Beckhoff EL6631-0010 Manual page 39

Commissioning
Fig. 17: Several PROFINET devices in the TwinCAT tree
Virtual PROFINET device
It is also possible in TwinCAT to configure a number of virtual PROFINET devices (a maximum of 7 in the
PROFINET Device Supplement, and one additional device in the EL6631-0010). Each device is again to be
viewed as its own adaptor, i.e. each virtual device is assigned a default MAC address from a reserved range.
To avoid possible address conflicts, the MAC address of virtual devices can also be changed. The name
which the device was given in the strand (or in the "General" tab) is also taken as a PROFINET station name
following a restart. On the basis of different MAC addresses and names, a PROFINET controller can now
distinguish several devices in the strand.
It is therefore possible to use 8 devices per Ethernet interface in the PROFINET Device Supplement, and
therefore to communicate with 8 different PROFINET controllers. In the case of the EL6631-0010 it is 2
devices.
In PROFINET, different user profiles can be defined within a device (API - Application Process Instance).
Precisely one API is permitted / supported for each device in TwinCAT.
In accordance with PROFINET, the DAP (Device Access Point) is always defined on slot 0. Device-specific
data is defined in it. In accordance with PROFINET, several DAPs can be defined; however, in TwinCAT
there is currently precisely one!
3. Process data
The process data can be inserted from slot 1. This takes place by integrating the desired module in the API.
Each module (slot) has at present precisely one sub-module (sub-slot). The configuration of the modules and
hence the creation of the process data image on the PROFINET side takes place by means of specifying
data types / data widths (e.g. byte, word, dword, float 32).
The designation of the inputs and outputs always takes place in TwinCAT from the TwinCAT point of view,
i.e. the inputs are from the PROFINET point of view (from the controller) the outputs! Therefore the data of
the PROFINET I/O devices is represented as follows:
EL6631-0010 Version: 3.4.0 39