This app activates the master interface for the Realtime Ethernet system EtherCAT and connects the ctrlX CORE perfectly with ctrlX DRIVEs and the wide range of automation components within the EtherCAT ecosystem. The data of the EtherCAT master are available for all apps on the ctrlX CORE via the real-time data layer.
The configuration of the EtherCAT bus system is done with the ctrlX IO Engineering. The EtherCAT Master App requires the "Automation Core" app.
The EtherCAT Master is supporting the following features:
Communication to ctrlX DRIVE via SoE
Communication to IO and other automation devices via CoE
Synchronous communication by distributed clock mechanism
Engineering of EtherCAT slave devices via EoE
The ctrlX IO Engineering supports the following features for EtherCAT:
Generating an EtherCAT configuration by drag & drop devices out of the device library
Import of device description files into the device libraries
Generating an EtherCAT configuration by scanning an EtherCAT network
Setup and diagnostic functions for the EtherCAT fieldbus system
EtherCAT is a registered trademark and patented technology, licensed by Beckhoff Automation GmbH, Germany.
Latest features in version 2.6
Support of 256 slaves on ctrlX COREplus X5 and 512 slaves on ctrlX COREplus X7