Autoconfig Master/Slaves

 The greater part of the master and slave configuration is accomplished automatically, based on the device description file and implicit calculations. The dialog for the FMMU/Sync settings is not available.

Even if this option of the master is activated, an expert mode can be activated explicitly for each individual slave that permits the manual editing of the automatically generated process data configuration.

Destination Address

MAC address of the device in the EtherCAT network that is to receive the telegrams.

Options

• Broadcast: no destination address (MAC) need be specified.

• Enable redundancy: is activated if the bus is constructed in a ring topology and redun­dancy is to be supported. With this function the EtherCAT network remains functional even in the case of a cable breakage. If this function is activated, the parameters must be defined in the Redundancy EtherCAT NIC Settings area.

Source Address

MAC address of the controller (target system) or network name (name of the card, i.e. PLC (target system))

Network Name

Name or MAC of the network, depending on which of the following options is activated:

Select network by MAC

: Network is specified by the MAC-ID. The project then cannot be used on another device, since each network adaptor has a unique MAC-ID.

Select network by Name

: Network is identified by the network name and the project is device-independent.

Browse

Scans the network for the MAC-IDs or names of the target devices that are presently available.

These settings are shown only if the Enable redundancy option is activated. Here the parameters of the additional device are defined in accordance with the description to EtherCAT NIC Settings.

Cycle time (µs)

Time interval after which a new data telegram is dispatched on the bus. If the Distributed Clocks function is activated in the slave, the master cycle time specified here is transferred to the slave clocks. In this way a precise synchronization of the data exchange can be achieved, which is important in particular if spatially distributed processes require simultaneous actions. Simultaneous actions are, for example, applications in which several axes must execute coordinated movements at the same time. A very precise, network-wide timebase with a jitter of substantially less than 1 microsecond can be achieved in this way.

Sync Offset

Enables the time delay of the sync interrupt of the EtherCAT slave to be adjusted to the cycle time of the PLC. Normally the PLC cycle starts 20% later than the sync interrupt of the slave. This means that the PLC cycle could be delayed by 80% of the cycle time without a message being lost.

Sync Window Monitoring

Synchronization of the slaves can be monitored.

Sync Window

Time for Sync Window Monitoring. If the synchronization of all slaves lies within this time window, then the variable xSyncInWindow (IoDrvEthercat) is set to TRUE, otherwise to FALSE.

Use LRW instead of LWR/LRD

 Direct communication from slave to slave is possible. In place of separate read (LRD) and write commands (LWR), combined read/write commands (LRW) are used.

Send/Receive per Task

 Read and write commands, i.e. the handling of the input and output messages, can be controlled with various tasks.

Automatically Restart Slaves

 In the event of a communication breakdown the master immediately attempts to restart the slaves.

These settings can be edited only if the Automatic Configuration option is deactivated, otherwise this takes place automatically and they are not visible here.

Image In Address

First logical address of the first slave for input data

Image Out Address

First logical address of the first slave for output data