EtherCAT® Software SolutionsSales Presentation

Automation Controller Manufacturers

• Programmable Logic/Automation Controller (PLC/PAC)

• Motion Controllers (MC), Measurement Controllers

• HMI with controller

Internally developed Controllers

• Motion Control, CNC, Material Handling

• Surgical Robotics, Simulators

• Test benches, Semiconductor tooling

Slave Device Manufacturers

• Drives and I/O

• Sensors and Actuators

May 2021 2

EtherCAT Software Solutions

• Integrate Master

• Windows: Integrate Real-time Platform EC-WinSoftware

Development -Controller

• Integrate OEM Edition of EtherCAT Configuration and Diagnosis Tool into OEM development environment

Software Development -

Engineering

• Integrate EtherCAT Network Simulation software to create a machine simulation environment for virtual commissioning with digital twin

Software Development -

Simulation

• Test extended scenarios, e.g., simulate topology changes

• Simulate devices and network errors

• Simulate huge networks

Quality Assurance

• Investigate end customer issues

• Monitor network condition

• Supply software updates

End Customer Support

May 2021 3

EtherCAT Software Solutions Automation Controller Manufacturers

• Integration of EtherCAT Master

• or Windows EtherCAT Real-time PlatformSoftware

Development

• EtherCAT Network Configuration

• Define topology and device featuresSystem Engineering

Design/Planning

• EtherCAT real-time network simulation

• Test and validate application software based on digital twinVirtual

Commissioning

• Change EtherCAT network configuration

• Monitor and force process data, change parameters

• Analyze communication problemsCommissioning

• Provide firmware updates for devices

• Diagnosis and network condition monitoringService and

Maintenance

May 2021 4

EtherCAT Software Solutions:Internally developed controllers

• Validate ESI file

• Online testing of all settings and options, including EoE

• Proof-of-concept and developing firmware on Windows or Linux system

Software Development

• Create own unit tests based on EtherCAT master library (C/C++)

• Test of error scenarios, e.g. lost frames or lost link

• Test of all mailbox protocols (upload and download)Release Tests

• Programming EEPROM and Firmware

• Automatic production tests, e. g., setting outputs, reading inputsProduction

• Create own Windows application for setup and demonstration of device functions

• Redistributable to customers and service peopleDemo

Software

May 2021 5

EtherCAT Software Solutions: Device Manufacturers

May 2021 6

EtherCAT System Architecture

.xmlEtherCAT Network Information (ENI) File

EtherCAT Slave

Information (ESI) Files.xml.xml.xml

Real-Time Kernel/OS

EtherCAT Master Stack

EtherCAT Application

Configuration

EtherCAT Master Core

May 2021 7

EC-Master Architecture

Customer C/C++ Application

Operating SystemAdaptation

“ No full-blown OS required”

Optimized Real-Time Ethernet Driver with direct

HW access

Link Layer

Process Data Image

cycliccommands

XML Parser.XML

EtherCAT Network Information (ENI)

File

OS Layer

Mailbox Services

req. resp.

acycliccommands

HARDWARE

Standard Ethernet MAC

RAM FLASH

CPU

Wrapper Library provides API for object oriented access

CustomerC# Application

CustomerPython Script

Operating Systems

May 2021 8

EC-MasterOut of the box for many Platforms

Ethernet Controllers

Intel Pro/1000

Altera Cyclone V

Realtek GigabitNXP

FEC, eTSEC

Renesas RZ FamilyTI Sitara

CPSW, ICSS-PRU

Xilinx GEM

SMSC 9218

Beckhoff CCAT and more

X8632-Bit

ARM32-Bit

PowerPCX64

64-BitAarch64

64-Bit

May 2021 9

EC-Master Widely Available

25 Operating Systems

90Combinations

22 Ethernet controller families

5 CPU Architectures

EC-Master according to ETG.1500 Master Classes Directive

May 2021 10

EC-Master Building Blocks

Class B Core• Compare network configuration• Cyclic process data exchange• Slave to slave communication• Mailbox protocols CoE, SoE• Mailbox protocols EoE, FoE• Mailbox protocols AoE, VoE

