EtherCAT communication between two Master with Beckhoff EL6695

[JimPanse]

Hello Experts,

I try to realize a transfer between two EtherCAT Master with the Beckhoff EL6695 EtherCAT bridge terminal.

The communication between two Beckhoff master works without problems.

If one Beckhoff master is replaced by a Labview RT Desktop PC EtherCAT master the PDO communication no longer works.

A query for the Raw Input Size or Output Size results always = 2

maybe, the same problem as in the case:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/Industrial-Communications/LabVIEW-ECAT-Master-communication-problem-with-a-t...

There is unfortunately no solution explained.

A manual adjustment of InputData arrays size (12) for Raw Data.ReadAll results in the following output:

The test data transmission from Beckhoff Master (Var 29) to LV RT Master is not working. The reverse data transfer (Var28) does not work either.

The SDO query suggests that the variables are not rotated in the clamp el6695.

The NI Support could not help me to find any solutions. Can anyone tell me why the data transport is not working between the two masters?

many thanks for the help

Jim

[Miro_T]

Jim,

EtherCAT protocols defines lot of optional features which may not be included in every EtherCAT master. Since TwinCAT is a product of Beckhoff such feature might be included.

Is there any EtherCAT slave present in your network? EL6695 manual doesn't explictly define direct master to master communication rather master->slave->bridge(el6695)->master. "The EL6695 EtherCAT bridge terminal enables real-time data exchange between EtherCAT strands with different masters."

I know that for NI EtherCAT master there must be at least one slave present in the network.

Hope that helps

[JimPanse]

Hallo Miro_T

many thanks for your response. Normally the terminal should take over the role of the slave. As shown in the picture.

 

I again realized a simple configuration. You can see that the inputs and outputs are not be twisted.

As you suggested, I have configured the network with a "normal slave" at the beginning. But the problem remains the same.

EtherCAT is to be a strange standard. He works only with Beckhoff parts.

Do you see, or someone else whom I make mistakes? I feel somewhat like a beta tester.

For any help, I am grateful !!!

Jim

[karupinwendy]

Hi Jim,

I am sorry that please understand NI cannot gurantee to support any 3rd party devices. Because different companies will implement different optional features of ETG spec.

But we will help you as much as we can to get them working.

Actually we have got beckhoff EL6692 bridge solution to work previously. However EK1100 coupler was used to connect EtherCAT with the EtherCAT bridge terminal - EL6692. Here is the solution LabVIEW project screen shot:

EL6695 can also work I believe. They are similar bridge devices.

Above two masters are NI targets. You can also use EL6695 between one NI target and a Bechhoff Master.

Please have a try.

Any further problem please let me know. We will make it work!

Thanks.

Wendy

[JimPanse]

Hi Wendy,

thanks a lot for your help. 

An experiment with the El6695 to realize the data transmission via two Labview RT Master is not working.

Can you add the project from the EL6692 and the result of the SDO query via the inputs and outputs?

Thanks a lot for your help!!!

Jim

[karupinwendy]

Hi Jim,

Attached is the EL6692 proof-of-concept project.

However this was created by a US colleague 3 years ago.

I don't have Beckhoff devices on hand so I haven't tried it myself.

So I am not able to show you the result of the SDO query.

Please understand. Thanks!

Wendy

[karupinwendy]

Hi Jim,

Sorry to bother you. But could you please lend us a little help? Another customer is using similar bridge device as you did; please see this link in this forum. He met a problem after adding the PDO entries. He cannot see all the added IOs in LV. I know you have made the bridge slaves working in the end. Do you have any clues of this issue? Or could you share your final ESI file for our reference?

Thanks so much!

Wendy

[akatumalla_0827]

Has anyone had any luck with this setup. I have been trying to make this work from two days. The TwinCAT sort of works but on the cRIO side the device is stuck in the pre-op stage. I trying to achieve exactly the same this as in the post - two master connected via EL 6695

[matteopirro]

I have the same problem. Have you solved?