BECKHOFF EL7037 User Manual

Page 72

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Commissioning

5.1.4

Online configuration creation ‘scanning’ (master: TwinCAT 2.x)

Distinction between Online and Offline

Distinction between Online and Offline

The distinction between online and offline refers to the presence of the actual I/O environment (drives,
terminals). If the configuration is to be prepared in advance of the system configuration as a programming
system, e.g. on a laptop, this is only possible in “Offline configuration” mode. In this case all components
have to be entered manually in the configuration, e.g. based on the electrical design.

If the designed control system is already connected to the EtherCAT system and all components are
energised and the infrastructure is ready for operation, the TwinCAT configuration can simply be generated
through “scanning” from the runtime system. This is referred to as online configuration.

In any case, during each startup the EtherCAT master checks whether the slaves it finds match the
configuration. This test can be parameterised in the extended slave settings.

Note

Installation of the latest ESI-XML device description

The TwinCAT EtherCAT master/System Manager needs the device description files for the
devices to be used in order to generate the configuration in online or offline mode. The de-
vice descriptions are contained in the so-called ESI files (EtherCAT Slave Information) in
XML format. These files can be requested from the respective manufacturer and are made
available for download. The ESIs for Beckhoff EtherCAT devices are provided on the Beck-
hoff website. The ESI files should be saved in the TwinCAT installation directory (default:
C:\TwinCAT\IO\EtherCAT ). The files are read (once) when a new System Manager win-
dow is opened.A TwinCAT installation includes the set of Beckhoff ESI files that was cur-
rent at the time when the TwinCAT build was created.

For TwinCAT 2.11 and higher, the ESI directory can be updated from the System Manager, if the
programming PC is connected to the Internet (Option -> “Update EtherCAT Device Descriptions”)

Fig. 68: Updating ESI directory

The following conditions must be met before a configuration can be set up:

• the real EtherCAT hardware (devices, couplers, drives) must be present and installed

• the devices/modules must be connected via EtherCAT cables or in the terminal strand in the same way

as they are intended to be used later

• the devices/modules be connected to the power supply and ready for communication

• TwinCAT must be in CONFIG mode on the target system.

The online scan process consists of:

• detecting the EtherCAT device [

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72] (Ethernet port at the IPC)

• detecting the connected EtherCAT devices [