8. Additional Tools

8.1. ESI-Manager

This dialog helps the user to administrate his ESI files. Here, he can add/delete/export ESI files.

8.2. EMI-Manager

This dialog helps the user to administrate his EtherCAT Master Information (EMI) files.

EMI files, are files which are specify the master features. Means that options and dialogs can be restricted to those features which are supported by the control system, e.g. available cycle times, support of scan for MDP modules or DC synchronization.

8.2.1. Administration

This dialog helps the user to administrate his EtherCAT Master Information (EMI) files.

By default EC-Engineer has two files included (read-only):

EtherCATMaster_ClassA.emi: EMI template which is prepared for configuring a “Class A” master EtherCATMaster_ClassB.emi: EMI template which is prepared for configuring a “Class B” master

If the user wants to customize EC-Engineer, he can create a new EMI file with defaults, copy an existing EMI template or import an EMI file.

If he wants to add new properties to a group, he can add this only to the group “Parameters”. This group is by default empty, but if user has added some properties, he will see the list of properties on tab “Advanced Options (Expert)” of the master, where the values can be modified.

8.2.2. Supported Entries

The following EMI entries are supported:

Master Group

Display Group:

Shows or hides group

Lock Group:

Locks or unlocks group

Name of Master-Unit:

Default Master-Unit name

Show name of Master-Unit:

Enable if user should be able to view and change the name of the Master-Unit

Lock name of Master-Unit:

Enable if user should not be able to change the name of the Master-Unit

Cycle Time:

Default Cycle Time

Show Cycle Time:

Enable if user should be able to view and change the Cycle Time

Lock Cycle Time:

Enable if user should not be able to change the Cycle Time

List values of Cycle Time:

Enter possible values of Cycle Time

Frequency:

Default Frequency

Show Frequency:

Enable if user should be able to view and change the Frequency

Lock Frequency:

Enable if user should not be able to change the Frequency

List values of Frequency:

Enter possible values of Frequency

Cycle Time Mode:

Enter Cycle Time Mode (0 = Cycle Time, 1 = Frequency)

Init Command Retries:

Init Command Retries

Maximal Slave Count:

Enter maximal count of slaves which are allowed to configure (0 = use default limit of master)

Slave Start Address:

Enter default start address for all slaves

Scan for MDP slaves:

Enable for activating MDP-Scan if it is supported from slave

Byte-Align Process Data Image:

Enable if process data image should be byte aligned and not as small as possible

Edit Complete Variable Name:

Enable if user should be able to edit the complete variable name

Process Image Layout:

Enter process image layout features (0 = default, 0x1 = with protocol data, 0x2 = with VLAN tag, 0x4 = without frame alignment, 0x8 = alphabetic port order, 0x10 = Compatibility to ENI spec V1.0.0, 0x20 = Moves AL Status command to the end), 0x40 = Disable command splitting

Output Port Physics:

Enter output port physics of the master (Z = Ethernet, K = EBus)

Output Port Vendor Id:

Enter output port vendor id of the master (0 = All Vendors, 1..n = Specific Vendor)

Word-Aligned EtherCAT Datagrams:

Enable if EtherCAT datagrams should be word aligned

Cyclic Frame Layout:

Enter cyclic frame layout mode (0 = default, 1 = single logical command per frame)

Ethernet Type UDP:

Support for Safety Slaves:

Enable if master supports safety slaves

Remove DC NOP Command:

Does not include NOP Command in ENI

Local System

Display Group: Shows or hides group

Lock Group:

Locks or unlocks group

Network Adapter:

Enter index of Network Adapter in the Network Adapter List

Show Network Adapter:

Enable if user should be able to view and change the Network Adapter

Lock Network Adapter:

Enable if user should not be able to change the Network Adapter

Remote System

Display Group:

Shows or hides group

Lock Group:

Locks or unlocks group

Protocol:

Select protocol for Remote System

Show Protocol:

Enable if user should be able to view and change the protocol

Lock Protocol:

Enable if user should be not able to change the protocol

IP Address:

Enter IP Address for Remote System

Show IP Address:

Enable if user should be able to view and change the IP Address

Lock IP Address:

