Solutions for Measurement and Control
LabVIEW EtherCAT Application Framework
The EtherCAT Application Framework is an add-on library for the EtherCAT Library for LabVIEW, which simplifies the application development. Representation of the EtherCAT system is done with slave classes. This gives an easy-to-use, flexible-to-expand API to control different items of EtherCAT hardware.
The library offers several benefits in applications that use multiple slaves for different tasks . The process data from all the slaves is sent to the bus in one data array. To make this possible, access to the data array must be protected against race conditions if handled in different processes/loops. The framework library does this automatically. Indexing the process data is easier because it is done with relative rather than absolute offsets per slave. Furthermore, the incoming process data is preprocessed in a c-dll, which improves performance.
The framework builds the basis for a variety of specific driver libraries for EtherCAT hardware, like Beckhoff IO terminals. The driver libraries wrap the configuration calls and process data access in simple-to-use VIs.
The following driver libraries are available:
Beckhoff
EtherCAT Terminal Standard
EL10xx, EL11xx, EL15xx, EL17xx, EL18xx
EL20xx, EL2124, EL2502, EL 2521, EL2535
EL26xx, EL27xx, EL28xx
EL30xx, EL31xx, EL320x, EL3255, EL331x
EL335x, EL360x, EL361x, EL3692, EL3681
EL40xx, EL41xx
EtherCAT Terminal Power Measurement
EL3403, EL3413, EL3433
EtherCAT Terminal Position Measurement
EL500x, EL5021, EL5032, EL5101, EL5151
EtherCAT Terminal Position Measurement
EL500x, EL5021, EL5032, EL5101, EL5151
EtherCAT Terminal Motion
EL7031, EL7041, EL7332, EL7342
EL7201, EL7211, EL9576
EtherCAT terminal oversampling
EL1262, EL2262
EL3632, EL3702, EL3742, EL3773
EL4712, EL4732
EtherCAT terminal multi function
EL3751
EtherCAT Terminal Communication Serial
EL600x, EL602x
Keyence
NU-EC1
Compatible with FS-N40 Series, FS-N10 Series,
LV-N10 Series, PS-N10 Series, AP-N10 Series,
LR-T Series, LR-W Series, FD-Q Series and
FD-X Series
Kollmorgen
AKD
Servo drive controller of AKD series with EtherCAT interface
Multiple Vendors
CiA 402 CANopen device profile for drives and motion control
Implementation of the CiA 402 standard for drive control over EtherCAT
FAQ
What is the Application Framework?
The EtherCAT Application Framework is an add-on library for the EtherCAT Library for LabVIEW, which simplifies the application development. Slaves are represented as objects that are accessed by reference. It offers the following benefits:
- Protected access to the output data process image to protect against race conditions.
- Handling of process data slave offsets. No problem to change the slave order.
- Easy handling of different data types.
- Base code for the driver libraries.
What are the drivere libraries?
Driver libraries are sets of VIs for a variety of EtherCAT slave from different vendors. A library for a slave device contains VIs for the access to the process data objects and VIs for the configuration data by CoE. There is no more need to look up the index numbers and data types for the different data objects. Also all Enum data types are contained as LabVIEW enums. It can also handle the complexity of devices that use oversampling in the process data.
What is the CiA 402 library for drive control?
The most drive controller interfaces over EtherCAT are based on the CiA 402 CANopen device profile for drives and motion control. The driver library CiA 402 is a set of VIs that follow the CiA 402 standard. It can be used to control any drive whos interface is based on the standard.
If you want to know, if you can use this library, check if the manual mentions standard 402 or if a control word index 6040h and status word 6041h are linked in the process data.
What is the license model?
The Application Framework and Driver Libraries are licensed as development licenses. Only one license per company is needed to be able to use the libraries. There are no run-time licenses.