Configure Automation1 for EtherCAT

1. Open Automation1 Studio and go to the Develop workspace.

2. In the right pane, open the Variables & I/O module, and select the Industrial Ethernet tab. For more information about this tab, see Industrial Ethernet Tab.

3. Click the Edit button.

4. Click the + Connection button to create a new Industrial Ethernet connection.

5. Enter a name for the connection and make sure that the protocol is set to EtherCAT.

6. Click the Add button.

7. After you add the connection, expand the drop-down arrows and click the + button to add two inputs and two outputs.

   

8. After you add the inputs and outputs, click Save to apply the configuration. This resets the controller. When you start the controller with an EtherCAT configuration, the controller brings up the EtherCAT communication stack.

1. Go to the Beckhoff software page for the TwinCAT software download.

2. Download the .zip file that is in the eXtended Automation Engineering (XAE) section. This download includes a full setup installer.

3. Extract the .zip file and run the installer.

4. Install the XAR and XAE environments.

1. Launch Visual Studio with TwinCAT.

2. Go to Extensions -> TwinCAT-> Show Realtime Ethernet Compatible Devices to see the available TwinCAT RT adapters.

3. The Compatible Devices dialog shows the devices that are installed and supported. Most standard Ethernet NICs are supported. To see all of the supported Ethernet NICs, visit the Beckhoff Information System site.

4. Click on the Ethernet adapter that you want to use, and click the Install button to install the Beckhoff RT Ethernet driver.

5. This device now shows in Installed and ready to use devices (realtime capable). You will use this network adapter for EtherCAT communication in later steps.

6. Exit the Installation of TwinCAT RT-Ethernet Adapters dialog.

You must add the ESI file to the TwinCAT dictionary so that it recognizes the Automation1 EtherCAT slave device. To do this, use the procedure that follows. The TwinCAT version used in these instructions is 3.1.

1. Find the Automation1EtherCAT.xml ESI file in the Automation1 install directory: {Automation1_Install_Dir}\EtherCAT\Automation1EtherCAT.xml

2. Copy this file to the TwinCAT device dictionary: {TwinCAT_Install_Dir}\{VersionNumber}\Config\Io\EtherCAT.

1. Open Visual Studio with TwinCAT and select Create a new project.

2. In the search bar enter "Twincat" and select the TwinCAT XAE Project.

3. When the project is open, right click on the I/O -> Devices icon in the Solution Explorer and select Add New Item….

4. On the Insert Device dialog that comes into view, double click on EtherCAT Master.

   

5. Go to the Adapter tab.

6. Select the NIC driver that you installed in the TwinCAT Network Adapter Configuration section. You may have to restart your PC after you install the NIC driver.

7. In the Solution Explorer, right click on the EtherCAT Master that you added and select Add New Item….
   

8. In the Insert EtherCAT Device dialog, select the Automation1 slave device. If you do not see it in the dialog menu, make sure that you copied the ESI file to the TwinCAT3 device dictionary. Refer to the How to configure Automation1 for TwinCAT section.

To make sure that there is incoming real-time PDO data transfer, you must set the RxPDO value of the controller from TwinCAT for the associated mapping. Use the procedure that follows.

1. On the top title bar, select Extensions -> TwinCAT -> Restart TwinCAT (Config Mode).

2. Click OK for all of the dialogs that come into view. When asked to restart in Free Run, select yes.

   • If you get a warning that says the master must have a linked variable, you can safely ignore it for this test.

3. For the first mapped integer, double-click the I/O -> Devices -> Device X (EtherCAT) -> Box Y (Automation1) -> Commands process data mapping -> Commands_UInt_0.

4. Select the Online tab and click the Write button to set a new value in the Set Value dialog.

   

5. Make sure that this new value comes into view in the Variables & I/O module -> Industrial Ethernet tab of the Develop workspace. For more information about this tab, see Industrial Ethernet Tab.

   

To make sure there is outgoing real-time PDO data transfer, you must set the Tx PDO value of the controller from Automation1 for the associated mapping. Use the procedure that follows.

1. On the top title bar, select Extensions -> TwinCAT -> Restart TwinCAT (Config Mode).

2. Click OK for all the dialogs that come into view. When prompted to restart in Free Run, select yes.

   1. If you get a warning that says the master requires a linked variable, you can safely ignore it for this test.

3. Use the edit icon in the Variables & I/O module ->Industrial Ethernet tab of the Develop workspace to look at the associated output value. For more information about this tab, see Industrial Ethernet Tab.

