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RTOS and Baremetal#

This example describes the usage and differences when using the CANopen Stack with an RTOS or within a foreground / background system. The overall architecture of a CANopen device is standardized and shown in the following figure:

CANopen architecture

In this example, only the high-level usage within the component Your Application is addressed. We focus the description in the examples to the startup, event service, and CANopen stack processing API functions:

Function Name Description
CONodeInit() Initialization of CANopen stack
CONodeStart() Start of CANopen stack
CONodeProcess() Processing of CAN communication
COTmrService() Trigger elapsed configured time quanta
COTmrProcess() Processing of timed actions

CANopen Baremetal#

When using the CANopen stack in a foreground / background system, we establish a timer interrupt for triggering the elapsed time quantum and the CAN receive interrupt.

The following figure shows an overview of the application:

CANopen Application without RTOS

The figure shows the hardware components which drives the CANopen stack operation. The CAN Controller is the interface to the CAN network. The Hardware Timer is the time base for all timed actions of the CANopen stack.

Both hardware components are generating asynchronous events. We handle these events with the interrupt service routines (ISR) CAN Receive ISR and Cyclic Timer ISR.

The processing of the collected events is checked and processed in the main loop controls Node Processing and Timer Processing. The Node Processing is responsible for all CAN communication requests. The Time Processing is responsible for all timed actions.

CANopen Node Startup#

The following source shows the global variables and the initialization and startup of the CANopen device node.

The external variable AppSpec is a part of the CANopen configuration, see quickstart for details. The global variable MyNode represents the CANopen node itself.

/* get external node specification */
extern const CO_NODE_SPEC AppSpec;

/* Allocate a global CANopen node object */
CO_NODE MyNode;

The main() function is responsible for the initialization and startup activities for the CANopen device.

void main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  /* Initialization of Hardware:
   * - Setup cyclic timer interrupt source
   * - Setup CAN bus operation
   */

  /* Startup of CANopen stack */
  CONodeInit (&MyNode, (CO_NODE_SPEC *)&AppSpec);
  CONodeStart(&MyNode);

  /* The background loop */
  FOREVER {
    :
  }
}

CAN Receive ISR#

The following function handles the CAN receive interrupt.

void App_CanRxIsrHandler(void)
{
  CONodeProcess(&MyNode);
}

Cyclic Timer ISR#

The following source lines handles the cyclic timer interrupt.

void App_TmrIsrHandler(void)
{
  /* Hardware timer handling (e.g. interrupt acknowledge) */

  COTmrService(&(MyNode.Tmr));
}

Background Loop#

The following source lines shows the background loop function calls.

void main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  :
  /* The background loop */
  FOREVER {
    COTmrProcess (&(MyNode.Tmr));
      :
    /* other application functions */
      :
  }
}

CANopen with RTOS#

When using the CANopen stack with an RTOS, we establish a timer interrupt for triggering the elapsed time quantum and the CAN receive interrupt.

The following figure shows an overview of the application:

CANopen Application with RTOS

The figure shows the hardware components which drives the CANopen stack operation. The CAN controller is the interface to the CAN network. The Hardware Timer is the time base for all timed actions. Within your RTOS, there is most likely a callback function which you can use as time service trigger.

Both hardware components are producing asynchronous events. We collect these events by the interrupt service routines (ISR) CAN Receive ISR and Cyclic Timer ISR.

For the processing of the events we use two separate tasks for Node Processing and Timer Processing. The Node Processing is responsible for all CAN communication requests. The Time Processing is responsible for all timed actions.

RTOS Startup#

Let's have a look in the implementation for the Flexible Safety RTOS. There is no limitation to this RTOS; you can use any RTOS you already have or want.

The following source shows the global variables and the initialization and startup of the CANopen device node.

The external variable AppSpec is a part of the CANopen configuration, see quickstart for details. The global variable MyNode represents the CANopen node itself.

/* get external node specification */
extern const CO_NODE_SPEC AppSpec;

/* Allocate CANopen node object */
CO_NODE MyNode;

/* Allocate RTOS semaphores */
OS_EVENT *AppCanSem;
OS_EVENT *AppTmrSem;

The main() function is responsible for the initialization and startup activities for the Flexible Safety RTOS.

void main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  /* Initialize and start CANopen stack */
  CONodeInit (&MyNode, (CO_NODE_SPEC *)&AppSpec);
  CONodeStart(&MyNode);

  /* Initialize and start real time kernel */
  OSInit ();
  OSTaskCreate (AppStart, ... );
  OSStart();
}

CANopen Node Startup#

The first created application task AppStart is responsible for the initialization of the peripherals and the creation of the operational application tasks. At the end this task deletes itself.

void AppStart(void *arg)
{
  /* Initialization of Hardware:
   * - setup cyclic OS tick timer
   * - Setup CAN bus operation
   */

  /* Create RTOS semaphores */
  AppTmrSem = OSSemCreate(0);
  AppCanSem = OSSemCreate(0);

  /* Create CANopen tasks */
  OSTaskCreate (AppTmrTask, ... );
  OSTaskCreate (AppRxTask, ... );
    :
  /* Create other application tasks */
    :
  OSTaskDel(OS_PRIO_SELF);
}

CAN Receive ISR#

The following function handles the CAN receive interrupt.

void App_CanRxIsrHandler(void)
{
  /* Signal the received CAN frame */
  OSSemPost(AppTmrSem);
}

Cyclic Timer ISR#

The following source lines handles the cyclic timer event within the OS specific time tick hook function (a function which is called every OS time tick).

void App_TimeTickHook(void)
{
  int16_t num;

  num = COTmrService(&(MyNode.Tmr));
  while (num > 0) {
    /* Signal all elapsed timer actions */
    OSSemPost(AppTmrSem);
    num--;
  }
}

Rx Task#

The following source lines shows the CAN receive task. This task is waiting with the counting semaphore AppCanSem for received CAN messages.

void AppCanTask(void *arg)
{
  FOREVER {
    OSSemPend(AppCanSem, ...);
    CONodeProcess(&MyNode);
  }
}

Timer Task#

The following source lines shows the timer task. This task is waiting with the counting semaphore AppTmrSem for elapsed timer actions.

void AppTmrTask(void *arg)
{
  FOREVER {
    OSSemPend(AppTmrSem, ...);
    COTmrProcess(&(MyNode->Tmr));
  }
}