CANopen Lift Plugfest and SIG Meeting

CAN in Automation (CiA) members met on March 13-14 in Nuremburg, Germany, to discuss the CiA 417 application profile and test their CANopen Lift products on interoperability. CiA reports CiA 417 for elevator control systems continues to gain acceptance in Europe, noting the recent membership of several elevator device suppliers in CiA.

CiA’s Special Interest Group (SIG) CANopen Lift discussed the next steps for CiA 417 development, agreeing to adapt the CANopen FD application layer for future versions. Changes will simplify the software, save CAN-IDs (which users are running out of ) and other benefits. Seven host controller suppliers (Böhnke & Partner, Klinkhammer/Intec, Kollmorgen, Kühn, Sprinte, Weber Lifttechnik, and Thor Engineering) tested their products in a round-robin procedure with elevator doors, panels, car drives and measuring units from different manufacturers.

CiA Managing Director Holger Zeltwanger said these tests proved interoperability of controllers and units, and pointed out missing optional features and CiA 417 misinterpretations. He continued:

The plug fests of the last years have increased the quality of the CANopen Lift documents. Of course, also, the interoperability of CiA 417 products is now on a very high level. The benefit for the elevator provider is that he can select products from different suppliers and integrate them without a huge effort. The CANopen interfaces are highly standardized.”