CiA 320: CANopen specification for sleep and wake-up handling

The nonprofit CiA (CAN in Automation) has released the CANopen specification for sleep and wake-up handling of CANopen devices.

It specifies services and protocols to switch-off and to switch-on CANopen devices from the network. The specification complies also with CAN transceiver chips providing low-power mode and selective wake-up functionality as standardized in the ISO 11898 series.

Battery-powered CANopen devices, for example in Pedelecs (CiA 454) or in special-purpose cars (CiA 447), need such sleep and wake-up functionality, in order to reduce power consumption during longer standstills. The same applies for battery-powered service robots and automated-guided vehicles with embedded CANopen networks.

“Up to now, all those sleep and wake-up-capable CANopen devices used proprietary protocols,” explained Holger Zeltwanger, CiA Managing Director. “The release of CiA 320 unburdens system designers to invent on the application level sleep and wake-up functionality.” Now, they can buy interoperable products providing sleep and wake-up capability.