Commissioning/Configuration; Twincat Configuration Setup, Manual - Beckhoff EP3356-0022 Documentation

Commissioning/Configuration

6 Commissioning/Configuration
6.1

TwinCAT configuration setup, manual

This part of the documentation describes the manual configuration of an EtherCAT Box in TwinCAT.
Distinction between Online and Offline
The distinction between online and offline refers to the existence of the actual I/O environment (drives,
terminals). If the configuration is to be prepared in advance of the system configuration as a programming
system, e.g. on a laptop, this is only possible in "Offline configuration" mode. In this case all components
have to be entered manually in the configuration, e.g. based on the electrical design (as described below
under TwinCAT configuration setup, manual). If the designed control system is already connected to the
EtherCAT system and all components are energized and the infrastructure is ready for operation, the
TwinCAT configuration can simply be generated through "scanning" from the runtime system. This is referred
to as online configuration. In any case, during each startup the EtherCAT master checks whether the devices
it finds match the configuration. This test can be parameterized in the advanced device settings.
To ensure that the latest features/settings of the master can be used, always download the latest ESI file.
Please note the following information.
Installation of the latest ESI-XML device description
The TwinCAT System Manager needs the device description files for the devices to be used in or-
der to generate the configuration in online or offline mode. The device descriptions are contained in
the so-called ESI files (EtherCAT Slave Information) in XML format. These files can be requested
from the respective manufacturer and are made available for download. The ESI files for Beckhoff
EtherCAT devices are available on the Beckhoff website (https://www.beckhoff.de/english/down-
load/elconfg.htm?id=1983920606140). The ESI files should be stored in the TwinCAT installation
directory (default: C:\TwinCAT\IO\EtherCAT). The files are read (once) when a new System Man-
ager window is opened. A TwinCAT installation includes the Beckhoff ESI files that were current at
the time when the TwinCAT build was created. From TwinCAT 2.11 and in TwinCAT 3 the ESI di-
rectory can be updated from the System Manager, if the programming PC is connected to the inter-
net (TwinCAT → EtherCAT Devices → Update Device Description...)
48 Version: 1.1.0 EP3356-0022