Cannot get EtherCAT slave to operational state
Hi,
I use a cifX50 PCI-Card as EtherCAT-Master. My Slave is a Beckhoff BK1120 with a pair of digital and a pair of analog in-/outputs.
In Sycon.net i imported the Beckhoff device desciption files and created a new project. I attached a cifX-card as my master and a BK1120 as slave. After downloading the configuration to the master, the slave resets and then goes to PRE-OPERATIONAL state. Reading SDO objects via CoE now works. Right-click on the master icon and choosing 'diagnostic' brings up a window. The LEDs Run, Operate and BusOn are green, the LED Ready is yellow, all other LEDs are off. In the window Tools->IO Monitor comes up the warning 'COM-flag not set'.
How can i get the slave in operational state for cyclic communication?
I use:
Windows XP
Sycon.net for netX 1.104 (Build 90622)
cifX Firmware: EtherCAT Master v2.3.0
In Sycon.net in the slave configuration in the process data information are shown the SyncManagers 2 and 3 for output and input with 0 Byte each. But i cant edit that. The PDO assigment on the right side of the configuration window i cant edit, too.
Also in the master configuration window under "FMMU/SyncMan" the lengths are 0 Byte and the "Address Table" is empty.
Physically i have connected a 4DI, 4 DO, 2AI and 2AO module to the slave.
How can i change the configured slave length?
Hello HilscherUser,
here comes two problems together.
1.) The Hilscher SyCon.net is currently NOT able to configure the BK1120. The IO-Lengths are set to 0, which is obviously wrong. There is no possibility to change them. However you can use TwinCAT (from Beckhoff) or the EtherCAT Configurator (from the ETG) to create a valid configuration. Export it, name it "ethercat.xml" and download it to "PORT_0" of the cifx master.
2.) There is a problem with the Distributed Clocks if the BK1120 is the FIRST slave in the line. AFAIK the slave lies about the Distributed Clocks capability. So the master assumes, that the BK1120 could be the Distributed Clocks master for all other slaves... which fails. As a workaround, put the slaves in annother order. (I know that it is not possible to reorder the slaves if you only have one.)
Johnny
I created a configuration with TwinCat, exported it as ethercat.xml and downloaded it to channel 0 via the cifX Test Application. After that i have done a channel reset => the slave only comes into pre operational state. (In TwinCAT i get him to operational state with this configuration)
What about the Distributed Clocks thing? I only have 1 slave (BK1120) connected to the master. What can i do here? Is it possible to disable the Distributed Clocks functionality in the slave?
Hello HilscherUser,
It would help to put a slave with Distributed Clocks ability in front of the BK1120. AFAIK the slave tells the master that it could be the (Distributed Clocks) Master Clock. If the master want to configure the Master Clock the slave rejects this. Thats why the bus does not start. Sorry there is no workaround to disable the Distributed Clocks in the master.
Johnny
So it is not possible to get work the Hilscher EtherCAT master with the BK1120?
Hello HilscherUser,
you are right, in your case it is not possible to get the BK1120 running with the Hilscher master.
Johnny
So it is a bug in the slave, is that right? But why can TwinCAT set the slave to Operational state then?
Is there a possibility to completely disable Distributed Clocks in the SLAVE?
Hello HilscherUser,
I guess that TwinCAT knows which slaves really supports Distributed Clocks and ignores the BK1120. AFAIK it is not possible to modify the settings in the slave.
Johnny
A W
Hi,
looks like a problem with the I/O lengths.
You should check, if the lengths displayed in the SyCon.Net match the actual ones sent and received by the slave. Maybe there is a difference in what the slave is configured to send and what the master expects according to the device description.
Regards,
AW