EtherCAT Library

This is a list of EtherCAT ***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 function blocks:

Name	Description
DriveParamRead	Reads a drive parameter (ASCII format).
DriveParamStrRead	Reads a single drive parameter (ASCII format).
DriveParamWrite	Writes a drive parameter (ASCII format).
ECATCommErrors	Returns a list of bad EtherCAT connections.
ECATDeviceAction	Performs an action on an EtherCAT device.
ECATDeviceStatus	Provides EtherCAT state and port link status information for an EtherCAT device.
ECATDevReadParam	This function block returns the EtherCAT device-specific information.
ECATGetObjVal	Reads cyclic drive parameter (String format) by returning the value of an EtherCAT PDO PDO is 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. element.
ECATMasterStatus	Reads the EtherCAT master state and the lost frame counter.
ECATReadData	Reads cyclic parameter (byte offset format).
ECATReadSDO	Reads parameter (32-bit format) using SDO command.
ECATWCStatus	Returns the current number of working counter errors for the Sync unit.
ECATWriteData	Writes cyclic parameter (byte offset format).
ECATWriteSDO	Writes parameter (32-bit format) using SDO command.
FSoEParamsInit	Transfers safety parameters from the safety master to safety slave devices to initialize the safety network.

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

• The client (aka EtherCAT master) is the KAS Runtime In computer science, runtime (or run-time) describes the operation of a computer program, the duration of its execution, from beginning to termination (compare compile time). Within KAS, runtime also refers to the virtual machine that manage the program written in a computer language while it is running application.
• The servers (aka EtherCAT slaves) are the drives and I/O nodes where data can be retrieved.
• 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 is typically preferred over DriveParamRead and DriveParamWrite.

Why use the DriveParam FBs?

The reasons to prefer the DriveParam FBs are:

• They allow direct use of the parameter name.
  • e.g., IL.LIMITP instead of the SDO index: 356Eh
• They can be used to setup a drive terminal in the HMI "Human-machine interfaces " Also known as computer-human interfaces (CHI), and formerly known as man-machine interfaces, they are usually employed to communicate with PLCs and other computers, such as entering and monitoring temperatures or pressures for further automated control or emergency response application.
  • This is similar to the Terminal view available in the AKD widget embedded in the KAS IDE "Integrated development environment" An integrated development environment is a type of computer software that assists computer programmers in developing software. IDEs normally consist of a source code editor, a compiler and/or interpreter, build-automation tools, and a debugger.

See Also