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Setting the PDOs in an EtherCAT Slave

In Labview RT using EtherCAT, how do you change the PDO settings of a slave device (i.e. Beckhoff EL5101). To do this within TwinCAT is pretty straightforward, but is ther a pathway to do this in Labview?

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Hi JackPlyer,

 

I just had a few questions for you to see where you were at in setting up your Slave. Do you have the NI-Industrial Communications for EtherCat driver? Also, do you have the xml file from Beckhoff to initiate the communication with the device in a LabVIEW project? and if so can you see your device in a LabVIEW project? 

 

I just want to know where you are at right now.

Ryan
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
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I am employed by Beckhoff and the end customer (USA) is having these issues at a startup in Germany.

I am not at all familiar with LV RT, but he has no issues with scanning the I/O, etc. - except being able to change the PDOs of a slave.

The slave in question is a EL5101 encoder card and by changing the PDOs, the card can read in the frequency.

He is also having major issues with a DeviceNet Master EL6752. He can scan the card in with no issues, but there doesn't seem to be any selections in the tree.

 

If you would like to contact the customer directly, I can provide the phone number and name.

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Hi JackPlyer,

 

Sorry to take so long to get back to you. I did some research and unfortunately we don't have a way to change the settings from LabVIEW. The way these setting are set is in the XML file which I think comes from Beckhoff. We don't have a utility to modify the XML files either. We usually recomend our customers use an XML editor if they want to make modifications to these settings or contact Beckoff for further assistance on the XML file itself.

Ryan
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
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Ryan,

 

You are actually incorrect on how to change the PDOs of an EtherCAT bus terminal. You do not do this by changing or modifying the XML file. If fact, the file should never be changed.

In TwinCAT, you can change the PDO selection with a few mouse clicks and this does not change the XML file whatsoever. All it does is establish the PDO mappings for the EtherCAT master, which is a master within Labview. If you will provide me with your email address, I'll be glad to forward you a document on how TwinCAT changes the PDOs without modifying the XML file. In order to reach the full features of a bus terminal, you must be able to change the PDOs. Otherwise, the end customer will not be able to use all of the features of EtherCAT.

 

Thanks,

Jack Plyler, PE

 

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Hi Jack,

 

I don't work a lot with EtherCAT at that level so I'm sorry for the bad relay of information. Which PDO settings are you specifically refering to? If your customer wants to open up a service request with us they are more than welcome to call our support team at 1-866-275-6964 or email us at support@ni.com and we would be happy to work with them directly but we avoid passing personal contact information over our public forums. 

Ryan
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
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Thanks for your help Ryan. It is greatly appreciated.

 

I bellieve at this time the ETG (EtherCAT Technolgy Group) is going to contact the NI Support Group to discuss adding the changing of PDOs as feature to the software.

 

thanks

 

Jack

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FYI it would be best to set up a forum post under the Industrial Communications section instead of LabVIEW. Our developers that work with EtherCAT monitor that discussion room rather frequently and they will be able to help you much more quickly that way. 

Ryan
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
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Message 8 of 10
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Hi,

 

I opened a new forum post for this. If someone from here sees this maybe can give a response there if it is possible now or not.

Change PDO mapping in EtherCAT

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Message 9 of 10
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Hi JackPlayer,

 

I'm looking for how TwinCAT changes the PDOs without modifying the XML file but I didn't find any clear info about that. Can you share the document that you mentioned in the answer if you have it still available?

 

Let me know,

Thanks in advance,

Best,

FDA

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