Add an Unsupported EtherCAT Device

• 
  

• This procedure is for advanced users only.

When your project contains EtherCAT Ethernet ofr Control Automation Technology. EtherCAT® is an open, high-performance Ethernet-based fieldbus system. The development goal of EtherCAT is to apply Ethernet to automation applications which require short data update times (also called cycle times) with low communication jitter (for synchronization purposes) and low hardware costs. devices not supported by KAS Kollmorgen Automation Suite, you must create the configuration using an external tool, and perform these steps:

1. Get the AKD device description ESI file from the official AKD distribution.
2. Verify all the device description ESI files are available for the external tool.
3. Use the external tool and do all the configuration, including these points:
1. Set the Cycle Time.
2. Turn on the distributed clocks Clock signal. option for all slave drives In electrical engineering, a drive is an electronic device to provide power to a motor or servo. Control device for regulating the speed, torque and position of a motor. A unit controlling a motor using the current and timing in its coils. in order to share a global system time through EtherCAT.
3. Assign PDO Process Data Opjects - A type of protocol frame used in some fieldbuses. A PDO contains one or more object dictionary entries, which define the application data transferred between devices. to each drive (inputs and outputs).
4. Set the mode of operation of the drives into position Position means a point in space which is described by different coordinates. Depending on the used system and transformation it can consist of a maximum of six dimensions (coordinates).This means three Cartesian coordinates in space and coordinates for the orientation. In ACS there can be even more than six coordinates. If the same position is described in different coordinate systems the values of the coordinates are different. mode.
5. Insert variable names and do the mapping (see Map PLC Variables).
4. Use the external tool to export the ENI description file.
5. In KAS, import the ENI file describing all the EtherCAT devices included in the project.
   See ENI File tab.

• 
  

• Importing an external ENI file overrides all EtherCAT project device information and configuration settings in the KAS-IDE Kollmorgen Automation Suite - Integrated Development Environment.

  These views and configurations are not applicable when using an imported ENI file:

  • Project View: All devices located under the EtherCAT node.
  • EtherCAT Device View tabs:
    • General Properties
    • PDO Selection/Mapping
    • Distributed Clock
    • CoE Init-Commands
  • Slice I/O Properties
  • Mapping PLC Variables to Slice I/O or PDO objects.

  Information displayed in the views may not match the imported ENI file.

Modify the EtherCAT Image in Cyclic Mode

In the application program The act of performing a sequence of instructions or commands., when integrating non-standard EtherCAT devices, use these function blocks A function block groups an algorithm and a set of private data. It has inputs and outputs. to update the EtherCAT frame In networking dialect, a message is called a frame..

• ECATReadData
• ECATWriteData

See EtherCAT Motion Bus Concepts.

Configure the EtherCAT Device

Use these Functions A function calculates a result according to the current value of its inputs. A function has no internal data and is not linked to declared instances. Blocks:

• ECATReadSdo
• ECATReadSdoData
• ECATWriteSdo
• ECATWriteSdoData

Map PLC Variables

When you use an XML Extensible Markup Language - A general-purpose markup language. It is classified as an extensible language because it allows its users to define their own tags. network description file generated with an external configurator, you need to add special tags to the PDO names to ensure the PLC variables can be mapped to IO channels.

The tags must comply with this convention:

@Scope.VariableName+StartBit-Size

Field	Description
@	Prefix with character @ the PLC variable names of each of the image attributes that must be mapped.
Scope	Scope can be: (Global) (Retain Variables) Parentheses must surround the scope when it is Global or Retain. Program Name Even for the case of nested child SFC Sequential function chart - It can be used to program processes that can be split into steps. The main components of SFC are: - Steps with associated actions. - Transitions with associated logic conditions. - Directed links between steps and transitions. programs, the variables still belong to a unique, well-defined subprogram.
+StartBit	Optional: Integer that defines the bit from which the data must be written or read from the PLC variable.
-Size	Optional: Integer that defines the number of consecutive bits in the image which must be copied to/from the PLC variable. When present, this setting has precedence In arithmetic and algebra, when a number or expression is both preceded and followed by a binary operation, a rule is required for which operation should be applied first. From the earliest use of mathematical notation, multiplication took precedence over addition, whichever side of a number it appeared on. Example: 3 + 4 × 5 = 5 × 4 + 3 = 23. To change the order of operations, we use parentheses (). Example: To force addition to precede multiplication, we write (3 + 4) × 5 = 35. over the <BitSize> tag of the XML file.

Examples

(Global).MachineState
(Global).bLedStatus:0-1
(Global).bLedStatus:1-1
(Global).myINT:+4
main.variable:3+4-8

• 
  

• This convention is applicable for simple variables.
  KAS does not yet support mapping for Structs and Arrays.

See Also