EtherCAT - Successful Installation

and Trouble Shooting

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

EtherCAT Network Structure

EtherCAT is an Ethernet-based fieldbus technology.

A master-slave approach is adopted.

Slaves are addressed by a 16-bit field.

Up to
65535 devices

1 master device

Up to 216 1 slave devices

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Topologies
All standard topologies are possible with EtherCAT:

Line
Daisy-chain/
Drop line
Star/Tree
September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Physical media
Several physical media are supported:
100 m
100 Base-FX
(fibre optic)

100 Base-TX
(copper cable)

LVDS
(backbone
connection)

several km

The best medium according to environmental conditions and

transmission distances can be chosen

Unlimited number of physical medium changes is possible

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

100BASE-TX
100BASE-TX (typically used physical medium for EtherCAT):

100 Mbit/s full-duplex data transfer

Shielded twisted copper cables

Efficient, well-established physical medium.

Billions of ports shipped, reliable technology.

EtherCAT takes advantage of the Ethernet technology:

+ Point-to-point connection errors confined to single segments

+ Signal regeneration high signal-to-noise ratio
+ Multilevel coding efficient bandwidth usage

+ Low voltage levels reduced EM emissions

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Link/Act LEDs
Additionally, EtherCAT requires mandatory Link/Act LEDs for each port
with removable connectors:

LED off: link absent

LED on: link present, no data
transmission

Port

LED flickering: link present, with

data transmission

L/A

+ Wiring errors can be detected quickly with a visual inspection

+ Very simple check, only power-on of devices is required
September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Installation Guideline
EtherCAT ensures therefore:

The advantages of a well-established technology like Ethernet

Simple mechanisms to visually check the physical link state
Extensive diagnostic information for precise error location
Why then an EtherCAT Installation Guide?

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Installation Guideline
Would you suggest it on long
distances and in a high-noise
surrounding environment?

Is it possible to successfully
transmit a CAN signal on a
flat ribbon cable?
certainly YES!

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Maybe NO

Installation Guideline
Would you suggest it in an
industrial application, with
stressing or unpredictable
environmental conditions over
long distances?

Can you successfully transmit

EtherCAT frames on any CAT5
Ethernet cable?
certainly YES!
NO!
September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Installation Guideline
The environmental conditions are a key element!
Under operating conditions with
moderate disturbances and short
connections between adjacent
nodes, no specific measures
need to be taken

in case of noisy environments

or long cable spans between
devices, a proper installation is
an important factor.
September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Installation Guideline
Some easy steps can help to obtain a robust EtherCAT installation under
all operating and environmental conditions
Planning (before installation)
How can environmental conditions be classified?
Which are the suggested cables and connectors?
Which could be the best cable routing?
Assembling (during installation)
Which are some hints to successfully lay cables?
How to protect cables from mechanical damage?
How to assemble self-made cable connectors?
Commissioning (after installation)
How to perform a quick visual inspection?
Which diagnostic information helps to detect weak points?

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Planning Signal Corruption Sources

Ethernet signals can be corrupted by several phenomena:
waveform before
propagation

resulting waveform
ATTENUATION after propagation
L/A

REFLECTIONS
Port 0

Port 1

L/A
DISTURBANCES

If the signal is equivocated at receiver side, we have an error!

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Planning Cable Number of Wires

The EtherCAT protocol uses four conductors only, therefore 4-wire (quad)
cables are sufficient.

8-wire (4-pairs) cables can be used as well. In case of

very high-noise environments, 4-wire cables should be
preferred, as unused pairs could induce undesired
additional disturbances and have higher crosstalk.

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Planning Cable Shielding

Shielding protects cables from external disturbances and interferences,
therefore the use of shielded cables is recommended:

S/FTQ

S/UTP
SF/UTP

cable shielding
September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

S/STP
S/FTP
SF/FTP

pair shielding

Planning Cable Shielding

An electrical discharge in the proximity of the communication cable will for
example affect the signal. This is the effect

in an
unshielded
cable

and in
a shielded
cable.

