Requirements

Hardware

In order to use the ICOtronic system you need at least:

a PCAN adapter (or another CAN adapter supported by python-can):

including:
- power injector, and
- power supply unit (for the power injector):
Note: Other CAN adapters supported by python-can should work as well. However, you need to update the configuration for the CAN connection accordingly.
a Stationary Transceiver Unit:
a sensor node, such as a Sensory Tool Holder:

Setup

Connect the power injector
1. to the PCAN adapter, and
2. the power supply unit.
Connect the USB connector of the PCAN adapter to your computer.
Make sure that your sensor node (SHA/STH/SMH) is connected to a power source. For an STH this usually means that you should check that the battery is (fully) charged.

Software

Python

For the currently supported Python versions, please take a look the “Meta” section of the ICOtronic package on the Python Package Index (PyPI). We recommend you use a current 64-bit version of Python.

You can download Python here. When you install the software, please do not forget to enable the checkbox “Add Python to PATH” in the setup window of the installer.

PCAN Driver

To communicate with the STU you need a driver that works with the PCAN adapter. The text below describes how to install/enable this driver on

Linux,
macOS, and
Windows.

Linux

You need to make sure that your CAN adapter is available via the SocketCAN interface.

The following steps describe one possible option to configure the CAN interface on (Fedora, Ubuntu) Linux manually.

Connect the CAN adapter to the computer that runs Linux (or alternatively a Linux VM)
Check the list of available interfaces:
```
networkctl list
```
The command output should list the CAN interface with the name can0

Configure the CAN interface with the following command:

sudo ip link set can0 type can bitrate 1000000

Bring up the CAN interface
```
sudo ip link set can0 up
```

You can also configure the CAN interface automatically. For that purpose please store the following text:

[Unit]
description=Set default CAN adapter speed

[Match]
Name=can*

[CAN]
BitRate=1000000

in a file called /etc/systemd/network/80-can.network. Afterwards enable networkd and reload the configuration with the commands:

sudo systemctl enable systemd-networkd
sudo systemctl restart systemd-networkd
# Note: The command `networkctl reload` only works in systemd 244 or newer
sudo networkctl reload || sudo systemctl reload systemd-networkd

You can check the status of the CAN connection with the command:

networkctl list

If everything works as expected, then the output of the command should look similar to the text below:

IDX LINK   TYPE     OPERATIONAL SETUP
  …
  7 can0   can      carrier     configured

Sources:

macOS

On macOS you can use the PCBUSB library to add support for the PCAN adapter. For more information on how to install this library, please take a look at the issue “How to install the PCBUSB-Library on Mac”.

Windows

You can find the download link for the PCAN Windows driver here. Please make sure that you include the “PCAN-Basic API” when you install the software.