Feature Packs = Options

Cable Redundancy, Hot Connect, External Synchronization, Superset ENI, Master Redundancy, …

Class A Core• All Class B Features• Distributed Clocks with master

synchronization

Core-iAtomAltera Cyclone V

Sitara AM335x (Cortex-A8)Sitara AM437x (Cortex-A9)Sitara AM57xx (Dual Cortex-A15)

STM32MP1 (Dual Cortex-A7)STM32H7 (Cortex M7)

Raspberry Pi 4 (Cortex-A72)

Jetson TX2 (Quad Cortex-A57)

May 2021 11

EC-Master broad CPU support

RIN32, RZ-T, RZ-N, RZ-G, RZ-A

i.MX6 (Cortex-A9), i.MX7 (Cortex-A7) , i.MX8 (Cortex-A53)Layerscape 1021A QorIQ P-SeriesMPC8548 PowerQUICC

Zync-7000 (Dual Cortex-A9)Zynq UltraScale+ (Quad Cortex-A53)

XMC4800 (Cortex-M4)

• 32 Bit CPU

• Dedicated Ethernet Controller for EtherCAT

• Optional: Second Ethernet Controller for TCP/IP

• Footprint ROM: Between 400 and 850 Kbyte

RAM: Starting with 300 Kbyte up to several Megabyte.Highly depending on the number and type of slaves!

May 2021 12

Hardware Requirements

• Out-of-the-box for the most popular operating systems Get it running on your system in one day!

• High scalability Small footprint embedded systems: Remove features High end systems: All ETG.1500 features available

• Reliable and robust implementation Field proven in several 10000 systems per year!

• Sophisticated diagnosis functions Detect state change problems and frame loss errors easily

• High performance and hard real-time Low CPU load due to optimized link layers

• Easy to integrate Various example applications and comprehensive user manuals

May 2021 13

Key benefits

Windows EtherCAT Real-time platform

15

EtherCAT Master on a Windows PC(non Real-time)

Single Hardware

CPU Core 1

CPU Core 2

CPU Core 3

CPU Core 4

Harddisk

VGA Graphics

Windows Memory

Non Real-TimeController App C/C++

Ethernet NICEtherCAT

Ethernet NIC TCP/IP

Junction

Win

do

ws

Graphical User Interface Application

On

line

Fun

ctio

ns

Co

mm

un

ica

tio

n

Windows Driver

Controller App and Master stack run on Windows: No determinism!

TCP/IP

May 2021

Hardware 2

16

Non-deterministic apps (GUI) run on Hardware 1.

Controller App and Master stack run on Hardware 2.Deterministic!

Real-time Windows EtherCAT solutionwith separate Real-time Controller

Hardware 1

CPU Core 1

CPU Core 2

CPU Core

Harddisk

VGA Graphics

Windows Memory

Real-TimeController App C/C++

EtherCAT Link Layer

Ethernet NICEtherCAT

Real-time Memory

Ethernet NIC TCP/IP

Junction

Win

do

ws

Lin

ux

Graphical User Interface Application

On

line

Fun

ctio

ns

Ethernet NIC TCP/IP

TCP/IP

TC

P / IP

May 2021

17

Real-time Windows EtherCAT solutionwith Real-time Hypervisor

Single Hardware

CPU Core 1

CPU Core 2

CPU Core 3

CPU Core 4

Harddisk

VGA Graphics

Windows Memory

Real-TimeController App C/C++

Hy

pe

rv

iso

r

EtherCAT Link Layer

Ethernet NICEtherCAT

Real-time Memory

Ethernet NIC TCP/IP

Junction

Win

do

ws

Lin

ux

Graphical User Interface Application

On

line

Fun

ctio

ns

Share

dM

em

ory

File

syste

m A

cce

ss

Partitioning: split hardware in Real-time and Non-Real-time part.

Controller App and Master stack run in Real-time Environment: Deterministic!

