Web-based EtherCAT® Configuration and Diagnosis Tool

EC-Engineer Web is a powerful software tool used for configuration and diagnosis of EtherCAT® networks. The software is a client server application, with the modern dark mode client user interface (UI) an Angular-CLI project communicating through a REST-API with the backend (ASP.NET Core).
The Microsoft .NET Core platform is used for development and to run the software on several operating systems and architectures, e.g. Windows, macOS and Linux (x64, ARM32). EC-Engineer Web is using the multi-platform advantage that .NET Core offers for mobility and platform independence.

EC-Engineer EtherCAT configuration tool

Configuration

EC-Engineer Web creates an EtherCAT® Network Information (ENI) file which is based on EtherCAT® Slave Information (ESI) files. The ENI file is used for parametrization of the EtherCAT® Master.

A web browser with HTML5 and JavaScript support is enough to show and control EC-Engineer Web. There is no installation needed for the frontend, so a tablet or smartphone can also be used to configure or analyze an EtherCAT® network. EC-Engineer Web is also available as a desktop application on Linux PCs.

EC-Engineer EtherCAT configuration tool

EC-Engineer EtherCAT configuration tool

Architectures

The modular software approach allows for several system architectures.

Offline and Online configuration (all components on one device)

EC-Engineer EtherCAT configuration tool

User interface on a separate device

EC-Engineer EtherCAT configuration tool

EtherCAT Master on separate device

EC-Engineer EtherCAT configuration tool

Diagnosis

Extensive diagnosis functions are available to help to analyze and solve problems in EtherCAT® networks. In this mode, EC-Engineer Web receives all necessary information from the EtherCAT® Master.
For Masters running acontis’ EC-Master, the integrated communication protocol known as RAS enables the connection to EC-Engineer Web. For Masters not running EC-Master, the recently released Mailbox Gateway (ETG.8200) enables the connection to EC-Engineer Web, like for Beckhoff TwinCAT systems. With the Mailbox Gateway EC-Engineer Web is a completely master-independent EtherCAT diagnostic tool.

EC-Engineer EtherCAT configuration tool

 

EC-Engineer EtherCAT configuration tool

EC-Engineer Web Software Development Kit (SDK)

Using the available SDK all (or just a subset) of the EC-Engineer Web features can be integrated into another engineering application. Brand labeling and other customer specific enhancements can be achieved as well. All EC-Engineer core software components and modules are available for Windows and Linux. The user interface layers are based on the Microsoft® ASP .NET Core Angular project.

EC-Engineer EtherCAT configuration tool

Technologies

  • ASP.NET Core Web Application
  • Angular: Application design framework and development platform for creating single-page apps
  • TypeScript: Is a strict syntactical superset of JavaScript

Software Requirements

User Interface (GUI)

  • Web Browser with HTML5 and JavaScript support

RACE Logic

  • Microsoft .NET Core 3.1
  • Windows, macOS, Linux x64, Linux ARM

EtherCAT Master

  • Many different operating system supported
  • RAS Server enabled

More information

Please request additional information in our download area.