Master online mode
It is possible to connect the EtherCAT configurator to the EtherCAT network, for debugging and diagnostic purposes.First of all, the Online mode must be configured, by choosing ”Online config / Set up…” in the ”Master settings” window. You can choose between:
This is a sample result of the scan: a dialog with two panes, with the scan results on the left and the current configuration on the right, to manually choose which slaves you want to add to the project.Please note that ”Copy selected” will copy the selected slave on the left AFTER the selected slave on the right, so a selection in both panes must be done.With respect to their position, different slaves are shown in red, matching slaves in black, and missing slaves in blue.
- Remote (GDB): EtherCAT master will be normally running on the remote target, with the EtherCAT network connected to him. This should be the preferred connection mode for debugging, because does not alter the behaviour of the master and of the network
- Gateway: EtherCAT master must not be running on the remote target, and a local Ether- CAT master on the PC will be used; the EtherCAT network is physically connected to the remote target, that will only act as a ”gateway” to dispatch EtherCAT frames to/from the PC
- Local: a local EtherCAT master on the PC will be used, and the EtherCAT network must be physically to a local Ethernet port of the PC; this requires the installation of the WinPCAP library on the PC, that can be download from here1
- Network state: shows the actual global state of the network, can be Unknown/OK/Start- ing/Error
- DC state: shows the actual state of DC (if in use), can be Idle/Synchronizing/Wait- ingStartTime/Compensating/NotSynchronized/NotUsed
- PLC in sync: shows if the PLC clock is synchronized with the DC (if in use)
- Run: toggles the running state of the master
- Req. state: changes the requested running state of the master; changing the state of the master will also change the state of ALL slaves
- Actual state: show the actual running state of the master, can be Init/Boot/PreOp/SafeOp/Op
- Target state: show the state that the master is currently trying to reach, can be Init/Boot/PreOp/SafeOp/Op
- Slaves list: shows a resume of all the slaves, with their addresses, actual running state, and identity as actually detected by the master
- Slaves present both in the project and in the real network whose identity is matching are shown in black
- Slaves whose identity is not matching between the project and the real network are shown in red
- Slaves that are detected by the master but missing in the project are shown in blue
- Slaves present in the project but not detected by the master are shown in orange
- Scan network: auto-detects all connected EtherCAT slaves on the network. If the current project is empty, all slaves will be automatically added; otherwise a dialog will be shown (see below). Please note that you must already have imported ALL the necessary ESI files in the catalog to successfully complete the network scanning
This is a sample result of the scan: a dialog with two panes, with the scan results on the left and the current configuration on the right, to manually choose which slaves you want to add to the project.Please note that ”Copy selected” will copy the selected slave on the left AFTER the selected slave on the right, so a selection in both panes must be done.With respect to their position, different slaves are shown in red, matching slaves in black, and missing slaves in blue.