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Planning Cable Section

The smaller the cable diameter, the higher the attenuation introduced.
For connections approaching the limit length of 100 m, the use of cables
with diameter of category AWG22 or greater should be preferred:

Cables with smaller diameters, like AWG24

or AWG26, are suitable for shorter or patch
connections.

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Planning Intermediate Connections

Intermediate connection points introduce additional attenuation and
reflection of the electrical signal. Therefore, the number of intermediate
transitions should be kept as low as possible (it is suggested not to
overcome the number of 6 for each connection):

x1

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

x2!

Planning Earthing of Devices

Disturbances caused by undesired loop currents can be minimized if all
devices in the network share the same reference potential.
Two alternative earthing schemes have proven to be effective:
EQUIPOTENTIAL EARTHING

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

STAR EARTHING

Planning Earthing of Shield

In order to be effective, also the shield should be provided with a suitable
path to earth:

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Assembling Mechanical Stress

Ethernet cables are robust and can be typically used in the most different
environments.
Nevertheless, severe mechanical stress can damage cables and
connectors, and therefore affect the quality of communication...

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Assembling Mechanical Stress

Especially in case of moving parts, it is suggested to check the worst-case
values for parameters like bending radius, tensile and torsional forces as
declared by the cable manufacturer.
Several measures can be adopted to prevent exceeding mechanical
stress on the cable in this case:

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Commissioning Visual Inspection

Visual inspection:

Should be the first step of every commissioning phase

Based on simple, step-by-step checklists

Enables alone to detect possible critical points critical points in:

network structure
cable routing
cable integrity
September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Commissioning: Network Scan

Thanks to EtherCAT operating principle, master devices or configuration
tools can selectively open/close slave ports and check step-by-step each
network segment.
OK?

OK?

OK?

OK?

OK?

OK?

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Easy detection of:

Wrong cabling order
Slaves not working properly
Damaged cables
Recurring disturbances

Commissioning Cable Testing

Cable Testing:

Error counters provided by slaves should be checked during the

commissioning phase.
If weak points are detected, cables can be easily tested by means of
low-cost off-the-shelf multimeters at those points.

This enables to detect:

Wrong connector pin assignments
Interruptions in cable continuity
Out-of-range cable resistances

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Commissioning Cable Testing

Cable Testing:

If weak points are detected, cables can be easily tested by means of

low-cost off-the-shelf multimeters at those points.

This enables to detect:

Poor Earthing

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Commissioning Cable Testing

Cable Testing:

If weak points are detected, cables can be easily tested by means of

low-cost off-the-shelf multimeters at those points.

If you know the cable

resistance, you can find
out the cable length as well

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

EtherCAT diagnostic approach

Two main types of diagnostic information can be
distinguished
Cyclic validity of process data within each cycle

Consistent processing by all addressed slaves

Cyclic updating of process data by slaves application
Synchronization status
Current state of Slave devices
Transmission errors

Acyclic information for additional fault diagnostic

September 2016

Network Topology
Physical link status and number of link lost events
Hardware interface errors
Error counter
Slave identification
Application specific errors
EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Fieldbus Diagnostics
EtherCAT provides also extensive fieldbus diagnostic information.

Each slave device provides error counters which are incremented when:
The hardware link is lost on each port
An invalid symbol is received from each port
The cyclic redundancy check of a frame failed on each port

L/A

Port 0

Port 1

L/A

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Link Lost Counter:

+1

Invalid Frame Counter:

+1

Diagnosis information
Within an EtherCAT Network several diagnosis information is provided
EMC interference
Slave internal error
MASTER

Broken
cable

Wrong Topology*

Wrong device*

*checked during boot-up of the network

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

EtherCAT Online View

For a fast overview of the
network behavior Master
can provide Online View
of all slaves
Example:
Overview of EtherCAT Slaves
incl. current State and
CRC-Error information

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

EtherCAT Online View

Misbehavior in the
network can easily be
identified and located
CRC error on Port A

Term 18 in Operational,
but Missing Link on Port B
IO_Station_E and rest of
network not available
(No_Comm)

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Online Topology view with diagnosis information

Topology View can also be used for network overview

Example:
Online Topology View

All green all in operational

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Online Topology view with diagnosis information

