EC-Engineer V3.9: New Features
Simplified and improved PDO Mapping Tab
In EC-Engineer V3.9, significant enhancements were made to the PDO Mapping Tab. Previously, users encountered a less intuitive interface, characterized by separate grids for in- and output PDOs. This layout often led to confusion due to its lack of clarity. However, the latest version presents a single comprehensive grid, consolidating all PDOs for effortless navigation and relevance identification.
Upon opening the tab, users are greeted with a organized overview of all PDOs, thoughtfully collapsed to prevent unnecessary scrolling and provide a swift initial assessment. When adding a new PDO the direction can be chosen in the dialog.
ENI Variants: Handle different network within a single EC-Engineer project
With the EC-Engineer “ENI variants” function, similar networks, e. g. with more or fewer slaves can be managed comfortable and easily. For this purpose, the maximum configuration is configured as usual in an EC-Engineer project and the differences are then defined in a variant file. With the help of the variant file, the different ENI files and, if desired, ECC files are then created in a batch process.
Rescue Scan
In rare cases, the controller may not receive any Ethernet frames from the EtherCAT network even if the network cabling appears to be intact. The EC-Master reports this case with the notification "EC_NOTIFY_SB_MISMATCH 0 slaves found". Possible causes include:
- A broken slave
- A faulty cable
- EMC problems, e.g. missing shielding
- A device which is not an EtherCAT device (e.g. an Ethernet switch) is installed in the network
The "Rescue Scan" function can be used to localize the problem in the network. This functionality uses a step-by-step approach to communicate with the EtherCAT slaves: First an attempt is made to establish communication with the first slave, then with the second slave, then with the third slave, and so on. This is done by selectively closing and opening the EtherCAT ports as a test basis.
If no more frames are received after a particular port has been opened, the location of the cause of the error has been found and is displayed accordingly in EC-Engineer.
