PCI-DNET questions

[S. Newell]

My company is considering a DeviceNet slave product design. I'm looking at getting a PCI-DNET for use during the hardware and firmware development. I've scanned the user and programmer books, and it looks like the programming interface is flexible enough for most of what we'll need to do. However, I do have a few questions:

Does the PCI-DNET support the ODVA Protocol Conformance Test Software?

Is there a low-level CAN bus logging feature (with timestamps?) that can run while the card is being used as a DeviceNet master? In other words, say I write a program (in C++) to scan my slave device. Is there a switch or parameter I can pass through the NI-DNET driver so that it will generate a trace or logfile showing the raw CAN bus traffic while the program is running? I don't think NI-CAN is an option here, as I still need the onboard DeviceNet master protocol. NI-Spy, maybe?

The NI-DNET user manual shows a power supply jumper, J6, to allow running the physical layer from internal power instead of bus power. Does this jumper exist on the PCI-DNET as well?

[DirkW]

Hi S.Newell,

1. No the NI PCI DNET Device does not support the ODVA Protocol Conformance Test Software yet.

2. If the Device is configured for DNET there is no chance to run a second protocol on the same or if available second port. So it is not possible to log any raw can data at the same time DNET comm. takes place.

Therefrore you have to use a second board configured for CAN Bus.

3. Yes you can use the Jumper to switch to internal power, it will work, but a internal powered transceiver is not DNET spec conform.

Hope that helps

DirkW

[S. Newell]

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@DirkW wrote:

Hi S.Newell,

1. No the NI PCI DNET Device does not support the ODVA Protocol Conformance Test Software yet.

Yet? Do you mean to imply that there's hope that it will soon? ;-)

2. If the Device is configured for DNET there is no chance to run a second protocol on the same or if available second port. So it is not possible to log any raw can data at the same time DNET comm. takes place.

As I understand it, the PCI-DNET only has one port, so I don't have the second port available to use for logging. Maybe I'll rig up a microcontroller and MMC to give me a CAN bus activity log.

3. Yes you can use the Jumper to switch to internal power, it will work, but a internal powered transceiver is not DNET spec conform.

Understood. It will be useful during testing to have it non-bus powered.

Hope that helps

Actually, it does.

[Warner]

Since the last post was almost 2 years old I'll ask again. Does the PCI-DNet card support ODVA conformance test software? Do I have to buy someone else's scanner card?