- Qt 6.7
- Qt Serial Bus
- Using PeakCAN Plugin
- Qt 6.7.0 Reference Documentation

# Using PeakCAN Plugin

The PeakCAN plugin encapsulates the low-level API to work with the PEAK-System CAN adapters.

This plugin requires the PCAN device drivers and the PCAN-Basic library version 4.4.0 or higher on Windows (pcanbasic.dll) resp. 4.0.0 on Linux (libpcanbasic.so). On macOS the plugin requires the PCBUSB library from UV Software, version is 0.9 or higher.

Note: The Qt versions 5.14 to 6.4 are only compatible to PCBUSB library version 0.8.1, but Qt versions 6.5 and higher requires a PCBUSB version 0.9 upwards.

Note: QCanBusDeviceInfo::alias() is only supported on Windows and with PCAN-Basic 4.4.0 or higher.

## Creating CAN Bus Devices

At first it is necessary to check that QCanBus provides the desired plugin:

     if (QCanBus::instance()->plugins().contains(QStringLiteral("peakcan"))) {
         // plugin available
     }

Where peakcan is the plugin name.

Next, a connection to a specific interface can be established:

     QString errorString;
     QCanBusDevice *device = QCanBus::instance()->createDevice(
         QStringLiteral("peakcan"), QStringLiteral("usb0"), &errorString);
     if (!device) {
         // Error handling goes here
         qDebug << errorString;
     } else {
         device->connectDevice();
     }

Where usb0 is the active CAN interface name. The PeakCAN plugin supports 16 USB interfaces from usb0 to usb15 and 16 PCI interfaces from pci0 to pci15. The availableDevices() method returns a list of currently available devices.

Note: Only the USB and PCI adapters are currently supported by this plugin.

Note: On macOS, only USB adapters are currently supported by this plugin.

The device is now open for writing and reading CAN frames:

     QCanBusFrame frame;
     frame.setFrameId(8);
     QByteArray payload("A36E");
     frame.setPayload(payload);
     device->writeFrame(frame);

The reading can be done using the readFrame() method. The framesReceived() signal is emitted when at least one new frame is available for reading:

     QCanBusFrame frame = device->readFrame();

PeakCAN supports the following configurations that can be controlled through setConfigurationParameter():

Configuration parameter key | Description
--- | ---
QCanBusDevice::CanFdKey | This configuration option determines whether CAN FD frames may be sent or received. By default, this option is disabled. CAN FD compatible hardware is needed to enable this option.
QCanBusDevice::BitRateKey | Determines the bit rate of the CAN bus connection. The following bit rates are supported: 5000, 10000, 20000, 33000, 47000, 50000, 83000, 95000, 100000, 125000, 250000, 500000, 800000, 1000000. If the QCanBusDevice::CanFdKey option is enabled, the bit rates are limited to 125000, 250000, 500000, or 1000000. Note that this configuration parameter can only be adjusted while the QCanBusDevice is not connected.
QCanBusDevice::DataBitRateKey | Determines the data bit rate of the CAN FD bus connection. The QCanBusDevice::CanFdKey option must be enabled to allow setting this option. Possible data bitrates are 2000000, 4000000, 8000000, or 10000000. Note that this configuration parameter can only be adjusted while the QCanBusDevice is not connected.

PeakCAN supports the following additional functions:

- QCanBusDevice::resetController()
- QCanBusDevice::busStatus()
- QCanBusDeviceInfo::alias() (Windows and PCAN-Basic >= 4.4.0 only): Returns the PCAN_DEVICE_ID which can be set to a user defined value from 0..255 resp. 0..4294967295 (depending on the device) with PCAN-View. The default value is 255 resp. 4294967295.