EC-Engineer V4.1: New Features

The Self‑Test Scan is one of the most important innovations in EC‑Engineer 4.1. It provides an automated check of your EtherCAT network. With the self-test scan, it is possible to detect communication errors in an EtherCAT network and locate the root cause. A communication error manifests itself in that not all EtherCAT frames sent by the MainDevice are received again. The frames are lost on their way through the EtherCAT network or are marked as corrupt by the error detection in the EtherCAT SubDevices. The Ethernet controller in the MainDevice also checks the correctness of the frame upon receipt using CRC calculation. If the check fails, the frame is discarded.

1. Message in Log

2. Warning icon in network topology tree

3. Hardware diagnostics is showing the ports which are making problems

4. Message Box with instructions, how the issue could be fixed

The existing feature "Trace Data" was improved in EC-Engineer V4.1. Earlier it was only possible to create output variables. Now it is also possible to create input variables and decide which variables should be sent on the network.

Use Case: Define additional variables in EC-Master process data image for MainDevice application. These variables are also defined in the ENI file and are accessable in the same way as SubDevices variables.

The Beckhoff MX‑System is a modular automation solution that eliminates the need for traditional control cabinets. Instead, it provides a plug‑and‑play system architecture where all automation components are mounted directly onto a robust base plate.

With EC‑Engineer V4.1 is is possible to scan, configure and diagnose Beckhoff MX SubDevices.

EC‑Engineer 4.1 can list in detail which frames and commands are written into the ENI (EtherCAT Network Information) file. This makes the configuration process more transparent and helps engineers verify what the EC-Master will actually execute.

A new visualization on the DC Diagnosis Tab makes synchronization issues easier to spot. The graph displays the system time difference between EC-Master and the distributed clocks of the connected SubDevice, turning raw numbers into an intuitive curve.

With the new version of EC-Engineer it is also possible to drag and drop ESI- and EC-Engineer project files (ecc) directly into the project explorer. So missing ESIs can be added faster and way more comfortable than with the ESI Manager. Also projects can be loaded per drag and drop without searching for them in the open file dialog.