   

4. Confirm that the new value is sent to TwinCAT. Double-click I/O -> Devices -> Device X (EtherCAT) -> Box Y (Automation1) -> Results process data mapping -> Results_UInt_0. Use the Online tab to view the value.

   

1. In the Solution Explorer, right click on the PLC heading and select Add new item…

2. In Plc Templates, select the Standard PLC Project, set the name field to "ExamplePlc", and click Add.

   • The system automatically creates a MAIN program, but it needs a function to call.

3. Right click on POUs and select Add POU.

4. In the dialog that comes into view, set the name to TestFunction and change the Implementation Language to Structured Text. Click Open.

   

5. For the new TestFunction replace the autogenerated code with the code that follows. To edit the code, double click on TestFunction and use the variable window on the top half of the editor. This code declares the variables for the function.

   FUNCTION_BLOCK TestFunction
   VAR_INPUT
        StartTest: BOOL := FALSE;
   END_VAR
   VAR_OUTPUT
        Commands_Real_0: REAL := 0.0;
   END_VAR
   VAR
        Counter: INT := 0;
   END_VAR						

6. Enter the code that follows in the bottom half of the editor to define the behavior of the function. This algorithm generates a sawtooth wave when StartTest is True. If it is not true, a constant value is generated.

   IF StartTest THEN
        Counter := Counter + 1;
        Commands_Real_0:= ((Counter) MOD 10) * 12.5;
   ELSE
        Commands_Real_0:= -42.42;
   END_IF

7. Save the changes to the TestFunction.

8. Double click on the MAIN program and replace the autogenerated code in the top editor with the code that follows. This declares the variables for the program.

   PROGRAM MAIN
   VAR
        StartTest AT %I*		: BOOL;
        Commands_Real_0 AT %Q*	: LREAL;
   							 
        TestFunction_0		: TestFunction;
   END_VAR

9. Enter the code that follows in the bottom half of the editor to define the behavior of the main program. This code calls the TestFunction of each iteration.

   TestFunction_0(StartTest := Main.StartTest, Commands_Real_0 => 
   Main.Commands_Real_0);

10. Save the changes to the MAIN program.

11. Build the project. You will get the warning that follows, but the build should succeed.

    

12. In the Solution Explorer, expand the ExamplePlc Instance.

13. Under the PlcTask Outputs, right click on MAIN.Commands_Real_0, and click Change Link….

14. In the dialog that comes into view, select the Commands_Real_0 data item in the Automation1 device drop-down.

    

15. Select OK to close the dialog.

16. Save and rebuild. The build should succeed without warnings.

1. On the top title bar, select Extensions -> TwinCAT -> Activate Configuration.

2. Click through the two dialogs to start the EtherCAT master. If you did not yet input your license for TwinCAT 3, you will be prompted to do so.

3. On the top title bar, select Extensions -> PLC -> Login. Then select Extensions -> PLC -> Start. This loads the MAIN program we wrote in How to build a sample PLC project.

4. In the PLC node in the Solution Explorer, double click on the TestFunction. The debug displays should show StartTest as "FALSE" and Commands_Real_0 as "-42.42".

   

5. To start the sawtooth wave generation, right click on MAIN.StartTest in ExamplePlc Instance -> PlcTaskInputs and select Online write ‘1’.

6. Navigate back to the TestFunction. The debug windows should now show StartTest as "TRUE" and the Commands_Real_0 changing over time with the sawtooth wave.

   

To verify that the sawtooth wave generated by the PLC is received by the Automation1 controller, use Data Collection with the AeroScript mappings you configured on the controller (see Configure EtherCAT Mappings on this page).

1. Open Automation1 Studio and navigate to the Visualize workspace.

2. Click the Configure Signals button and add the EtherCAT Rx Pdo signal with the Data Info set to 25166080. This value is calculated from the computeEthercatAdditionalData()AeroScript function, which is described in the EtherCAT Status Items and Data Collection section of the EtherCAT Overview page.

   

3. Click the Update button.

4. To start Data Collection, click the Collect Snapshot button.

5. Verify that the EtherCAT Rx signal shows the sawtooth wave.

1. Double-click SYSTEM -> Tasks -> PlcTask.



2. Select the Task tab and change the Cycle ticks to 1.



3. Double-click I/O -> Devices -> Device X (EtherCAT) -> Box Y (Automation1)

   

4. Select the DC tab and click the Advanced Settings... button.

   

5. Change the Operation Mode to DC-Synchron and enable the Enable checkbox in the Advanced Settings dialog.

   

6. On the top title bar, select Extensions -> TwinCAT -> Activate Configuration.

7. Click OK for all the dialogs that come into view. When prompted to restart in Run Mode, select OK.