Troubleshooting and diagnosis of EtherCAT errors and problems
The availability of diagnostic features and tools is a critical factor in deciding on a communication technology, and like other important aspects of a communication technology, EtherCAT excels at diagnostics. In addition to being extremely fast and offering high performance, EtherCAT comprises a wide range of diagnostic features to help detect and isolate errors within the network.
A communication failure is indicated by the fact that not all EtherCAT frames sent by the main device are received. The frames are lost en route through the EtherCAT network or are marked as corrupted by error detection in the EtherCAT SubDevices. The Ethernet controller in the MainDevice also checks the correctness of the frame upon receipt using a CRC calculation. If the check fails, the frame is discarded.
The possible causes of these interferences are diverse:
Cabling problems (damaged cables; cables that do not meet the specifications or meet the application requirements), connector problems (damaged connectors; poorly assembled connectors; contact problems, e.g., due to oxidized contacts; vibration or shock interruptions), power failure of one or more subdevices, electromagnetic interference, poor or missing grounding or shielding of the subdevices, PHY problems of a subdevice, thermal problems, crosstalk between two transmission paths, etc.
An EtherCAT network can be very large, comprising several hundred SubDevices, cables, connectors, and network segments connected by junction boxes. Often, the cause of a fault is just a single cable or connector. Localizing the problem location is crucial for troubleshooting.
The EC-Engineer's "Self Test Scan" function, in conjunction with the graphical topology view of the entire network, helps with this.
The idea behind the "Self Test Scan" function is to send and receive a large number of EtherCAT frames of varying lengths over a defined period of time. The frames not received are continuously counted, and at the end of the test run, the error registers of the SubDevices are read. The collected data is then processed, evaluated, and displayed in the EC-Engineer.
These comprehensive diagnostic functions in acontis EC-Engineer are directly accessible even for users without in-depth EtherCAT knowledge and without prior training: The display of errors and diagnostic functions is immediately tangible and understandable. This allows errors and vulnerabilities to be identified and remedied immediately – faster, easier, and more reliably than with other tools available on the market – an important criterion, especially in the event of system failures, where every minute counts.
In the EtherCAT Troubleshooting guide from acontis, we will show you how to utilize the many options available to you for diagnosing problems in the EtherCAT network, especially in conjunction with acontis' EtherCAT MainDevice software, EC-Master, and acontis' EtherCAT monitoring and diagnosis tools.