Slave Configuration

A cost-effective EtherCATClosed***EtherCAT 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 slave controller (ESC) is used in the slave devices. With EtherCAT the slave does not need a microcontroller at all. Simple devices that get by with an I/O interface can be implemented only with the ESC and the RJ45 connector. The process data interface (PDI) to the slave application is a 32-bit I/O interface. This slave without configurable parameters needs no software or mailbox protocol. The EtherCAT State Machine is handled in the ESC. The boot-up information for the ESC comes out of the EEPROM that also supports the identity information of the slave. More complex slaves that are configurable have a host CPU on board. This CPU is connected to the ESC with an 8-bit or 16-bit parallel interface or via a serial connection.

EtherCAT Slave Controller

The slave controllers typically feature an internal DPRAM and offer a range of interfaces for accessing this application memory:

Slave Hardware: FPGA with Host CPU

Figure 5-60: Slave Hardware: FPGA with Host CPU

Slave Hardware: FPGA with direct I/O

Figure 5-61: Slave Hardware: FPGA with direct I/O

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