Programming manual for Meca500 (for firmware 9.2.x)
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ETHERCAT COMMUNICATION
4. ETHERCAT COMMUNICATION
EtherCAT is an open real-time Ethernet protocol originally developed by Beckhoff Automation. When
communicating with the Meca500 over EtherCAT, you can obtain guaranteed response times of 1 ms.
Furthermore, you no longer need to parse strings as when using the TCP/IP protocol.
4.1. Overview
4.1.1 Connection types
If using EtherCAT, you can connect several Meca500 robots in different network topologies, including
line, star, tree, or ring, since each robot has a unique node address. This enables targeted access to a
specific robot even if your network topology changes.
4.1.2 ESI file
The EtherCAT Slave Information (ESI) XML file for the Meca500 robot can be found in the zip file that
contains your robot's firmware update. These zip files are available in the
section of our web
site.
4.1.3 Enabling EtherCAT
The default communication protocol of the robot is the Ethernet TCP/IP protocol. The latter is
the protocol needed for jogging the robot through its web interface. To switch to the EtherCAT
communication protocol, you must send the
SwitchToEtherCAT
command via the TCP/IP protocol from
an external client (e.g., from a PC using a Web browser).
As soon as the robot receives this command, the Ethernet TCP/IP connection LED (i.e., #1 or #2 in
) will go off, then turn back on. This means that the robot is now in EtherCAT mode and can be
connected to an EtherCAT master. Note, however, than until EtherCAT is disabled, TCP/IP or EtherNet/
IP communication is not possible (e.g., you cannot use the robot's web interface). To disable EtherCAT,
use the Communication mode SDO (
) or perform a network settings reset (by keeping the
power button on the robot's base pressed for a few seconds during restart).
4.1.4 LEds
When EtherCAT communication is enabled, the three LEDs on the outer edge of the robot's base
(
) communicate the state of the EtherCAT connection, as summarized in
.
Figure 14:
EtherCAT LEDs