Topology View can also be used for network overview

Example:
Online Topology View

Green
Yellow
Yel/Green
Red
No Comm
Red dot CRC error

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Op
PreOp
SafeOp
Init

EtherCAT State Machine

EtherCAT State Machine (ESM) defines the operating states of
each single Slave
State Transitions to an upper state
are requested by the Master
Master configures the slave according
to the application settings and requests
next state in AL Control
Slave checks the settings and confirms
new state in AL Status

Input and Output data are only valid in Operational state

In case of errors the slave can
Refuse a state transition requested by the Master
Step spontaneously to a lower state

The error is indicated in an Error flag and the error code is given in AL
Status Code register

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

EtherCAT State Machine

Current state of the device is displayed at RUN Indicator on the device
State

RUN Indicator

Boot

Flickering

Init

Off

PreOp

Blinking

SafeOp

Flashing

Op

On

Of course, the state information is also available in the master

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

EtherCAT Working Counter

Each EtherCAT Datagram terminates with a Working Counter
This counter enables the Master to monitor the number of successful memory
interactions of a specific Datagram with the Slaves addressed by the Datagram
itself.
Ethernet Header

ECAT
HDR

10 Byte

Datag. Header

Datagram 1

Datagram 2

max. 1486 Byte

Data

Datagram 3

2 Byte

Working Counter
(WKC)

Every slave increments the Working Counter in Hardware, if

Slave is addressed in Datagram Header
Addressed memory space is available to be read / written

September 2016

Ethernet

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Purpose of EtherCAT Working Counter

Monitor consistent update of data units, within each Cycle
Ethernet Header

ECAT
HDR

Datagram
IO

Datagram
Drives

Datagram
Gateway

Ethernet

IO-Synch Unit
Drives Synch-Unit
MASTER

Gateway
Synch-Unit

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Example: Check Op state of all slaves

The Master can send a BRD command (broadcast read) as an additional
datagram in the frame on AL Status register in each cycle
Ethernet Header

ECAT
HDR

BRD
AL Status

Datagram
IO

Datagram
Drives

Datagram
Gateway

Ethernet

Since each slave always supports the read access to this register, the
received Working Counter reflects the number of nodes in the network
Missing nodes can be detected immediately in each cycle

The data of the BRD command reflects the states of the slaves
The states are bit-coded in AL Status register
If all nodes are in Op state, only Bit 3 is set
If BRD data is 8, at least one node is not in Op
Master can start diagnosis process

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

AL Status
0x0130 Bit 3:0

Description

1 = 0001b

Init State

2 = 0010b

PreOp state

4 = 0100b

SafeOp state

8 = 1000b

Op state

In case of an error in a running machine

Next to the error indication, these questions need to be answered :
What has happened?
Who is affected?
Where is it located?
Example scenario: Bad cable connection at device Door_DIO1
IO_Station_A

Gateway

IO_Station_B

Door_DIO1

Eject_DI1

Eject_DO1

Door

Feeder

MASTER

Motion1 Motion2 Motion3

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Dec_AO2

Dec_AO3

Door_DI2

Dec_AO4

IO_Station_C

Axis X

Axis Y

Axis Z

Comprehensive Information for the Operator

Error!
Slave Door_DIO1 not in Operational.
Error information No valid inputs and outputs
Possible reason Bad connection on IN-Port of the device.
Proposed action Please check cable or connector.

Supervision

Example:
Machine Overview
Cabinet 1 Control

Cabinet 2 Motion

Dec_AO3

Gateway
Axis X Axis Y Axis Z

PLC
Door_D2
Eject_DI2
IO_Station_A
Door_DIO1
Door

Feeder

IO_Station_B

Decentral_AO2
Motion1 Motion2 Motion3
IO_Station_C

September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016

Door_AO4

Eject_DI1

EtherCAT the Ethernet Fieldbus.

Visit the website

www.ethercat.org
For further information

EtherCAT Technology Group

Headquarters
Ostendstrae 196
90482 Nuremberg, Germany
Tel:
+49 911 54056 20
Fax:
+49 911 54056 29
Email:
info@ethercat.org
September 2016

EtherCAT Technology Group, 2016