturers to check, whether the CANopen implementation of their CANopen devices is compliant to the CANopen specification, CAN in Automation offers the CANopen conformance test tool. Therefore device manufacturers are enabled to:

• test their CANopen implementations or even parts of it during the device development. Thus they can safe time and money during device development.
• certify their device by themselves (But think about credibility!).
• pre-test their devices in advance to device certification at CAN in Automation. Thus they can safe time and money at CiA device certification, as CiA uses the same tool for CiA device certification

CANopen conformance test tool

The CANopen Conformance test tool is a pure software tool, which is currently available in the Version 2.0.

• This version is used to verify that CANopen devices are compliant to CiA 301 Version 4.0.1 or later. Updates from older versions to the current version are available at CiA.
• The test tool is implemented according to the specifications given in the CANopen conformance test plan CiA 310.
• Specifications and definitions given in CANopen frameworks, CANopen device profiles or CANopen application profiles are not considered in the test tool.

Conformance test procedure

The CANopen conformance test tool verifies the communication interface of a device, whether it is compliant to the CANopen standard. Although the test tool is focused on the application layer, failures in the lower communication layers may be detected. The CANopen conformance test tool:

• verifies the application layer services.
• tests the EDS against the object dictionary of the CANopen device.
• verifies the network management state machine and the related state transitions.

Timing requirements are neither defined nor tested!

Prerequisites for the CANopen conformance test tool

For a proper operation of the test tool, the following listed prerequisites have to be fulfilled.

• A CAN interface is required on the PC running this conformance test tool.
• A Windows operating system is required on the PC running this conformance test tool.
• The CAN interface has to provide the functionality defined in the CANopen Testing Interface (COTI) specification. The information, whether COTI is available for a certain CAN interface has to be inquired at the corresponding CAN interface provider.

Overview about companies that offer CAN cards with COTI

The CANopen conformance test tool requires a CAN hardware interface installed on the PC, in order to access the CANopen devices to be tested. The internal access of the software to the CAN hardware interface is based on a well-defined interface called CANopen Testing Interface (COTI). Currently, the following companies provide the CAN hardware together with COTI:

CANopen conformance test tool availability

The CANopen test tool Version 2.0 is available at CAN in Automation. Order a CANopen conformance test tool either by sending an email to ct-sales(at)can-cia.org or by sending the CANopen test tool order form back to CiA office.
(Please consider system requirements!)

• There is no CAN hardware offered by CAN in Automation. Companies which offer CAN cards with COTI are listed here.
• The price for the pure software tool is 1325,- Euro (1576,75 Euro incl. German VAT).
• Test tool updates from older Versions to Version 2.0 are available at CiA for 450,- Euro (535,50 Euro incl. German VAT).