1. Introduction

1.1. What is EtherCAT?

EtherCAT® (Ethernet for Control Automation Technology) is a high-performance Ethernet Fieldbus technology that provides a reliable, efficient, and cost-effective communication solution for a wide variety of industrial automation applications. Originally developed as an open technology by Beckhoff Automation in 2003, and subsequently turned over to an independent organization known as the EtherCAT Technology Group, EtherCAT has since become one of the most widely used industrial Ethernet protocols in the world.

See also

A comprehensive introduction to EtherCAT technology can be found at https://www.acontis.com/en/what-is-ethercat-communication-protocol.html.

1.2. The EC-Master - Features

Feature ID: Unique identification used in ETG.1500 EtherCAT Master Classes

1(1,2,3)

: According to ETG.1500 Master Classes not mandatory for Class A

2(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9)

: According to ETG.1500 Master Classes not mandatory for Class B

Feature name

Short description

EC-Master Class A

EC-Master Class B

Feature ID

Basic Features

Service Commands

Support of all commands

✅

✅

101

IRQ field in datagram

Use IRQ information from Slave in datagram header

✅

✅

102

Slaves with Device Emulation

Support Slaves with and without application controller

✅

✅

103

EtherCAT State Machine

Support of ESM special behavior

✅

✅

104

Error Handling

Checking of network or slave errors, e.g. Working Counter

✅

✅

105

VLAN

Support VLAN Tagging

✅

2

106

EtherCAT Frame Types

Support EtherCAT Frames

✅

✅

107

UDP Frame Types

Support UDP Frames

1

2

108

Process Data Exchange

Cyclic PDO

Cyclic process data exchange

✅

✅

201

Multiple Tasks

Different cycle tasks Multiple update rates for PDO

✅

✅

202

Frame repetition

Send cyclic frames multiple times to increase immunity

1

2

203

Network Configuration

Online scanning

Network configuration functionality included in EtherCAT Master

✅

✅

301

Reading ENI

Network Configuration taken from ENI file

✅

✅

301

Compare Network configuration

Compare configured and existing network configuration during boot-up

✅

✅

302

Explicit Device identification

Identification used for Hot Connect and prevention against cable swapping

✅

✅

303

Station Alias Addressing

Support configured station alias in slave, i.e. enable 2nd Address and use it

✅

✅

304

Access to EEPROM

Support routines to access EEPROM via ESC register

✅

✅

305

Mailbox Support

Support Mailbox

Main functionality for mailbox transfer

✅

✅

401

Mailbox Resilient Layer

Support underlying resilient layer

✅

✅

402

Multiple Mailbox channels

✅

✅

403

Mailbox polling

Polling Mailbox state in slaves

✅

✅

404

CAN application layer over EtherCAT (CoE)

SDO Up/Download

Normal and expedited transfer

✅

✅

501

Segmented Transfer

Segmented transfer

✅

✅

502

Complete Access

Transfer the entire object (with all subindices) at once

✅

✅

503

SDO Info service

Services to read object dictionary

✅

✅

504

Emergency Message

Receive Emergency messages

✅

✅

505

PDO in CoE

PDO services transmitted via CoE

1

2

506

EoE

EoE protocol

Services for tunneling Ethernet frames. includes all specified EoE services

✅

✅

601

Virtual Switch

Virtual Switch functionality

✅

✅

602

EoE Endpoint to Operation Systems

Interface to the Operation System on top of the EoE layer

FP

2

603

FoE

FoE Protocol

Support FoE Protocol

✅

✅

701

Firmware Up-/Download

Password, FileName should be given by the application

✅

✅

702

Boot State

Support Boot-State for Firmware Up/Download

✅

✅

703

SoE

SoE Protocol

Support SoE Services

✅

✅

801

AoE

AoE Protocol

Support AoE Protocol

✅

✅

901

VoE

VoE Protocol

External Connectivity supported

✅

✅

1001

Synchronization with Distributed Clock (DC)

DC support

Support of Distributed Clocks

✅

2

1101

Continuous Propagation Delay compensation

Continuous Calculation of the propagation delay

✅

2

1102

Sync window monitoring

Continuous monitoring of the Synchronization difference in the slaves

✅

2

1103

Slave-to-Slave Communication

via Master

Information is given in ENI file or can be part of any other network configuration. Copying of the data can be handled by master stack or master’s application

