USB-CAN and linux version for my application

[yesweCAN]

Hello,
My application drive 10 motors on windows and update them every 5ms from UDP parameters.
It works perfectly (Thanks for the PEAK teams) but my customer want to migrate to tiny computer and linux .
I've found the linux webpage linux peak driver but I don't found the magic answer : which version of linux I need(linux RT,xenomai, RTAI) ?
What is the simplest solution ?
My application is coded in c# and I want to do the same on linux.

Thanks for your help.

[M.Heidemann]

Hello,

Glad to hear that you enjoy working with our products!

If you even need a real-time enabled Linux depends on how critical this 5ms cycle is, if it works on a non-rt windows it will work just fine on a non-rt Linux Distro (Generally).

If you wanna guarantee timings being exact and you wanna go the RT route on Linux:

As many things on linux, it's a matter of preference:

Xenomai is the more user-friendly of the two, there is a larger community and it's well maintained.

Xenomai also has many users in automation, robotics, automotive, etc

RTAI has a slower development cycle and newer kernels are somewhat undersupported, there is a community but its smaller than Xenomais...

RTAI is often used in highly technical fields (Research, Simulation, Large scale automation, etc)

Both would be more than capable of suporting your application...

As you are fresh to this, a personal recommendation:

You can relatively easily port your app to Linux as PCANBasic is available for both Windows and Linux, i would validate the feasibility of your app on a run-of-the-mill Distro (Ubuntu) first and see if you need to go RT, if yes: Go with Xenomai and build your driver accordingly, this is documented in the PCAN-Linux docs.

If your app runs on linux successfuly, you only need to make sure of two things:

- Either Xenomai or RTAI are properly configured on your system
- your driver is built as either one of these RT-variants before installation

Edit: Oh almost forgot! As for C#, you can use .Net Core under Linux, we had good experiences with it in the past.


BR

Marvin

[yesweCAN]

Hello Marvin,

Ok lets go for Ubuntu at second step.

before that my first step will be to test the USB/CAN on windows with the existing software.

Thanks for this quick answer.