Getting started

CAN Servo Tool is a desktop app for configuring and commissioning CANopen® devices and servo drives. This page takes you from the download to the first connected node.

What you need

• A computer with Windows 10 or later (64-bit) or x86-64 Linux with glibc 2.31 or newer.
• A license. The app connects to a bus only with a license, and the free one is enough to start: see Activating a license.
• A CAN adapter and a drive, or nothing at all: the built-in emulator runs a software drive on a virtual bus. Supported adapters are listed in Supported adapters.

Install

Download the app for your system from the download page.

• Windows: run the installer and follow the steps.
• Linux: the app is an AppImage, there is nothing to install. In the folder you downloaded it to, make it executable and run it:

Get and activate a license

1. Request a free license with your email address. The key arrives by email.
2. In the app, open License, enter the email and the key and click Activate online.

No internet on this computer? Use offline activation, described in Activating a license.

Connect

1. Open Connection.
2. Choose the Interface: your adapter, or the demo emulator to try the app without hardware.
3. Set the data rate of your bus and the Node ID of the device.
4. Optionally choose the device's EDS file under Node dictionary. Without it the app uses a minimal built-in dictionary.
5. Click Connect.

Not sure which node IDs are on the bus? Click Scan bus to find them.

The connection state is shown in the status bar. If the node stops answering, the app disconnects and writes a line to the message console: which node, what was lost and what to check.

Next steps

• Object dictionary: read and write objects by name.
• Drive (CiA 402): see the drive state, enable operation and stop the drive.
• Oscilloscope: plot live PDO data.
• CAN frames: trace the bus and send frames.