TCP/IP

TC

P /

IP

Hardware Partitioning

May 2021

18

Fully integrated Windows EtherCAT platform

EtherCAT Configuration

EtherCAT Diagnosis

Application Wizard

Real-time Debugging

Class A/B

Feature Packs

Example Apps

EC-Master EtherCAT MasterReal-time analyzation

Real-time optimization

CPU core management

Real-time Debugging EtherCAT DeviceSelection

Real-time Files

Windows Real-time

Remote Diagnosisand Configuration

TCP/IP

May 2021

• CPU Assignment Select number of

CPUs to be used by Windows

Select CPU(s) to be used by the Real-time part

• NIC Assignment Select NIC to be

used for EtherCAT

System Manager: graphical tool for partitioning

May 2021 19

Application Development

May 2021 20

• Visual Studio For Windows applications

For Real-time applications

• Project Wizards

Automatically Create new real-time applications

• Application Debugging

As convenient as debugging a regular Windows application

• Fully integrated EtherCAT Real-time solution one vendor, one support contact

Acontis has expertise for Windows Real-time extensions back to 1994 and is leading provider for EtherCAT software since 2005

• Hypervisor based Real-time environment full isolation between Windows and Real-time part

• Support for symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) use more than one CPU core for the Real-time application

• Hard real-time: fast and deterministic real-time Extension

• Development and debugging with Visual Studio

May 2021 21

Key benefits

EtherCAT Configuration and Diagnosis Tool

May 2021 23

EtherCAT System Architecture

.xml

EtherCAT Network Information (ENI) File

EtherCAT Slave

Information (ESI) Files.xml.xml.xml

Real-Time Kernel/OS

EtherCAT Application

RAS Server (TCP)

RAS Client (TCP)

TCP/IP

Online Functions

Windows

Operating Modes

Offline Configuration:(In the Office)

Online Configuration:Slaves connected toEngineering System

Remote Configuration:Slaves connected toTarget System

Remote Diagnosis:Slaves connected toTarget System

May 2021 24

25

Build an configuration in less steps

May 2021

26

Comprehensive diagnosticMonitor and force process data

May 2021

27

Comprehensive diagnostic:Powerful “Line crossed” detection

May 2021

• Easy to use - modern design

Build a configuration in less steps

Only reasonable settings and options are visible

Hide expert settings if not required

• Powerful online functions together with EC-Master

Network scan local and remote, compare configured and found slaves (network mismatch view)

Access to states, variables, object dictionary, ESC register, EEPROM, etc.

Figure out the location of transmission errors (bad cables and connectors, vibrations, etc.)

• EtherCAT Master Information (EMI) file for specifying master device features

Options and dialogs can be restricted to those features which the control system supports, e. g. available cycle times, support of mailbox protocols, DC synchronization or Hot Connect.

Predefined EMI files for Class A and Class B are included and will serve as templates to enhance or restrict the function according to the customer needs

• Adjustable/Extensible: Software Development Kit available

Adjust to customer needs or integrate into customer engineering environment

May 2021 28

Key benefits

Web Edition

EtherCAT Configuration and Diagnosis using a Browser

May 2021 30

EC-Engineer vs EC-EngineerWeb

Windows Windows Linux

X86 32-Bit X64 64-Bit ARM 32-BitX64 64-Bit

• Web Browser with HTML5 and JavaScript support Desktop computer

Mobile devices (tablet, smartphone)

Communication to backend via HTTP

• Business logic (RACE)

ASP.NET Core Web Application

Based on Microsoft .NET Core 3.1

Using the same, well proven core logic and ENI creation algorithm as EC-Engineer

May 2021 31

EC-Engineer Web Overview

EtherCAT configuration and diagnosis tool using a standard browser as user interface:

Web Browser

HTTP

API EC-MasterBusiness Logic

32

Configuration ModeFull features including MDP etc.

May 2021

33

Sophisticated Diagnosis FeaturesMonitoring and forcing of Variables etc.

May 2021

EtherCAT Diagnosis Tool

1. Local: Based on integrated EtherCAT master• Connect all slaves to notebook/PC, normal control system is stopped

• Provide ENI file to set network into OP state

2. Remote: Network operated by original target system• Based RAS protocol, RAS server has to run on control system

• Collect information while machine is running

May 2021 35

Operation Modes

Local Diagnosis:Slaves connected toNotebook/PC

Remote Diagnosis:Slaves connected toControl System

36

Graphical topology view of the complete network (displays the connection quality in terms of color, which will help to find and exchange defect hardware as soon as possible).

