CANopen Bench

Web tool to test and control CANopen devices on a hardware bench — scan, object access, system tests, firmware download and a live CAN trace, driven by the devices' EDS files. Python backend (Starlette + canopen/python-can), no-build frontend (Preact/HTM), one self-contained workspace folder per bench.

Try it — no hardware needed

pip install canopen-bench
canopen-bench                  # → http://127.0.0.1:8000

No virtualenv needed to just run it. From a clone, pip install . installs the same thing from the checkout — without -e, which installs the package for editing, and that is what ## Development below is for.

canopen-bench is a shortcut the install writes; the module runs just as well by itself, and from a clone's root it runs that checkout:

python -m canopen_bench                       # same thing, same options
python -m canopen_bench --port 8001 --host 0.0.0.0

Two reasons to prefer it. It runs this directory rather than whatever canopen-bench happens to point at, which matters as soon as a second copy or a second virtualenv is around. And it needs only the dependencies, not the package itself: pip install starlette uvicorn websockets canopen python-can pyyaml (the dependencies list in pyproject.toml, plus cob-cpcusb for a CPC-USB adapter) and a clone is enough — worth knowing on a bench machine where you would rather not install anything.

Note the underscore: the distribution is canopen-bench, the module is canopen_bench. python -m canopen-bench cannot work — a hyphen is not valid in a Python module name.

Pick Demo mode on the Setup page, Connect, Scan: virtual devices are generated from the bundled canopen_bench/seed/DemoDevice.eds (installed into the workspace on first run). SDO reads/writes are answered from the EDS object dictionary — including realistic aborts on out-of-range writes — and every access shows up in the Trace like real bus traffic.

Features

• Setup — adapter/bitrate/scan-range, EDS registry with identity matching (0x1018), machine control: adopt the bench's expected state, scan & verify against it, re-address via exchangeable flow files.
• Production view: a switch to a reduced bench for the end of a line, showing the procedures a vendor package ships (flows marked grade: production, e.g. flash a board) with their firmware choices, a Start button, instructions and progress.
• Objects — EDS object browser with read/write, favorites (auto-saved), typed RAW rows (SDO / PDO / NMT with per-row node-id), last-known values per device serial number.
• Tests — declarative YAML test cases (docs/ablaeufe/testfall-format.md, examples in examples/testcases/) executed for real against the selected device. A run leaves HTML reports behind: one file per case, one summary, and a JSON sibling. From those, "Overview by variant" folds the last so many days into one collapsible section per hardware variant — runs, successes and last verdict per case — which is how you tell one broken variant from a broken device family.
• Bench instruments — a remote-controllable lab power supply is set from the Setup page and from a test case (psu step), which is what keeps an under-voltage case automated instead of asking an operator to turn a knob. Serial port, pip install ".[serial]"; drivers in canopen_bench/instruments/.
• SWDL — firmware download; the files come from a folder you point at (often the firmware project's build output, drag & drop works too), and what each one is comes from the extension that knows the format. Download protocols are manufacturer-specific and ship as vendor extension packages (see the note on the page).
• Trace — live monitor, newest frame at the top, scrollable back through the whole 200k-frame ring buffer or an opened capture rather than a screenful. Class + device filters, ms/µs timestamps, capture save/load, and autosave — every recorded frame written to a capture file as it arrives, kept for two weeks, for the endurance runs that are longer than the ring is deep.
• Web API — the browser is only a client: every button is a POST /api/action {action, params}, and GET /api/state returns what the pages show as JSON. A script, or an AI agent with nothing but curl, drives the bench the same way — scan, read objects, start a run, go through the trace — which automates what no test case covers: a quick investigation, a check across many devices, a report put together on the spot. The actions are the act_* methods in canopen_bench/core.py. No authentication, so the port stays on a trusted network.

Screenshots

Stats, profiler and SWDL are from a real bench with a vendor plugin installed — device, product and a few handler names replaced with generic ones, the display pixelated. Tests and Objects are demo mode, as pip install canopen-bench gives it. Some of what the real bench shows is the plugin's, not the core's: the runtime profiler is a statistics block it adds, the display card in the sidebar is its device panel, frame names beyond CANopen are its trace decoders, and the firmware format and download protocol are its SWDL strategy (docs/extending.md has the hooks).

Trace › Stats: bus load, frames by class and by COB-ID	Runtime profiler (plugin): ISR, task and section load as the device reports it
Tests: a run in progress, one case failed so far; on the right the HTML reports of earlier runs	Objects: the EDS as a table, values read, favorites on the right
Objects › Panel: the same objects grouped by a panel file (docs/panel-format.md)	SWDL (plugin): one firmware file to three devices in parallel

Hardware

Which adapters the tool talks to, via python-can. Names are the manufacturers' — see the trademark note in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md; this project is not affiliated with any of them, and the table says what has been exercised, not what is warranted.

Adapter	Driver	State
IXXAT USB-to-CAN	VCI4 (Windows)	in regular use on the author's bench
PCAN-USB	PCANBasic	wired up, never run — no such adapter here
Vector VN1600 (VN1610/VN1630)	XL driver (Windows)	run against a VN1630
CPC-USB/ARM7	cob-cpcusb over pyusb/libusb (Windows: WinUSB via Zadig)	comes with the install; tested against a simulated USB device
SocketCAN (Linux): PCAN-USB, Kvaser, candleLight/CANable, CPC-USB, …	the kernel's own (peak_usb, kvaser_usb, gs_usb, ems_usb)	run against a virtual vcan interface in CI, never against a device
Demo mode	—	no hardware, EDS-driven simulation
other adapters	via plugin packages	separate install

Everything above demo mode goes through python-can's own backends, so adapter support tracks python-can. The Vector entry exists because plain CAN on a VN1600 needs only Vector's freely downloadable XL driver — the CANoe/CANalyzer licences are for their applications, not for talking to the hardware — and a lot of that hardware outlives the software budget it was bought with. Bring-up checklists live in docs/ablaeufe/A-01-verbinden.md and A-02-scan.md.

