12. FAQ, Tips

12.1. Help in case of a problem

If you have a problem with EC-Engineer or something does not run as expected, please try first the following things:

  • Read messages in message window

  • Increase message level Menu ‣ Settings ‣ All Messages

  • Read log file for more information Menu ‣ Help ‣ Show ‣ Log ‣File

  • Restart EC-Engineer and try to do it again

  • Contact support by sending a mail to ecsupport@acontis.com and attach the following information

    • Project file .ecc or .eci if available

    • EC-Engineer Version Menu ‣ Help ‣ About

    • Log file Menu ‣ Help ‣ Show Log File

    • Short description how the reproduce it

12.2. Shortcuts

EC-Engineer supports shortcuts for the most commonly used actions, like:

Menu

  • Ctrl + N: Create new project

  • Ctrl + O: Open project

  • Ctrl + S: Save project

  • Alt + F4: Exit program

12.3. Internal User Specific Settings

EC-Engineer saves all user specific settings in a subfolder of the all users directoy %ALLUSERSPROFILE%/EC-Engineer like C:/ProgramData/EC-Engineer.

In this directoy there is a XML file called User.myusername.xml. In this file, the user can find additional settings, which can be helpful for solving some problems:

MasterUnitLocalCycleTime = 1

Bus cycle time of the internal MainDevice in milliseconds

MasterUnitLocalWorkerSleepTimeMs = 100

Cycle time of the local MainDevice thread in milliseconds

MasterUnitRemoteWorkerSleepTimeMs = 300

Cycle time of the remote MainDevice thread in milliseconds

MasterUnitTimerNormalCount = 4

  • Time shift to cycle time of the normal refresh cycle

  • E.g. local MainDevice = 100 ms, normal refresh cycle is every 400 ms

  • Used e.g. for updating MainDevice information, error counters of SubDevice, …

MasterUnitTimerSlowerCount = 20

  • Time shift to cycle time of the slower refresh cycle

  • E.g. local MainDevice = 100 ms, slower refresh cycle is every 2 seconds

  • Used e.g. for updating the SubDevice information, EEPROM data, register data, …

MasterUnitTimerSlowestCount = 120

  • Time shift to cycle time of the slowest refresh cycle

  • E.g. local MainDevice = 100 ms, slower refresh cycle is every 12 seconds

  • Used e.g. for updating the CoE Object Dictionary, …

MasterUnitScanBusTimeout = 5000

Timeot for bus scan in milliseconds

MasterUnitMailboxTimeout = 5000

Timeout for mailbox access in milliseconds

MasterUnitStateChangeTimeout = 5000

Timeout for changing state machines in milliseconds

MasterUnitRegisterTimeout = 3000

Timeout for register access in milliseconds

MasterUnitProcessDataTimeout = 1000

Timeout for process data access in milliseconds

MasterUnitEepromTimeout = 3000

Timeout for EEPROM access in milliseconds

MasterUnitRasCycleTime = 0

Internal RAS cycle time for polling

MasterUnitRasWatchDog = 0

Internal RAS watchdog interval

MasterUnitRasWdToLimit = 0

Internal RAS watchdog limit

DiagGeneralErrorLvlLostLink = 10

Theshold value for the “Lost Link Errors”, which leads to an error

DiagGeneralWarningLvlLostLink = 1

Theshold value of the “Lost Link Errors”, which leads to a warning

DiagGeneralErrLvlRxError = 10

Theshold value for the “RX Errors”, which leads to an error

DiagGeneralWarnLvlRxError = 0.001

Theshold value of the “RX Errors”, which leads to a warning

DiagGeneralErrLvlInvalidFrame = 10

Theshold value for the “Invalid Frames”, which leads to an error

DiagGeneralWarnLvlInvalidFrame = 0.001

Theshold value of the “Invalid Frames”, which leads to a warning

DiagGeneralErrLvlProcUnitErr = 1000

Theshold value for the “Processing Unit Errors”, which leads to an error

DiagGeneralWarnLvlProcUnitErr = 100

Theshold value of the “Processing Unit Errors”, which leads to a warning

MasterDebugMessageLevel = 0

Activates extended debug messages of the EC-Master (0 = Silent, 1 = Any, 2 = Critical, 3 = Error, 4 = Warning, 5 = Info, 6 = InfoApi, 7 = Verbose, 8 = VerboseCyc)

GuiDebugMessageLevel = 0

Activates extended debug messages of the GUI (0 = Off, 1 = Errors, 2 = All)

IndentXmlFiles = False

Activates indenting of XML files (makes exported XML files readable, but increases size)

EnhancedUtf8Support = False

Activates the enhanced UTF-8 support, which might be necessary if characters will be not displayed correctly

12.4. FAQ

Solutions for possible problems:

  • The integrated Device does not react as estimated

    Increase the message level (Menu Settings All Messages) and try it again.

