Category:EtherCAT:ECAT GENERAL GUIDE

Category:EtherCAT:ECAT GENERAL GUIDE EtherCAT - General Guide

The front page is EtherCAT

Introduction

From Wikipedia:
"EtherCAT - Ethernet for Control Automation Technology - is an Ethernet-based fieldbus system, invented by Beckhoff Automation. The protocol is standardized in IEC 61158 and is suitable for both hard and soft real-time requirements in automation technology.

The goal during development of EtherCAT was to apply Ethernet for automation applications requiring short data update times (also called cycle times; ≤ 100 µs) with low communication jitter (for precise synchronization purposes; ≤ 1 µs) and reduced hardware costs."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EtherCAT

softMC's current main fieldbus is EtherCAT and this guide will help you to setup the system. A part of softMC is a software entity called "EtherCAT Master". The ECat master is a part of the Linux kernel and it works in parallel to the Real-Time Motion task of the softMC. Connection the softMC to ECat slaves ins't enough in order to create motion. A few action must be carried out in order to setup the real-time communication that allow motion.

	IMPORTANT
	It is critical to maintain the demonstrated order of the EtherCAT setup. Any change in the given example may result in undefined behavior!

EC_SETUP.PRG

Drive Address

Example

See Also

• Setup EtherCAT - How to setup EtherCAT
• EC_ETHERCAT_INIT