December 2, 2009 - The FDT Group released the CANopen annex as the 9th protocol specific annex for the FDT specification. CANopen networks are used in a very broad range of application fields such as machine control, medical devices, off-road and rail vehicles, maritime electronics, building automation as well as power generation. The new protocol annex enables the integration of FDT technology in these areas. The annex includes, beside the actual specification document, the XML schemas and examples which are required to implement a Device Type Manager (DTM) for CANopen devices. The specification describes the use of CANopen SDO Up- and Download services, Network Management services and device initiated Emergency telegrams within Device Type Managers.
Beside the online services, the complete offline configuration of CANopen based networks, including process channels for the deep integration of I/O signals into FDT based engineering systems is described in the annex. The working group responsible for the annex created prototypes of DTMs in order to test the feasibility of the specification. Furthermore, dtmINSPECTOR support is defined to allow the certification of DTMs for CANopen. Different member companies are already developing products based on the annex.
About the FDT Group AISBL
The FDT Group AISBL is a non-profit corporation consisting of over 60 leading process and factory automation companies worldwide whose major purpose is to provide an open and non proprietary interface for the integration of field devices with engineering, automation and asset management systems. In this environment, end users, manufacturers, universities and research organizations are working together to develop the technology, provide development tools, support and training, coordinate field trials and demonstrations, and enable product interoperability.