CiA 442 is intended for CANopen devices providing motor starter functionality according to IEC 61915-2. The document is dedicated for a sub-section of low-voltage switchgear devices: motor starters, soft starters, and motor management starters. A motor starter device includes switching means necessary for controllable start and stop of a motor, in combination with a suitable overload protection.

The specified CANopen interface uses communication services and transmission rates as given in the CiA 301. The device shall support the NMT (network management) server functionality and the heartbeat functionality. If the device connector is referenced in the CiA 106, the related pin-assignment as given in CiA 106 shall be used.

The specified application parameters enable to control and to read the status of the FSA (finite state automaton) of the motor starters, soft starters, and motor management starters. The detailed FSA specification including the states and state transitions is given in IEC 61915-2.

The profile specifies two PDO (process data objects) sets for the different motor starter types. The PDO set 1 is implemented by motor starters and soft starters. Thereby, a specified 16-bit monitoring value is provided via TPDO 1 (transmit PDO) and a specified 16-bit command value is received via RPDO 1 (receive PDO). The PDO set 2 is implemented by motor management starters. Here, the TPDO 1 and RPDO 1, transmit and/or receive two specified 16-bit monitoring respectively command values.