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®
TECHNICAL REFERENCE MANUAL
5.1.2.1. Standard EtherCAT® features
Strong points of standard EtherCAT®:
● Point to point communication
● High distance between modules possible (75 m)
● Only a single cable for power, data and synchronisation
● 100x faster than CAN bus
● Real time performance
● Physically fully compatible to Ethernet: i.e. same connector, no Gate-modules or adapters
required
Weak points of standard EtherCAT®:
● Master sends the empty message train i.e. when DEWESoft® is the master and does not send
the empty message for some reason, there will be no data on the bus
● Real time performance required from computer
● No data-buffer on the devices
● Ethernet packet (no TCP/IP) is prone to data-loss
● Time synchronisation is mostly done based on master precision of sending messages
This makes standard EtherCAT® good for real-time application, but not good for data-acquisition.
Since the standard EtherCAT® is originally intended for real time, it lacks few very important elements.
This is why DEWESoft® uses an enhanced DS-EtherCAT+ protocol.
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