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EtherCAT Library

Name	Object Type	Description
DriveParamRead	SDO	Reads a drive parameter (ASCII format)
DriveParamWrite	SDO	Writes a drive parameter (ASCII format)
ECATCommErrors		Returns a list of bad EtherCATEtherCAT is an open, high-performance Ethernet-based fieldbus system. The development goal of EtherCAT was 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 connections
ECATDeviceStatus		Provides EtherCAT state and port link status information for an EtherCAT device.
ECATGetObjVal	PDO	Reads cyclic drive parameter (String format) by returning the value of an EtherCAT PDO element
ECATGetStatus	PDO	Reads cyclic status word (Index 6041)
ECATMasterStatus		Reads the EtherCAT master state and the lost frame counter
ECATReadData	PDO	Reads cyclic parameter (byte offset format)
ECATReadSdo	SDO	Reads parameter (32 bit format) using SDO command
ECATSetControl	PDO	Manipulates the state of a drive by setting its control word (Index 6040)
ECATWCStatus		Returns the current number of working counter errors for the Sync unit
ECATWriteData	PDO	Writes cyclic parameter (byte offset format)
ECATWriteSdo	SDO	Writes parameter (32 bit format) using SDO command

Table 11-46: List of EtherCAT FB

The four EtherCAT SDO function blocks are activated by the CANopen over EtherCAT (CoE) protocol in a client/server mode.

The SDO function blocks only support the reading and writing of 32-bit values. It is the fundamental size of CANopen SDO calls.

Why use ECATReadSdo and ECATWriteSdo FBs?

The ECATReadSdo and ECATWriteSdo response time is faster and therefore is typically preferred over the DriveParamRead and DriveParamWrite.

Why use the DriveParam FBs?

The two reasons to prefer the DriveParam FBs are:

Increase of CPU load when calling SDO function blocks

(these values have been computed with the TraceTimes command)