No. 1 - January 03, 2025
A word from the CiA Managing Director
The second quarter of this century is starting. I cannot predict what will happen in the next 25 years. But I can give you some Information what CiA plans for 2025. There are the CiA Member Days, a two-days event on February 25 and 26. Location is Frankfurt airport in Germany, easy to reach by plane and train. The first day will see some presentations about trends in CAN technologies. In the afternoon, the CiA General Assembly 2025 will take place. On the second day, presentations on special CAN-related topics will continue. For details see the invitation. There is also an ‘open’ workshop planned, introducing a cybersecurity based on IPsec and MACsec mapped to CAN FD lower layers. Of high importance is the evening event to network with other CAN fellows. Do not underestimate this opportunity.
Of course, CiA office continues to support the development of CiA technical documents. This includes the maintenance and improvements of already released CiA specifications and CiA technical reports. In order to initiate new technical documents, CiA is going to schedule workshops. On January 23, an online workshop about rescue vehicle body applications (DIN 14700) using embedded CAN networks will take place. Other online workshops are planned in May (data-driven “smart” greenhouse automation) and in June (modular service robots including AGVs and AMRs).
In 2025, CiA exhibits on several trade fairs. This includes, as every year, the Embedded World and the SPS exhibitions, both in Nuremberg. Additionally, CiA participates in the Bauma (Munich), the Schweißen + Schneiden (Essen), the Interlift (Nuremberg), and the Agritechnica (Hanover) trade shows. CiA also goes Far East: We exhibit on the Embedded World in Shanghai.
One of the main technology trends in 2025 is AI (artificial intelligence): It is the talk of the town. Some people seem to forget that the quality of AI in automation applications depends on the quality of the data sources and the smartness of the actuators. An example: If you feed an AI-based greenhouse controller with questionable sensor data and provide commands to low-quality actuators for heating, fertilization, and irrigation, the plants will not grow properly. Often AI applications use embedded CAN-based networks for both, the data input and the data output. Let’s support such data-driven systems with high-quality front-end CAN-based networks. This applies to smart greenhouses, modular service robot fleets as well as many other application fields including autonomous road-vehicle driving.
The introduction of 10-Mbit/s networks in road vehicles is somehow delayed. Many carmakers have postponed the next generation of so-called zonal in-vehicle network (IVN) architectures. The migration from CAN CC to CAN FD networks applying CAN SIC transceivers is ongoing. With this approach you can achieve already bit rates up to 8 Mbit/s. Of course, the data frame payload is limited to 64 byte, but this is sufficient for many control applications.
CAN Newsletter magazine
The December issue is larded with brief product news. There are two new regular columns: Facts & figures briefly featuring interesting news and Latest news reporting about recently incoming product information. Additionally, there are some detailed product reports in this issue.
Call for experts (CiA 401-J) and for comments (CiA 302-8)
CAN in Automation is calling for companies developing I/O devices and joysticks with J1939-connectivity. Are there experts interested in specifying the CiA 401-J document? The document should map the I/O process data as specified in CiA 401-B to the J1939-based messages. Interested parties should respond by February 15, 2025.
CiA is also going to revise the CiA 302-8 (IEC 61131-related project management parameters) document. Therefore, CiA calls for comments. All submitted general, editorial, and technical comments will be evaluated. Please send your comments by end of April 2025.
Interested parties should contact CiA via email.
CiA goes America!
In 2025, CiA is going to support the CAN community in North America by means of special services. In order to meet desires and needs of U. S. and Canadian engineers in respect to CAN technologies, CiA likes to collect suggestions regarding training and education events to be organized by CiA as well as conferences and trade shows, which CiA should participate in. Please submit your ideas by January 31, 2025 to marketing(at)can-cia.org. By the way, CiA will exhibit on the Conexpo 2026 in Las Vegas with a joint booth. CiA members may be co-exhibitors.
Roof bars and warning signal units
Historically, two different parameter specifications for blue lights and sirens have been developed. The CiA 447 profile for special-purpose car (e.g., police cars) add-on devices specifies roof-bar parameters and the DIN 14700 (fire-fighting equipment) standardizes WSU (warning signal unit) parameters. There are some parameters similar, but others are different. CiA office will try to reduce the differences as much as possible. This is a topic of the upcoming DIN 14700 workshop (see Word from the CiA Managing Director), for example.
Inaugural meeting of marketing group (MG) CANopen (CC/FD)
CiA is going to establish a CANopen marketing group. The inaugural online meeting is scheduled on February 04, 2025 (10:00 to 12:00, UTC+1). The scope is to develop a joint marketing strategy for CANopen CC (classic) and CANopen FD. This includes organization of marketing activities on tradeshows and CiA events as well as submissions in CiA-owned and third-party publications (including social media).
Interested parties should register by email till January 31, 2025.
Released as draft specification proposal (DSP)
CiA has released following documents as DSPs:
- CiA 910-1 version 1.0.0: CAN simulation model – General terms and use cases
- CiA 910-2 version 1.0.0: PMA (physical medium attachment) simulation model requirements
- CiA 1305 version 2.0.0: CANopen FD layer setting services (LSS) and protocols
The documents are only available for CiA member companies and can be downloaded from the CiA website.
CAN SIC XL transceivers
The CAN SIC XL physical medium attachment (PMA) as specified in ISO 11898-2:2024 has been implemented in CAN SIC XL transceiver prototypes by NXP and Texas Instruments. At the electronica tradeshow in Munich (November 2024), Bosch has introduced its implementation, the NT156 stand-alone transceiver featuring bit rates up to 20 Mbit/s. The March issue of the CAN Newsletter magazine will report more details about these transceivers.
Webinar: CiA bootloader specification
On January 30, CiA has scheduled a one-hour webinar about the CiA 710 document. It provides details on the CiA generic bootloader specification.
This webinar is free of charge, presentation language is English. Registration is obligatory and is possible via email.
CiA activities
- CiA education and information events
- Charged online/onsite seminars
- Charged in-house seminars
- Free-of-charge CiA webinars
- CiA technolgy days
- CiA groups
- CiA trade shows
New video on Youtube
- CANopen FD status and future – Webinar on 2024-12-12
CiA Product Guides
Renewed entries:
- CANopen: Temposonics
Editors: Olga Fischer, Holger Zeltwanger (responsible according to the press law)
Advertising: Birgit Ruedel (responsible according to the press law)
CAN in Automation (CiA) e. V.
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Tel. +49-911-928819-0
www.can-cia.org
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