FREE CAN Network Monitoring Software

June 3, 2008 - PRLog -- The monitoring of Controller Area Network (CAN) data traffic comes usually with a hefty price tag. First, you need a CAN hardware interface to make your PC compatible to CAN. The industry offers PC interfaces in the range from under $100 up to roughly $600 depending on the form factor (PCI, ISA, USB gateways etc.).

Secondly, you need the CAN monitoring (Analyzer) software and it seems that only the sky is the limit in terms of pricing. There are high-end software packages whose prices are definitely justified for engineers, especially in the automobile industry, who are in need of all possible features to analyze and diagnose CAN messages in every detail.

However, the vast majority of engineers involved with CAN development would be satisfied with a mere monitoring tool to display and even record and replay CAN messages on the screen. esd elelectronics, Inc. (http://www.esd-electronics-usa.com) provides such a tool for their CAN hardware interfaces as integral part of their driver plus software development package and, after all, it is free of cost.

The reasoning behind this deal is that esd electronics, Inc. is a specialist for CAN hardware interfaces with the awareness that software is the mandatory vehicle to sell the hardware. This is in contrast to other businesses, especially those providing sophisticated CAN analyzing programs, who need hardware to sell their software.

The esd software development kit (SDK) includes a suite of tools such as:
- CANreal to display and record CAN message frames
- CANplot to display of CAN data in form of graphs
- CANrepro to replay pre-recorded CAN messages
- CANscript, a Python scripting tool
- COBview to analyze and diagnose CANopen nodes

An SAE J1939 add-on module is in preparation.

For more information on the SDK log on to:
http://www.esd-electronics.com/german/products/Software/c...
or contact Wilfred Voss at wilfred.voss@esd-electronics.com or 413-772-3170.

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esd electrinics, Inc. is specialized in all aspects of Controller Area Network (CAN) technologies including CANopen, DeviceNet and J1939. esd provides a vast number of CAN hardware interfaces for all form factors such as PCI. PCIe, cPCI, ISA, VME, PC104, and more.