FEATURE Software & Data Acquisition
Software optimises engineering workflow for electrical contractor
Electrical contractors are under constant time and cost pressures. To remain competitive, they have to find innovative solutions that shorten design times and minimise the risk of design errors. One dynamic electrical contractor that has found such a solution – in the form of EPLAN Electric P8 – is AB Electrical Engineering (Rugby) Limited
42 December/January 2019 | Automation
Proven and tested
CONTACT:
EPLAN Tel: 01709 704100 Web:
www.eplan.co.uk
Vendor-independent EtherCAT diagnosis interface T
he EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) has specified a new vendor-independent diagnosis interface, which allows third-party tools to access diagnostic information from EtherCAT networks. The software-based interface can be implemented in controllers offered by any device manufacturer. EtherCAT provides
extensive diagnostic information both at hardware and software levels, and can detect errors and precisely locate them. The error counters are supported by all network slave devices. This
helps users, machine builders and system integrators reduce machine downtime to the minimum. Diagnostic routines test the quality of communication and detect internal errors in slaves, wrong cabling order, damaged cables or EMC interference. ETG has specified this
diagnosis interface so that third-party diagnostic tools can work with any master implementation. Easy to implement with a small software footprint, it is suitable for embedded devices with limited memory. Diagnostic tools or HMIs
can retrieve the EtherCAT network topology information, compare it with the expected configuration and detect communication interruptions. The specification ETG.1510 ‘Profile for Master Diagnosis Interface’ enhances the ‘EtherCAT Master Classes’ specification and extends the EtherCAT Master Object Dictionary defined in the ‘Modular Device Profile’ specification. The access mechanism makes use of the already specified Mailbox Gateway functionality.
ETG
www.ethercat.org
automationmagazine.co.uk
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