SocketCAN covers, in one card, every adapter whose Linux kernel driver turns it into a network interface (can0); the card is shown on Linux only. The operating system owns the bitrate there, not the bench, so it is set on the host, by root:

sudo ip link set can0 up type can bitrate 500000

On connect the bench reads the interface's bitrate back and refuses one that differs from the one picked on the Setup page, or an interface that is down or missing, with the ip line that fixes it — it does not set anything itself. can0 queues only 10 frames by default; a burst (a firmware download) fills that at once, and the bench waits it out, but sudo ip link set can0 txqueuelen 1000 gives it room.

Workspaces

Every subfolder of the data folder is one workspace: its own sqlite db, EDS files, trace captures and flow files. Create and switch workspaces on the Setup page; copy a folder to clone or back up a bench. The data folder is chosen under Setup > Folders and kept per user (%APPDATA%\CANopen-Bench, ~/.config/canopen-bench), so the bench finds it wherever it is started from; on the first start it is ./data where there is one, else ~/CANopen-Bench. --data <folder> names it for one start (a second bench beside the everyday one, a mounted Docker volume). --db <path> remains as an expert override for a single explicit database file.

Flows and EDS files a package ships are written over in the workspace on every start, like its test cases: an update arrives without anybody looking for the old copy. A file of one's own goes in under another name.

Docker

docker run -p 8000:8000 -v canopen-bench:/data ghcr.io/nobsevomberg/canopen-bench

Every version that goes to PyPI is also an image on GHCR (:latest, and the version, e.g. :1.0.173), for amd64 and arm64 — a Raspberry Pi on the bench included. docker build -t canopen-bench . builds the same from a clone.

All workspaces live on the /data volume. Demo mode works out of the box. Of the adapters, a container reaches those whose driver it carries, and those the host's kernel drives:

• SocketCAN on a Linux host: bring can0 up on the host, with its bitrate (see Hardware), and start the container in the host's network so it sees that interface — the port is then the host's own, no -p:

  docker run --network host -v canopen-bench:/data ghcr.io/nobsevomberg/canopen-bench

  That reaches a PCAN-USB, Kvaser, candleLight/CANable or CPC-USB without a driver in the image. Not yet tried with a device.

• CPC-USB on a Linux host: either through SocketCAN, above, with the kernel's ems_usb left loaded — or --device=/dev/bus/usb hands the USB bus in for the bench's own driver, libusb is in the image. For that one ems_usb has to let go of the device: sudo modprobe -r ems_usb frees it until the next replug, a line blacklist ems_usb in /etc/modprobe.d/ for good. Neither way tried in a container yet.

• PCAN: PCANBasic is not in the image, but on a Linux host the kernel's peak_usb makes the adapter can0 — use SocketCAN.

• IXXAT, Vector: their drivers are not in the image and exist only for Windows. Install the bench natively there (pip install canopen-bench).

• Docker Desktop on Windows or macOS cannot hand a USB device to a container; there too, install with pip.

The tool has no authentication — keep the port on a trusted network (see SECURITY.md).

Extending

Vendor- and device-specific functionality (adapter cards, EDS seeds, firmware catalogs, addressing procedures with session identities, demo protocol simulations, trace decoders, EMCY code tables, custom test-step primitives, SWDL strategies) lives in separate pip packages registered under the canopen_bench.plugins entry-point group — installing one activates it. In multi-workspace mode this needs no shell at all: Setup > Extensions installs a plugin package (.whl) straight from the browser, active immediately — its own dependencies are not installed with it, and the state log names any this Python lacks, with the pip command that adds them. Guide with hook table and a minimal example: docs/extending.md; API: canopen_bench/plugin.py. A complete worked example ships in this repo under plugins/cob-cpcusb/ — python-can driver plus adapter card, its own tests, MIT. It is a separate distribution that pip install canopen-bench brings along; on its own (pip install cob-cpcusb) it is a python-can backend for anyone.

Documentation

• IMPLEMENTATION.md — architecture and design decisions
• CONTRIBUTING.md — dev setup, test conventions, what goes where
• docs/extending.md — plugin guide
• docs/ablaeufe/ — operational sequence specs (German)
• docs/ablaeufe/testfall-format.md — YAML test-case format

Development

python -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"         # editable + pytest/ruff
pytest                          # core suite

CONTRIBUTING.md has the rest: what CI checks, where things belong, the versioning rule.

Behind a TLS-inspecting corporate proxy, pip fails with CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED on pypi.org: the proxy's CA is trusted by the operating system but not by the certificate bundle Python ships. On pip 23.2+, --use-feature=truststore makes pip use the OS store instead. On older pip that route is closed — it needs the truststore package, which also comes from pypi.org — so export the OS root certificates to a PEM and point pip at it with --cert, or set it once with pip config set global.cert <file>. Either way certificate verification stays on.

License & author

Core application: MIT (LICENSE). Plugin packages are licensed independently — vendor plugins proprietary, cob-cpcusb MIT. Bundled and depended-on third-party components, and the trademark note (CANopen® and CiA® belong to CAN in Automation e.V.; this is not a CiA-certified or CiA-affiliated tool), are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.

Created by NobseVomBerg · unsix.de · GitHub