I'm new to CANopen so excuse me if it's all nonsense. i need to specify some systems on a CAN bus network with CANopen. Because there are only 4 pre-defined PDOs and in some cases there are more data items, I thought of using one PDO and adding a label for the data, like 1 byte for label and 7 bytes for data.
That raises the question if the receiver will respond quickly enough, as it may, for example, receive a PDO with data0 (label 0) followed by another PDO (same COB-ID) but containing data1 (label 1). I'm not sure if the receiver won't miss data. And that approach seems to be unorthodox, to say the least...
I just learnt now that there can be more than 4 TPDO and RPDO defined, but in that case, more than 4 bits for the function code are needed and less will be left for the node ID. I'm fine with that, I just have 9 devices in the network (4 bits needed) and could have the remaining 7 bits for function code, so more than 100 PDOs could be defined, that would be better, is that a better way to approach my needs (many PDOs, few nodes)? If so, any pointer on how to do it? Is it a master task to configure the slave devices or could they be configured at start via some local file?