Understanding PCAN-Basic

PCAN-Basic is the new version of the PCAN-Light API. It consists of a collection of Windows Device Drivers which allow the real-time connection of Windows applications to all CAN busses physically connected to a PC. 

• Information about the receive time of a CAN message.
• Easy switching between different PCAN-Channels (PCAN-PC hardware).
• The possibility to control some parameters in the hardware, eg. "Listen-Only" mode, automatic reset of the CAN controller on bus-off, etc.
• The use of event notifications, for faster processing of incomming CAN messages.
• An improved system for debugging's operations.
• The use of only one Dynamic Link Library (PCAN-Basic.DLL) for all supported hardware.
• The possibility to connect more than 2 channels per PCAN-Device. The following list shows the PCAN-Channels that can be connected per PCAN-Device:

The PCAN-basic offers the possibility to use several PCAN-Channels within the same application in an easy way. The communication process is divided in 3 phases: initialization, interaction and finalization of a PCAN-Channel. 

Initialization: In order to do CAN communication using a channel, it is necessary to first initialize it. This is done making a call to the function CAN_Initialize (class-method: Initialize), or CAN_InitializeFD (class-method: InitializeFD) in case FD communication is desired. 

Interaction: After a successful initialization, a channel is ready to communicate with the connected CAN bus. Further configuration is not needed. The functions CAN_Read and CAN_Write (class-methods: Read and Write) can be then used to read and write CAN messages. If the channel being used is FD capable and it was initialized using CAN_InitializedFD, then the functions to use are CAN_ReadFD and CAN_WriteFD (class-methods: ReadFD and WriteFD). If desired, extra configuration can be made to improve a communication session, like changing the message filter to target specific messages. 

Finalization: When the communication is finished, the function CAN_Uninitialize (class-method: Uninitialize) should be called in order to release the PCAN-Channel and the resources allocated for it. In this way the channel is marked as "Free" and can be used from other applications. 

Overview of the current PCAN hardware and device drivers: