PXI-8531 Does Not Support Slave Configuration

Updated Sep 1, 2023

Reported In

Hardware

  • PCI-8513
  • PXI-8531
  • NI-9881

Driver

  • NI-Industrial Communications for CANopen

Issue Details

I have a CANopen PXI-8531 module. Can I use this module as a slave to another CANopen master?

Solution

No, you can't. It is impossible to use CANopen hardware like PCI/PXI-8531(or NI-9881) in a slave configuration. However, it is possible on hardware that works on CAN protocol. The features provided by current NI driver APIs(NI-XNET and NI-CAN) do not support this directly.
As CANopen is a CAN-based high-layer protocol, you can achieve the CANopen slave by coding for the CAN frame based on the CANopen specification. This can be accomplished on NI-XNET hardware like 9862, 8513, etc. However, this would require comprehensive knowledge of the CANopen protocol and is not the case NI would support.