✅

✅

1201

Master information

Master Object Dictionary

FP

2

1301

1.3. Protected version

The EC-Master software can be delivered in 3 different versions:

Protected

Binary with MAC protection

Unrestricted

Binary without MAC protection

Source

Source code

The protected version will automatically stop after about 1 hour of continuous operation. In order to remove this restriction a valid runtime license key is required. The runtime license protection is based on the MAC address of the Ethernet controller used for the EtherCAT protocol. With a valid License Key the protected version of EC-Master will automatically become an unrestricted version.

1.3.1. Licensing procedure for Development Licenses

  1. Installation of EC-Master protected version

  2. Determine the MAC Address by calling emGetSrcMacAddress() or from a sticker applied on the hardware near the Ethernet controller

  3. Send an Email with the subject “Development License Key Request” with the MAC address to sales@acontis.com

  4. Acontis will create the license keys and return them in a License Key Text File (CSV format).

    Number;MAC Address;License Key
1;00-00-5A-11-77-FE;DA1099F2-15C249E9-54327FBC
2;64-31-50-80-20-4E;1B7C1F86-D08E40A8-4F96F2BA
3;2C-F0-5D-03-CB-2B;10005078-DFD9A2C3-5FD4B1CD-35041597-F8094AA4-6C7CCE7E

  5. Activate the License Key by calling emSetLicenseKey() with the license key that corresponds to the MAC address on the hardware and check the return code. The license key is 26 or 53 characters long.

    dwRes = emSetLicenseKey(0, "DA1099F2-15C249E9-54327FBC");

1.3.2. Licensing procedure for Runtime Licenses

  1. Installation of EC-Master protected version

  2. Determine the MAC Address by calling emGetSrcMacAddress() or from a sticker applied on the hardware near the Ethernet controller

  3. Provide the MAC Addresses and numbers from previously ordered and unused runtime license stickers in a text file to acontis as described in the example below. Please use a separate line for each runtime license sticker number and MAC Address.

    S/N; MAC Address
100-105-1-1/1603310001;00-00-5A-11-77-FE
100-105-1-1/1603310002;64-31-50-80-20-4E
100-105-1-1/1603310003;2C-F0-5D-03-CB-2B

  4. Send an Email with the subject “Runtime License Key Request” with the MAC address to sales@acontis.com

  5. Acontis will create the license keys and return them in a License Key Text File.

    Number;MAC Address;License Key
1;00-00-5A-11-77-FE;DA1099F2-15C249E9-54327FBC
2;64-31-50-80-20-4E;1B7C1F86-D08E40A8-4F96F2BA
3;2C-F0-5D-03-CB-2B;10005078-DFD9A2C3-5FD4B1CD-35041597-F8094AA4-6C7CCE7E

  6. Activate the License Key by calling emSetLicenseKey() with the license key that corresponds to the MAC address on the hardware and check the return code.

    dwRes = emSetLicenseKey(0, "DA1099F2-15C249E9-54327FBC");

1.4. License

1.4.1. EC-Master license

According to EC-Master Software License Agreement (SLA).

1.4.2. Free Open Source Software contained in EC-Master

1.4.2.1. Expat XML parser license

Copyright (c) 1998, 1999, 2000 Thai Open Source Software Center Ltd
and Clark Cooper
Copyright (c) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Expat maintainers.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

1.4.3. Free Open Source Software supported by EC-Master

The following components are not part of EC-Master, but relate to it:

1.4.3.1. acontis atemsys Linux kernel module

The acontis atemsys is licensed under the GPL:

Copyright (c) 2009 - 2020 acontis technologies GmbH, Ravensburg, Germany
All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute  it and/or modify it
under  the terms of  the GNU General  Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation;  either version 2 of the  License, or (at your
option) any later version.

1.4.3.2. WinPCap

The WinPCap library is supported, but not shipped with the EC-Master.

1.4.3.3. Npcap

The Npcap library is supported, but not shipped with the EC-Master.