NP5 EtherCAT Online Manual

EtherCAT

Before commissioning, we recommend reading chapter Connecting the controller.

Software connection

Tip: The following description assumes that an EtherCAT master from Beckhoff with the TwinCAT software is used.
  1. Connect the EtherCAT master to the controller, see Connecting the controller.
  2. Supply the controller with voltage.
  3. Obtain the ESI file that corresponds exactly to the used firmware version from the following sources:
    1. From the Nanotec website us.nanotec.com. The current version of the firmware and the ESI file can be found in the Plug & Drive Studio download folder.
    2. From Nanotec support.
  4. Close the TwinCAT system manager if it is open.
  5. Then copy the ESI file to the TwinCAT subfolder:
    • If you use TwinCAT version 2, use folder <TWINCAT INSTALL DIR>/Io/EtherCAT
    • If you use TwinCAT version 3, use folder <TWINCAT INSTALL DIR>/3.1/Config/Io/EtherCAT

    Example

    Example: If TwinCAT 2 is installed on your computer under path C:\TwinCAT\, copy the ESI file to path C:\TwinCAT\Io\EtherCAT\.

  6. Open the ESI file with an editor. Find the AddInfo parameter. Enter:
    • the value "2" if you would like to integrate the controller as Box (factory settings)
    • the value "0" if you would like to integrate the controller as NC-Axis
    Save and close the file.
  7. Now restart the TwinCAT system manager. The ESI files are read in again following a restart.
Note:

The cycle time of the sync signal must always be set to 1 ms. You can set the bus cycle time (and, consequently, the interpolation time in 60C2h) to integer multiples of 1 ms.

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