Monitoring CANopen Nodes With a CAN Tool

All CANopen devices must support the CANopen Network Management (NMT) protocol.
The NMT protocol defines the communication behavior of the CANopen device with four
different states:
-          Initialization
-          Pre-operational
-          Operational
-          Stopped

CANopen network master controls the communication state of other devices (NMT slaves)
with NMT messages. NMT protocol also enables the monitoring of NMT slaves. For node
monitoring, Heartbeat protocol is recommended by CAN in Automation (CiA).

According to CANopen Heartbeat protocol, a CANopen device indicates its current NMT
state by cyclically sending a heartbeat message to other devices. The heartbeat message
includes one byte that defines the current NMT state. The cycle time of a heartbeat message is
called Producer Heartbeat Time and it can be configured to index 1017h.

The following table describes NMT states and corresponding values sent in heartbeat
message:
NMT
state
NMT state Description
value
(hex)
A boot-up message is sent when node
Initialization
00 changes its state from Initialization to Pre-
(Boot-up)
operational state
During this state, the device configuration
Pre-
7F and ID allocation via SDO (e.g. using a
operational
configuration tool) is possible.
Device application is running and the
transmission of process data (PDOs) is
Operational 05
possible. The device can use all supported
communication objects.
Device application is stopped. The device
Stopped 04
reacts only to NMT commands

When CAN bus is monitored by a CAN tool, NMT states of devices can be seen from the
heartbeat message. For example,
Time [ms] CAN message Description
Power on - -
 t 701, 1, 00 Node with ID 1h sends a boot-up message
t+1 702, 1, 00 Node with ID 2h sends a boot-up message
.. 70A, 1, 00 Node with ID Ah sends a boot-up message
.. 701, 1, 7F Node-ID 1h changes its state to pre-operational
.. 702, 1, 7F Node-ID 2h changes its state to pre-operational
.. 70A, 1, 7F Node-ID Ah changes its state to pre-operational
.. 000, 2, 01, 00 NMT start sent to all nodes (01 = start command, 00 = all nodes)
.. 701, 1, 05 Node-ID 1h changes its state to operational state
.. 702, 1, 05 Node-ID 2h changes its state to operational state
t+n [ms] 70A, 1, 05 Node-ID Ah changes its state to operational state
 

See also

 CANopen Application Layer and Communication Profile, CiA Draft Standard 301