CANopen is a CAN-based communication system. It is internationally standardized in EN 50325-4 and supports many profile specifications (CiA 4XX series). CANopen has been developed as a standardized embedded network approach with flexible configuration capabilities. It has been designed originally for motion-oriented machine control systems, such as handling systems. Today, it is used in various application fields such as medical equipment, off-road vehicles, or building automation.

CANopen unburdens the developer from dealing with CAN hardware-specific details such as bit timing and acceptance filtering. It provides standardized communication objects (COB) for time-critical processes, configuration as well as network management.

With the availability of CAN FD as an improved CAN data link layer, CANopen has been enhanced to make use of the advantages offered by CAN FD. The resulting CANopen FD is available in CiA 1301. The classic CANopen (specified in CiA 301), is refered to as CANopen CC.

Many of the CANopen specifications are available free of charge. But there are also CANopen documents, which need to be subscribed. Of course, CiA members have free-of-charge access to all these specifications.

Information on CAN technology, CAN-related products and services as well as CAN applications are available in CiA’s publications and on the CiA website.

CAN Newsletter magazine
The CAN Newsletter magazine provides technical articles and application reports for engineers designing CAN products and CAN systems. Side notes provide service information such as abstracts, summaries, links, and brief company or technical background information.

CiA Product Guides
The CiA Product Guides list CANopen-, J1939-, and jsut CAN-products, together with their features and worldwide sales contacts. It is highly integrated into the CAN Newsletter and other CiA publications.

CAN Community News (CCN)
The CCN summarizes news and CiA activities regarding CAN technology. This 3-weekly email service is distributed to those, who have registered for the general CiA information service.

The CiA test center is the testing facility providing conformity and interoperability testing of CANopen CC devices. It also performs the CANopen FD device conformance testing, which is obligatory for CANopen FD devices. Additionally, CiA organizes on request, for CiA members, interoperability testing events (so-called CiA plugfests). On these CiA plugfests, the participants check the interoperability of CAN-related devices or components, on any communication layer, in multi-vendor systems.

CAN in Automation provides several CAN-related specifications and recommendations to enhance the interoperability of CAN-based products. The available specifications address all communication layers. This starts with recommendations for CAN system design, bit timing settings, APIs, or routing of CAN data frames. It continues with the development and maintenance of CAN-based higher-layer protocols such as CANopen CC, CANopen FD, or add-ons for J1939. Finally, it includes the specification of application data for CAN-based devices and applications. Additionally, today's requirements regarding embedded networking, such as redundancy, safety, and security, are also considered.

CiA offers targeted marketing opportunities to help companies promote their CAN-based solutions within the global CAN community. These include advertising or technical articles in CiA publications, showcasing products on a CiA product panel at selected trade shows, participating in CiA joint exhibition stands, or sponsoring CiA events to build brand visibility and credibility. Some opportunities are reserved for CiA members, only. Let's discuss how CiA can best support your marketing goals.

We are looking forward to assisting you in all CiA-related marketing affairs.

Tel.: +49-911-928819-0
Fax: +49-911-928819-79
E-Mail: marketing@can-cia.org