Import/Export Of Ethercat Devices With Sci And Xti - Beckhoff EPP3504-0023 Short Manual

Commissioning on EtherCAT Master
Download
If the device is intelligent and has a mailbox, the configuration of the PDO and the PDO assignments can be
downloaded to the device. This is an optional feature that is not supported by all EtherCAT slaves.
PDO Assignment
If this check box is selected, the PDO assignment that is configured in the PDO Assignment list is
downloaded to the device on startup. The required commands to be sent to the device can be viewed in the
Startup [} 180] tab.
PDO Configuration
If this check box is selected, the configuration of the respective PDOs (as shown in the PDO list and the
PDO Content display) is downloaded to the EtherCAT slave.
6.3.8

Import/Export of EtherCAT devices with SCI and XTI

SCI and XTI Export/Import – Handling of user-defined modified EtherCAT slaves
6.3.8.1 Basic principles
An EtherCAT slave is basically parameterized through the following elements:
• Cyclic process data (PDO)
• Synchronization (Distributed Clocks, FreeRun, SM-Synchron)
• CoE parameters (acyclic object dictionary)
Note: Not all three elements may be present, depending on the slave.
For a better understanding of the export/import function, let's consider the usual procedure for IO
configuration:
• The user/programmer processes the IO configuration in the TwinCAT system environment. This
involves all input/output devices such as drives that are connected to the fieldbuses used.
Note: In the following sections, only EtherCAT configurations in the TwinCAT system environment are
considered.
• For example, the user manually adds devices to a configuration or performs a scan on the online
system.
• This results in the IO system configuration.
• On insertion, the slave appears in the system configuration in the default configuration provided by the
vendor, consisting of default PDO, default synchronization method and CoE StartUp parameter as
defined in the ESI (XML device description).
• If necessary, elements of the slave configuration can be changed, e.g. the PDO configuration or the
synchronization method, based on the respective device documentation.
It may become necessary to reuse the modified slave in other projects in this way, without having to make
equivalent configuration changes to the slave again. To accomplish this, proceed as follows:
• Export the slave configuration from the project,
• Store and transport as a file,
• Import into another EtherCAT project.
TwinCAT offers two methods for this purpose:
• within the TwinCAT environment: Export/Import as xti file or
• outside, i.e. beyond the TwinCAT limits: Export/Import as sci file.
186 Version: 1.2 EPP3504-0023