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Commissioning Modular Gateway EtherCAT with TwinCAT

Owned by Ulrich Kouatang Biakoup
Last updated: 09.Jan 2024 by Dirk Conzelmann
4 min read

EtherCAT is the Industrial Ethernet technology characterized by excellent performance, low costs, flexible topology and simple handling. The configuration of an EtherCAT network is carried out with a special configuration tool, e.g. Beckhoff TwinCAT

In this example, we run TwinCAT on a Windows-PC, which will handle as a Master and exchange data with KUNBUS Gateway module for EtherCAT. The system has a KUNBUS EtherCAT Gateway (PR100073) connected over piBridgeLeft interface of RevPi Connect.

 

 Requirements

 

  Test setup

 

  Configuration and Running TwinCAT

  • Download the ESI file from the Gateway KUNBUS website and place it in a folder with the following path: C:\TwinCAT\3.1\Config\Io\EtherCAT

  • Start TwinCAT XAE Shell

    • Open a new project with File/new/project and give a project name

  • TwinCAT has two modes: configuration mode and run mode. All the configuration must be done in the configuration mode

  • From here you can do either

    • Right click on device“ → “Scan”

      Scans for masters and devices. If EtherCAT-Slave is connected, it is automatically detected.

      TwinCat asks to change from “config”-mode to “free run”-mode - cyclic communication is active

  • Or do it step-by-step

    • Look at your project tree and click on I/O | right click on Device | on add new element | select EtherCAT Master | click on OK. Your project tree will look as following:

  • Right click on Device 1 (Gerät 1 for German version) | add new element | select KUNBUS Gateway EtherCAT | Box 1 (KUNBUS Gateway EtherCAT) will appear on your Device tree.

  • Currently the version 1.2 is produced, and therefore you should choose this version

 

 

  • Click on SYSTEM | right click on Tasks| select TwinCAT Task with Image| give task name and validate with OK

  • In this example, we are exchanging data. For “Free run”-mode, these steps can be skipped

 

  • click on Task 5: Here you can define the priority and the cycle time you want for your system to refresh Date

 

  • Right click on Inputs | give the variable name

 

  • Click on Box 1 (KUNBUS Gateway EtherCAT) | click on TxPDO | Right click on Data 001 | click on change Link (DE: Verknüpfung ändern) click on your created variable (for this example: VAR 80).

 

  • Build your Project (1 and 2) and activate the configuration (3) and you must suppose to be in the run mode now (4)

 

  • If “Scan” and “Free Run”-mode were selected, you can go on with this step

    • Now we write a value on an output of the Gateway and check it with the piTest command on the next image

    • A PiCtory configuration must be done

  • We write a value on an Output using the first register of RxPDO (Data 001)

  • Check the sent value with piTest

    • Connect to your RevPi Connect via SSH

piTest -r input_1