PCAN-Exploror freezes / stutters

Professional Windows® software to communicate with CAN and CAN FD busses and its add-ins: Plotter, CANdb Import, Instruments Panel, and J1939
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falk_ch
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu 24. Apr 2025, 16:00

PCAN-Exploror freezes / stutters

Post by falk_ch » Mon 28. Apr 2025, 17:44

Hi All,

How can I debug stutters in PCAN-Explorer 6.8.0.2882?

We are running on Dell laptops (Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9850H, 32GB RAM, PowerSetting=BestPerformance) with a single PEAK USB-CAN dongle and it is common for PCAN-Explorer to freeze for a short time, then it continuous normally.
This happens with Bus enabled and bus disabled. It happens on multiple laptops.
It seems to get worse when we have a panel (.ipf) open or a plot (.plt) running.

There are approx. 15 messages (approx. 120 signals) with 10ms cycle time at 500kbit/s received, the bus load is approx. 50%.

From the analysis I was able to do I can see that there seems to be a thread taking 80% load of one core (I set the affinity of the process to only core 11).
-> If I restrict PCAN to run on 1 single core: CAN Bus disabled->~10% CPU load, CAN Bus enabled->~80% CPU load.

Am I limited by the single core performance of the PC?
Anything that you can recommend to do?
Can DRM tools on the company laptop be an issue?

Best regards,
Falk

M.Maidhof
Support
Support
Posts: 1751
Joined: Wed 22. Sep 2010, 14:00

Re: PCAN-Exploror freezes / stutters

Post by M.Maidhof » Wed 30. Apr 2025, 14:44

Hello Falk,

thank you for the info. Does this happen only with version 6.8, or was it also with version 6.7? If you don't have the setup for 6.7 available anymore, please send an email with the your license ID to our support email address, to be able to send you the older setup.

regards

Michael

falk_ch
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu 24. Apr 2025, 16:00

Re: PCAN-Exploror freezes / stutters

Post by falk_ch » Fri 2. May 2025, 13:51

Hi Michael,

Yes, unfortunately it also happens on a colleagues laptop with PCAN-Explorer 6.7.

Best regards,
Falk

M.Maidhof
Support
Support
Posts: 1751
Joined: Wed 22. Sep 2010, 14:00

Re: PCAN-Exploror freezes / stutters

Post by M.Maidhof » Mon 5. May 2025, 12:18

Hi Falk,

could be an issue with the refresh rate in the panel. Refreshing of Panels could be controlled by the Panel Properties (right mouse click on the panel). A too high refresh rate could cause problems. In that case disable the automatic option and use a refresh rate of 10- 20Hz. When automatic is used, the refresh rate of the signal will trigger the refresh rate, which could cause problems when there are many signals to update.

regards

Michael

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