Enable if user should be not able to change the IP Address

Port:

Enter Port for Remote System

Show Port:

Enable if user should be able to view and change the Port”

Lock Port:

Enable if user should be not able to change the Port

Master-Instance:

Enter Master-Instance number

Show Master-Instance:

Enable if user should be able to view and change the Master-Instance

Lock Master-Instance:

Enable if user should be not able to change the Master-Instance

Offline Diagnosis

Display Group:

Shows or hides group

Lock Group:

Locks or unlocks group

Distributed Clocks

Display Group:

Shows or hides group

Clock Adjustment:

Enter clock adjustment value (0 = default, 1 = Master Shift, 2 = Bus Shift

Lock Clock Adjustment:

Enable if user should not be able to change clock adjustment

Continuous Propagation Compensation:

Enter default value of Continuous Propagation Compensation

Show Continuous Propagation Compensation:

Enable if user should be able to change value of Continuous Propagation Compensation

Sync Window Monitoring:

Enter default value of Sync Window Monitoring

Show External Mode:

Enable if user should be able to use an external sync device as reference clock

System Time 64 Bit:

Enter default value of System Time 64 Bit

Features

AoE:

Enable if master supports AoE

EoE:

Enable if master supports EoE

FoE:

Enable if master supports FoE

SoE:

Enable if master supports SoE

VoE:

Enable if master supports VoE

Export Variables:

Enable if user should be able to export variables

Show Enable Column:

Shows column for enable variables on XML export

Export Slave Name with Type:

Enable if type of slave should be added to slave names on generating ENI file

Lock Variables:

Locks or unlocks variables for editing in diagnosis mode

Show Variable Chart:

Enable if user should be able to view the chart of a variable

Show Variable Comments:

Enable if user should be able to view and edit the comments of a variable

Allow E-Bus as HC Head:

Enable if Ebus shall be allowed as HC Head

ENI Deployment:

yes: something is done with ENI after export, no: nothing done ask: you will be ask to deploy

Deployment Mode:

0: copy to path, 1: execute batch at path

Deployment Path:

Path to copy ENI or to batch for execution

Scripts

Display Group:

Shows or hides the Scripts Tab

P1:

Scan Start Script 1:

First script executed before scanning

Scan Start Script 2:

Second script executed before scanning

Scan Stop Script 3:

First script executed after scanning

Scan Stop Script 4:

Second script executed after scanning

P2:

Diag Start Script 1:

First script executed before switch to diag

Diag Start Script 2:

Second script executed before switch to diag

Diag Stop Script 3:

First script executed before switching to config

Diag Stop Script 4:

Second script executed before switching to config

Parameters

User defined properties, which will be written into ENI file and can be interpreted by the application inside EC-Master.

8.3. Network Mismatch Analyzer

If you have a network mismatch in your EtherCAT network it is not so easy to find the problem. For this you have the Network Mismatch Analyzer. You find it in the network main menu. If you see here some “red” entries, means that this is the start point of your network mismatch:

8.4. Line Crossed Analyzer

If you have connected a line to a wrong port, you can see in the Line Crossed Analyzer which slave is incorrectly connected. The wron entries will be red:

8.5. EoE Endpoint Configuration

If you want to use EoE slaves with your local master, you can activate the EoE Endpoint.

Note

This feature is only available if the package “Tap-Windows” from OpenVPN is installed: http://openvpn.net/index.php/download/community-downloads.html

If this package is installed, you will see the following dialog:

Settings

Use EoE Endpoint:

Activate EoE Endpoint support for the selected device

Network Adapter:

List of installed network adapters (TAP)

IP Address:

IP Address of the selected network adapter

8.6. Edit Topology

Disconnect:

Disconnets the selected port

Connect:

Connects the selected slave in the not connect slaves list, with the selected port in the configuration

Up:

Moves the slave up in the configuration

Down:

Moves the slave down in the configuration

Scan:

Scans the network. The network is shown by the scanned configuration. It is possible to add slave to the configuration with “Add Slave”.

Apply:

The configuration will be applied to the EC-Engineer (only possible if all slaves are connected)

8.7. Capture File

A capture file could be helpful, if you have a very large system or system is not always available. In that case you can connect to your system, save one or more snapshots into a capture file and analyse the created capture file later.

