On-board weighing systems

CANopen device profile for on-board weighing systems

Another application is truck-mounted cranes

Members of CAN in Automation (CiA) have established the CANopen SIG (Special Interest Group) on-board weighing systems. They intend to develop the CANopen profile for on-board weighing systems. Experts from Celmi (IT), Dennis Eagle (GB), Moba (DE), Pfreundt (DE), and PM Vishay (GB) accepted the submitted CiA 459 work draft proposal (WDP) as discussion base. The SIG plans to release the first version of the draft standard proposal (DSP) by end of this year. The experts elected unanimously Ashley Clarke as chairman of the SIG.

CANopen is increasingly used as body network in off-highway and off-road vehicles. In particular in battery-powered forklifts, it is also used as drive-train network. The proposed CANopen on-board weighing system is also suitable for truck-mounted bodies. A typical application is refuse collection trucks.

Another application is truck-mounted cranes, which need information about the actual load of the truck.

The proposed CANopen device profile should simplify the integration in CANopen-based body control networks in any kind of vehicle. This includes trucks as well as off-highway vehicles such as forklifts, agriculture

and construction machines. The on-board weighing system may use internally a deeply embedded CANopen network linking the CiA 404 compatible load-cells. Alternatively the sensors are networked by other communication technologies including analog interfaces. The CANopen interface of the on-board weighing system hides these internal details. In case of deeply embedded CANopen networks, it is possible to implement the CiA 302-7 SDO/EMCY router, in order to access from the CANopen body network each sensors individually.