5.3 EtherCAT Basis
5.3.1 CANopen over EtherCAT Reference Model
CANopen over EtherCAT (CoE) reference model is as shown in Figure 5-1.
Figure 5-1 CoE Reference Model
The coe reference model mainly includes two parts: the Data Link Layer and the Application Layer. The
Data Link Layer is mainly responsible for the EtherCAT communication protocol, and the Application
Layer embeds the CANopen drive profile (DS402) communication protocol. The Object Dictionary in the
Application Layer contains parameters, application data, and PDO mapping information.
The Process Data Object (PDO) consists of objects in the object dictionary that can be mapped to the
PDO. The contents of the process data are defined by the PDO mapping. Process data communication
cyclically reads writes the PDO.
Mailbox communication (SDO) uses asynchronous message communications where all object in the
object dictionary can be read and written.
5.3.2 EtherCAT Slave Information
You can use EtherCAT slave information files (XML format) to configure the EtherCAT master.
The XML file contains the standard EtherCAT communications settings for the Drive. The following file
is provided for the Drive:
ESTUN_ED31_V***.xml
NOTE: The asterisks (***) indicate the version number.