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Chapter 7 EtherCAT Communication

7.1 Overview of EtherCAT bus

EtherCAT is an industrial Ethernet-based fieldbus system that features high performance, low cost, easy use and

flexible topology. It is applicable to applications requiring ultra-high speed I/O network. EtherCAT adopts

standard Ethernet physical layer with twisted pairs or optical fibers (100Base-TX or 100Base-FX) used as the

transmission media.

An EtherCAT system includes the master and the slave. The master requires a common network adapter, and

the slave requires a special slave control chip, such as ET1100, ET1200, and FPGA.

EtherCAT can process data at the I/O layer without sub-bus or gateway delay.

One system covers all devices, including I/O devices, sensors, actuators, drives and displays.

Transmission rate: 2 x 100 Mbit/s (high-speed Ethernet, full duplex mode).

Synchronization: synchronization jitter < 1 μs (number of nodes up to 300, cable length within 120 m)

Update time (typical application):

256 DI/DOs: 11 μs

1000 DI/DOs distributed in 100 nodes: 30 μs = 0.03 ms

200 AI/AOs (16-bit): 50 μs, sampling rate: 20 kHz

100 servo axes (8 bytes IN + 8 bytes OUT for each): 100 μs = 0.1 ms

12000 DI/DOs: 350 μs

To support more types of devices and applications, EtherCAT establishes the following application protocols:

CANopen over EtherCAT (CoE)

Safety over EtherCAT (SoE, compliant with IEC 61800-7-204)

Ethernet over EtherCAT (EoE)

File over EtherCAT (FoE)

The slave only needs to support the most suitable application protocol.

7.2 M5-N drive bus function introduction

M5-N series servo drivers implement EtherCAT communication (real-time Ethernet communication) and

CANopen Drive Profile (CiA402) in its application layer.

7.2.1 M5-N communication specifications

As shown in the following table:

Item

Specification

Communication standard

IEC 61158 Type12, IEC 61800-7 CiA402 Drive Profile

Megmeet M5-N Series User Manual

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