Configure EtherCAT Motion Bus

Double-click the EtherCAT node in the Project Explorer to open the EtherCAT properties dialog in the workspace.

This window has these tabs:

Tab

Description

EtherCAT Devices tab

Displays all the E-Bus devices present in the project tree.

EtherCAT Master Settings tab

Used to configure the EtherCAT bus master.

ENI File tab

Used for an external configuration file.

ESI Files tab

Display, add, and remove available ESI files.

KAS includes an integrated tool to configure the EtherCAT master and start up the fieldbus operation.

Use the configuration tool to:

Slave Devices

Slave devices can support several PDOs.


  • PDOs contain real-time cyclic data which is deterministic.
    Non-cyclic data is not deterministic and is defined by Service Data Objects (ScDO).

In EtherCAT Motion Bus Concepts, input and output parameters are grouped in predefined blocks called PDOs.

  • Some PDOs are mandatory; others are optional.
  • One of the main tasks of the EtherCAT configuration is to select the PDOs used by each slave and group them all in the EtherCAT image.