4
Commissioning
30
Festo – P.BE-CPX-FB37-EN – 1406NH – English
4.5
Configuration
4.5.1
Registering station properties in the configuration program
When you place a new EtherCAT participant, i.e. an EtherCAT device, into operation for the first time,
you must inform the configuration and programming software about certain properties of the parti-
cipant.
The properties of the various participants are managed in a configuration file - the EtherCAT slave in-
formation file (ESI file).
EtherCAT Slave Information File (ESI file)
The file/its contents are available in Extensible Markup Language (XML).
The ESI file serves to identify the bus node in the EtherCAT network. The ESI file sends basic properties
of the EtherCAT device, and manufacturer information, to the configuration program.
The ESI file contains all the information needed for the configuration and settings of the higher-order
controller using configuration and programming software, e.g. Beckhoff TwinCAT.
The current EtherCAT configuration file (ESI file) for the CPX terminal and bus node can be
found on the Festo website (
www.festo.com/sp).
•
To expand the ESI library of your configuration program, copy the bus node-specific XML file into the
program directory of your configuration program – e.g. for Beckhoff TwinCAT 3.x under: C:\Twin-
CAT\3.x\Config\Io\EtherCAT.
