Fundamentals of EtherCAT
Operation manual
ID 441896.05
WE KEEP THINGS MOVING
17
5
5 Fundamentals of EtherCAT
Fieldbuses have been an established part the world of automation technology for
many years now. Since higher and higher speeds are required but the technical
limits of this technology have already been reached, new solutions needed to be
found.
At least in theory, the Ethernet which is familiar to all of us from the office world,
is very fast with its 100 Mbit/s speed which is available everywhere today.
However, these networks do not offer real-time capability due to the kind of
cabling that they use and the rules governing access rights.
This problem was corrected with EtherCAT. EtherCAT means "Ethernet for
Controller and Automation Technology." It was developed by Beckhoff
Automation GmbH and is now supported by the international organization
EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG). EtherCAT is an open technology which is
standardized by the IEC since 2005.
Various protocols can be transmitted via EtherCAT. STÖBER
ANTRIEBSTECHNIK offers the widely-used communication profile CANopen as
per DS 301 ().
Fig. 5-1 EtherCAT systems
CANopen
Application
®
CANopen
SDO
®
Processdata
Processdata
PDO
ProcessdataMailbox
EtherCAT
®
CoE CoE
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