questions on pcan-link

[mwbevington]

Hi,

I am possibly interested in PCAN-Link but was not able to get sufficient info from this product's webpage.

1) Does it require one client per physical CAN net? In other words, can the 2 client license only handle up to 2 physical networks?

2) Does PC-Link only stream TCPIP? I note that your new CAN to Ethernet gateway net can stream CAN data packages as either UDP or TCPIP. I am particularly interested in UDP for my application.

3) Do you supply info with PC-Link such that one can convert /use the streaming TCPIP data back into the native format, i.e. can I get to it with the PCAN Basic API? Am thinking this is what the client does--takes TCPIP packetized data and converts it back into PCAN-API format.

4) Is the server portion licensed separately, or is it included free? Are there any limitations as to how many copies one can use, besides that you would have to have a physical device to get to the actual CAN networks?

Suggestion: I noted a reference to a question on PC-Link in a completely different section of the forum. It would be nice to have the links for these in this section , or to move them to this section, so as to consolidate the info on this in one place.

Thanks!!!

Mark

[K.Wagner]

Hello,

1) Does it require one client per physical CAN net? In other words, can the 2 client license only handle up to 2 physical networks?

Yes. Each PCAN-Link (PCL) client can connect one PCAN Network at a time and to one PCL server. The license limits the amount of simultaneous client connections to a PCL server. Without server connection there is no data transfer.

2) Does PC-Link only stream TCPIP? I note that your new CAN to Ethernet gateway net can stream CAN data packages as either UDP or TCPIP. I am particularly interested in UDP for my application.

PCL doesn't support UDP, only TCP Protocol.

3) Do you supply info with PC-Link such that one can convert /use the streaming TCPIP data back into the native format, i.e. can I get to it with the PCAN Basic API? Am thinking this is what the client does--takes TCPIP packetized data and converts it back into PCAN-API format.

PCL converts received data from a TCP socket in a valid CAN data and writes it on the connected PCAN Network. All participants connected to the same physical network will receive the messages (also PCAN-Basic applications).

4) Is the server portion licensed separately, or is it included free? Are there any limitations as to how many copies one can use, besides that you would have to have a physical device to get to the actual CAN networks?

The license limits only the amout of connections a PCL server can have. The PCL-Package include both Server and client, and it can be installed in several computers.

Suggestion: I noted a reference to a question on PC-Link in a completely different section of the forum. It would be nice to have the links for these in this section , or to move them to this section, so as to consolidate the info on this in one place.

Thanks for your advice. We will check this.