Another use case is, that your system from time to time some problems. In that case you can activate the automatic mode and create the snapshots every specific interval or based on specific master notifications.

At the moment there are the following options:

Filename

Folder:

Path, where the capture files should be saved

Base file name:

Base file name of the generated capture file name

Date:

Activate, to add the date to the generated capture file name

Time:

Activate, to add the time to the generated capture file name

IP Address:

Activate, to add the IP address to the generated capture file name

Preview:

Shows a preview of the generated capture file name

Content

Process data:

Activate to add process data to the capture file (read-only)

EEPROM size:

Enter size of the EEPROM (0x86 = default, 0 = no EEPROM)

ESC Register size:

Enter size of the ESC Registers (0x400 = default, 0 = no ESC register)

CoE OD of slaves:

Select the slaves of which the CoE OD information will be captured

None:

CoE OD will be not captured

All:

CoE OD will be captured of all slaves

User defined:

CoE OD will be captured of the defined slaves by physical address (e.g. 1001-1003; 1005)

CoE OD objects:

Enter index of specific objects or all objects will be collected (e.g. 0x1018; 0x7000-0x7FFF)

SDO Info Service:

Activate to use the SDO Info Service for loading the CoE Object Dictionary instead of readying the information from the ESI file.

Automatic Mode

Interval (min):

Time to wait until next snapshot will be taken

Maximum Snapshots:

Enter count of maximum snapshots

Notifications:

Select the notifications, which will trigger a snapshot. The following notifications are availabe (for more information about notifications please refer the manual of EC-Master):

• STATECHANGED

• ETH_LINK_CONNECTED

• ETH_LINK_NOT_CONNECTED

• SLAVE_STATECHANGED

• SLAVE_PRESENCE

• SLAVE_INITCMD_RESPONSE_ERROR

• STATUS_SLAVE_ERROR

• SLAVE_UNEXPECTED_STATE

• DC_SLV_SYNC

• DCM_SYNC

8.8. Project Templates

If you have a lot of slaves with the same configuration (e.g. PDOs, InitCmds) you can use a project template. In that case new slaves will be first copied from this template (if available) and then taken from the ESI cache. This behaviour is also used for the bus scan.

At the moment there are the following options:

Path: Path to the selected project template

Settings

Activate:

True, for activating this project template (necessary if you want to turn it temporary off)

Ignore Revision:

The revision will be not used as search criteriom

If the project template mode is active, it will be displayed in the status bar:

Normally the first match will be taken from project template. If this is wrong, you can open the context menu Select from Project Template and select another one:

8.9. Real-time Support

Normally on Windows you do not have real-time support, but to get DCM in sync you can install the “ECAT driver” in the following modes:

Auxillary Clock

This auxillary clock is accurate enough to get DCM in sync (ECAT driver does not guarantee response to the cycle’s deadline)

Network driver

The network driver can be used from the optimized link layers

The real-time support is normally hidden in EC-Engineer. It can be activate by copying the specific link layer libraries into the installation directory of EC-Engineer.

8.9.1. Real-time Clock

After activating the real-time support the real-time clock support can be activated by selecting the option “Real-Time Clock”:

For the local system, EC-Engineer will turn on ECM and use the real-time clock for generating the job task cylces. For more information about how to install the “ECAT driver” please refer the manual of EC-Master Class A DCM on Windows

8.9.2. Optimized Link Layers

After activating the real-time support the optimized link layer can be selected in the option “Link Layer”:

Depending on the link layer type the user can chose the network adapter or the instance.

The following optimized link layers are currenty supported:

emllI8254x.dll (Intel PRO/1000 Network Adapters)

emllI8255x.dll (Intel PRO/100 Network Adapters)

emllIRTL8139.dll (Realtek 8139 Fast Ethernet Adapters)

emllIRTL8169.dll (Realtek Gigabit Ethernet Adapters)

emllICCAT.dll (BECKHOFF CCAT)

For more information about optimized link layers and how to install the ECAT driver please refer the manual of EC-Master Class B EcatDrv for Optimized Link Layers