DEWESOFT SIRIUS Series

/
SIRIUS
® 
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. 
 
SIRIUS
®
V20-1 125 / 336  