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EtherCAT Setup - General Procedure

In this topic you will find the general procedure for setting up an EtherCAT network in PLCnext Engineer. The individual steps from inserting slaves to configuring the master and the various slave settings each contain links to the corresponding detailed topics in the online help.

  1. Configure the EtherCAT master.
  2. Model the EtherCAT bus structure in the PLANT in PLCnext Engineer. The procedure for adding slave stations under the EtherCAT master as well as I/O modules under a previously inserted bus coupler slave is described in the topic "Inserting Slaves into the PLANT".
  3. Configure each slave and I/O module in its 'Settings' editor.
  4. In the 'CoE Data' editor of each slave, edit or adapt the Object Directory or add new objects, if required and supported by the device.
  5. Define the PDO mapping of each slave. For that purpose use the 'PDO Data' editor. After activating a PDO in the 'PDO Data' editor, the contained process data items will be available in the Data List (see next list item). The editor additionally provides the possibility of editing the PDO mapping.
  6. Open the Data List to map the selected process data items. You can either use the Data List of the respective EtherCAT slave or the Data List of the EtherCAT master, or the Data List of the PLCnext Technology controller.
    An example is shown in the topic "'PDO Data' editor".
  7. Edit the 'Init commands' list of each slave, if this is required and enabled by the slave.
  8. Optional: Define the distributed clock settings for each slave, if this is required and enabled by the slave.