NI-9145 EtherCAT slave with 3rd party EtherCAT master

[Dennis_A]

Hey all,

I would like to use the NI-9145 as an EtherCAT slave in an EtherCAT chain with a 3rd party EtherCAT master and slave. The NI-9145 would be located in between the 3rd party master and 3rd party slave. 

I have the following questions:

- Is a CompacyRIO controller needed to control the NI-9145 or can the NI-9145 be directly controlled via laptop and LabVIEW and a 3rd party EtherCAT driver? We intend to temporarily disconnect the Ethernet cable between the master and NI-9145 to update the firmware of the NI-9145.

- The 3rd party EtherCAT master has defined requirements on the EtherCAT slaves e.g. 6 SyncManagers (4x PDO and 2x mailbox) and 5 FMMUs (4x PDO and 1x multicast). In Change PDO Mappings for a Third Party EtherCAT XML File - NI it's mentioned that the 'Two Sync Managers are responsible for coordinated SDO communication (Service data objects) and do not need to be modified to change the PDO mapping. The active Transmit (TX) and Receiving (RX) PDOs are controlled by two Sync Managers.'

Are 2 Sync managers default? Can you add more Sync Managers?

In EtherCAT:Basic Property Page - NI you can view the FMMUs and SyncManagers, but can you change it?

Kind regards,

Dennis

[ZYOng]

This question is best to be posted on Industrial Communications board.

1. See Using the NI 9144 and NI 9145 EtherCAT Slave Chassis with 3rd Party EtherCAT Master Tools

2. I believe that the sync manager's configuration is only for the EtherCAT masters. Since you are using a third-party master, you should refer to their manuals instead.