Configured Station Alias

EtherCATClosedEtherCAT 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 devices can have up to two Configured Station addresses:

  1. Configured Station address – assigned by the master
  2. Configured Station Alias address – assigned by the drive using ECAT.ALIAS and stored in non-volatile memory. When the master loads the SII EEPROM on power up the alias sent to the master.

The slave (drive) is addressed if the EtherCAT address matches the Configured Station Address or Configured Station Alias.

Steps to change the Configured Station Alias address:

  1. Use command ECAT.ALIAS to set the drive’s Configured Station Alias address.
  2. Configure the master to use the Configured Station Alias address. Below is an example using TwinCat 3:

  3. Power cycle the drive.