  • EC-Engineer reports a message with ErrCode: 0x…

    Error Codes comes directly from the Device. If you want to know what to know how to solve this problem, please refer the manual of EC-Master / EC-Monitor.

  • EC-Engineer reports the following message: Not all EtherCAT SubDevice devices are in operational state

    Check if all SubDevices have a green icon. If the color is not green, open tab “Diagnosis SubDevice General”. Here you can see the error state of the SubDevice. If it has no error, try to change the state to OP again.

  • EC-Engineer reports the following message: Changing topology failed: Bus configuration mismatch (ErrCode: 0x9811001E)

    The configured bus and the currently connected bus does not match. Please open the ‘Network Mismatch Analyzer’ (Menu Network Network Mismatch Analyzer) to solve the problem.

  • EC-Engineer reports the following message: SubDevice ‘…’ has unexpected state (Current state: ‘…’, Expected state: ‘…’)

    Select the SubDevice and open the tab “General”. Here you can see the error state of the SubDevice. If it has no error, try to change the state again.

  • SubDevice reports the error state: “Sync manager watchdog” (Diagnosis SubDevice General)

    You need a realtime operating system. If you still want to use your SubDevice on Windows, you can turn off this watchdog (SubDevice->Advanced Settings: Set SM Watchdog = 0).

  • How can I update the firmware of my SubDevice via FoE?
    For updating the firmware of your SubDevice via FoE, please follow these steps:

    • Enable diagnosis mode

    • Set MainDevice state to INIT

    • Select your SubDevice, and set his state machine to BOOTSTRAP

    • Enter path of file on SubDevice (optional)

    • Enter password (optional)

    • Press button “Download” (it will open the FileOpen-Dialog, where you can choose the file which contains the new firmware and uploads this file)

  • Connect to local system is not possible

    Is Npcap / NDIS installed?

    Is at least one network adapter installed?

  • Why is the process image size different between EC-Engineer and EC-Master?

    EC-Engineer shows on tab Process Data Image not the real size of the process data image. It show only the offsets and the size of the variables.

    If you want to get the real size of the process data image, which is used from EC-Master, you have to look into the ENI file: EtherCATConfig/Config/ProcessImage/Inputs/ByteSize or EtherCATConfig/Config/ProcessImage/Outputs/ByteSize. This is the offset + size of the last variable and additional administration data depending on the SubDevices which are used (ALStatus, DC Support, Mailbox, …).

  • EC-Engineer reports the following message: Failed to query EtherCAT SubDevices. No SubDevices found.

    Verify that NDIS or Npcap driver is installed. WinPcap may not work anymore.

    Try to restart you operating system, because this is sometimes necessary if you e.g. using a USB network adapter

    Increase the message level (Menu Settings All Messages)

    Turn on debug message of the MainDevice

    • Stop “EC-Engineer”

    • Set “MasterDebugMessageLevel” to “7” (verbose) in %ProgramData%/EC-Engineer/user.myusername.xml

    • Start “EC-Engineer” again

    • EC-Engineer reports the following message: Network scan successful - 0 SubDevices found.

      Make sure you have connected the input and not the output port of your first SubDevice to the computer.

      Open “Network and Internet Connections Network Connections” and open the properties of your network adapter and uncheck all protocols except “Internet Protocol (TCP/IPv4)”
      ../_images/faq.png
      Do you have TwinCAT installed on this machine?
      Open “Compatible Devices”:
      ../_images/faq_2.png
      Uninstall or disable the “TwinCAT RT-Ethernet Adapter” for your network adapter:
      ../_images/faq_3.png

      If this doesn’t help, try to disable the “TwinCAT RT-Ethernet Driver” in the properties of your network adapter and reboot your system.

      Run EC-Engineer with administrative rights? Does it help?

      Do you have a some kind of security software (like firewall, antivirus, …) installed on this machine?

      Try to turn it off and check if problem is solved

      Do you have problems on sending or receiving pakets?

      Install “Wireshark” and check which pakets are missing

      Do you have only problems on sending packets?

      Try to exclude ethernet protocol type “0x88a4” from your firewall. For more information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EtherCAT/

      Try it with Npcap instead of WinPcap. Make sure you chose “Install Npcap in WinPcap API-compatible Mode”

    • How can I create ENI files for SubDevices from the Beckhoff CX5000 series?

      The ENI file of those SubDevices must start with an Ebus SubDevice, but EC-Master exports only an MII port. This problem can be solved by first adding a helper SubDevice “EK1200”. The “real” EBus SubDevices can be connected afterwords to this helper SubDevice.

  • WebAdmin in Dongle-Version shows page not found, what can I do?

    You have to download and install the Code Meter Runtime from WIBU https://www.wibu.com/

  • UTF8 characters e.g. in variables or PDOs will be not displayed correctly

    This requires the enhanced UTF-8 support and can be enabled by setting “EnhancedUtf8Support = True”, (see Internal User Specific Settings)