Topology view shows errors at several slaves

May 2021

37

The Extended Diagnosis is showing the Lost Link counters, Frame Error counters and Physical Layer Error counters for all implemented ports for the selected slave.

Beside this EC-Lyser provides functions to reset the counters for a specific slave or for the whole network at once.

Connectivity and Frame corruption diagnostics

May 2021

Graphical display of the network topology

Compare actually connected slaves with configured slaves

Access to master and slave object dictionaries (SDO Up- and Download)

Display Slave Error Register 0x300 ff.

Edit EtherCAT Slave Controller (ESC) Registers

Via a simple click onto the appropriate node in the topology view detailed information will be displayed

For documentation purposes it is possible to store all current data (e.g. topology, slave info) into a XML file

Error and status messages (normally only available in the control system) will be shown in a separate log area

May 2021 38

Key benefits

EtherCAT® Network Simulation

Run an EtherCAT controller with a simulated network

• Virtual Commissioning with a Digital Twin Test and optimize the application at an early stage of the

engineering, even without any real existing hardware

Test error scenarios which are dangerous and/or lead to damages

• EtherCAT control system release tests Test extended scenarios, e.g., simulate topology changes

Simulate slave errors

Simulate huge networks

• Software development and education

May 2021 40

Simulation Use Cases

May 2021 41

Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) Simulation

• The System-Under-Test (SUT) is communicating via an EtherCAT cable with the EC-Simulator software running on an external hardware, the HiL System.

• In this setup the unmodified application together with the EtherCAT master can be tested using the real physical network interface.

Master

HiL System

System Under Test

(SUT)

Simulated EtherCAT Network

May 2021 42

• Within the Simulator, the original slave stack simulates the ESC

• Support for various operating systems, e. g. Linux and Windows

• Use the acontis Real-time Ethernet drivers, the so-called link layers.

• EC-Simulator offers a “C” language API for integration into a Software PLC (LogicLab, logi.cals) or into professional simulation software like ISG Virtuos, etc.

HiL SimulationSoftware architecture

Real-Time Kernel/OS

C/C++ Application

EC-Simulator

Software PLCSimulator

Link Layer

Cyclic Process Data Image

Programing Interfaces: Process Data, Network Operations, Diagnosis

Slave Registers, EEPROM, etc.

• The EtherCAT network is simulated in software running on the System Under Test (SUT).

• Instead of communicating with the Ethernet Controller, the EC-Master EtherCAT master is directly exchanging EtherCAT frames with the simulation software.

May 2021 43

Software-in-the-Loop (SiL) Simulation

EC-Master

SiL System

Simulated EtherCAT Network

System Under Test

(SUT)

Link Layer

• EC-Simulator is loaded as Link-Layer

• No physical network interface required

May 2021 44

SiL SimulationSoftware architecture

Real-Time Kernel/OS

Customer Application C/C++

EC-Simulator

Link Layer Interface

EC-Master

Process Data Image

EC-Master

SiL System

Inp

uts

Ou

tpu

ts

Programing Interfaces: Process Data, Network Operations,

Diagnosis

Process Data Image Slave Registers…

May 2021 45

Configuration based on ENI file

• Standard EtherCAT Network Information (ENI) file is used to configure the EC-Simulator software

• ENI can be exported by EC-Engineer or any other configuration software, e. g. Beckhoff TwinCAT, supporting it.

Master

SimulatorENI.XML

May 2021 46

Diagnosis with EC-Engineer/EC-Lyser

Real-Time Kernel/OS

C/C++ Application

Link Layer

RAS Server (TCP)

Master

Simulator

RAS Client (TCP)

TCP/IP

Online Functions

• Hardware-in-the-Loop:Simulate a complete EtherCAT network on a PC or Embedded Systems running Windows, Linux, QNX, etc.

• Software-in-the-Loop:Simulate a complete EtherCAT network on the EC-Master System

• EC-Simulator API is mainly equal to EC-Master API

• Integration of own slave firmware possible

• Comprehensive functions to simulate errors, e.g., broken cable, wrong cabling, slave failures

May 2021 47

Key benefits