36.1. ECAT_IO

36.1.1. 1. Overview

The ECAT_IO example demonstrates the steps to implement an ECAT digital IO slave station with the slave stack code (SSC).

  • Input IO(2bit): SW6

  • Output IO(2bit): LED8/LED3

  • RUN LED: LED7

  • ERR LED: LED6

36.1.2. 2. Prepare

36.1.2.1. 2.1 Hardware

36.1.2.2. 2.2 Software

  • TwinCAT3.1(Build 4024.56)

  • SSC Tool(SSC Version: 5.13; Config File Vers: 1.5.3.0)

36.1.3. 3. Project Setting

36.1.3.1. 3.1 EEPROM Emulation Setting

  • The default setting is to use Flash to simulate EEPROM

36.1.3.2. 3.2 Using actual EEPROM

  • set the “ESC_EEPROM_EMULATION” and “CREATE_EEPROM_CONTENT” under the “Hardware” attribute to 0 in SSC Tool, then generate the slave protocol stack code.

  • Modify CMakeLists.txt context to “set(CONFIG_EEPROM_EMULATION 0)”.

36.1.4. 4. Generate EtherCAT slave stack code

Due to licensing issues, HPMSDK does not provide EtherCAT slave protocol stack code (SSC). Users have download the SSC Tool from Beckoff’s official website and generate the slave stack code according to the steps.

36.1.4.1. 4.1. Download SSC Tool

  1. EnterETG Download website, input “SSC” to fliter resource.

    To download, you need to provide an ETG member account and a valid vendor ID

  2. Download and install SSC Tool

36.1.4.2. 4.2 SSC Tool import configuration files

  1. Open SSC Tool, click Tool->Options

  2. click Configurations, import configuration file(<hpm_sdk>/samples/ethercat/ecat_io/SSC/Config/HPM_ECAT_IO_Config.xml)

36.1.4.3. 4.3 SSC Tool create new project

  1. click File->New

  2. Click Custom option, and select HPMicro ECAT Digital IO from the drop-down list

  3. Save project, specify the file path

  4. import application - Click Tool->Application->Import, Import <hpm_sdk>/samples/ethercat/ecat_io/SSC/digital_io.xlsx - Click OK

36.1.4.4. 4.4 Create slave stack files

  1. Click Project->Create new Slave Files

  2. Specify the output path, the output source folder have to set to <ecat_io sample path>/SSC/Src, if other path, have to copy generated SRC folder to <ecat_io sample path>/SSC/Src

36.1.5. 5. TwinCAT Project setting

36.1.5.1. 5.1. Add ESI file

Copy the generated (ECAT-IO.xml) by SSC tool in previous steps to TwinCAT(C:\TwinCAT\3.1\Config\Io\EtherCAT).

36.1.5.2. 5.2 Create Project

  1. Open TwinCAT，click File->New->Project

  2. Click TwinCAT Project, after naming, click OK

36.1.5.3. 5.3 Software Configuration

  1. Update network card driver (required for first use)

  2. clock setting The TwinCAT may report the following error during runtime, win8settick.bat needs to run with administrator privileges(C：\TwinCAT\3.1\System\win8settick.bat)

    Init4\RTime：Start Interrupt：Ticker started >> AdsWarning4115 （0x1013,RTIME：system clock setup failed）

36.1.5.4. 5.4 Scan device

  1. Right click Device, then click Scan

  2. Choose correct network

36.1.5.5. 5.5 Update EEPROM context

  1. Double click on the scanned device, click Online, right clickBox, then click EEPROM Update。

    For cases where the EEPROM content is empty, it is not possible to find a matching Box when scanning the device. In this case, it is necessary to update the EEPROM content。

    In the case where EEPROM content is empty, When ESC is powered on to load EEPROM data, a checksum error will occur, which will cause PDI to not work. At this time, EtherCAT communication is possible and EEPROM content can be updated through the main station.

  2. chosse correct files, click OK, wait for completion

  3. Reset the board, delete the scanned devices and rescanning

36.1.5.6. 5.6 IO Control

  1. Input IO, change DIP switch, “InputCounter” value change in TwinCAT

  2. Output IO, write “OutputCounter” value in Twincat, Output LED change

  3. Check RUN LED and ERR_LED status

36.1.5.7. 5.7 DC setting

  1. double clcik “Box”, click “DC”, click “Advanced Settings”

  2. Set mode to “DC-Synchron”, set Shift Time(Usually 20% to 30% of Sync Unit Cycle time)

  3. double click “Device”, click “EtherCAT”, click “Advanced Settings”

  4. click “Distributed Clock”, choose “DC in use”, click “OK”

  5. Restart TwinCAT

36.1.6. 6. Running the example

After the project is running correctly, the serial terminal will output the following information, and the input-output IO status corresponds to the TwinCAT project configuration:

EtherCAT IO sample
EEPROM loading with checksum error.
EtherCAT communication is possible even if the EEPROM is blank(checksum error),
but PDI not operational, please update eeprom  context.

or

EtherCAT IO sample
EEPROM loading successful, no checksum error.