Setting up 3rd-Party EtherCAT Slaves in VeriStand

This article walks the reader through the steps to configure NI Real-Time Controllers (e.g.: cRIO or PXI) as EtherCAT Master for third party (non NI) EtherCAT Slaves.

Prerequirements
 

• Host machine configured with

  • VeriStand + NI Device Drivers

  • Industrial Communication for EtherCAT

  • Scan Engine and EtherCAT Custom Device

• NI Real-Time Controller with two Ethernet ports configured from the host machine as

  • EtherCAT Master

  • VeriStand Target

• Third party EtherCAT slave connected in daisy chain with the NI EtherCAT Master

Steps
 

1. Specify the EtherCAT Master as deployment target for your VeriStand Project

2. Add the Scan Engine and EtherCAT Custom Device to the VeriStand System Definition File

3. Right click the Scan Engine and EtherCAT Custom Device and select “Add EtherCAT Master” to add the EtherCAT Master item to the VeriStand System Definition File

4. Right Click the EtherCAT Master item and select “Manage 3rd-party EtherCAT Slaves”
   
   From the “Manage 3rd Party ECAT Slaves” Window, browse to the ESI file location. Make sure that the Import checkboxes are flagged for both host and target and select “Import”, when prompted to reboot the EtherCAT Master select “OK”. In case of errors when importing the device profile, follow the steps documented in this article and try again the Import procedure. After rebooting your EtherCAT Master, you should found your device profile on both the host machine and the EhterCAT Master (the below example is referred to the REM-11180 Bus Coupler).

5. Close the “Manage 3rd Party ECAT Slaves” Window

6. Right click the Scan Engine and EtherCAT Custom Device and select “Auto-detect Modules”: if the EtherCAT Slave is connected to the EtherCAT Master, the EtherCAT Slave item will be added to the VeriStand System Definition File. If prompted with the -356004 Error make sure that  I/O Variable Remote Configuration Web Service component was installed on your EtherCAT Master 
    

   
    

7. Deploy your System Definition File to the EtherCAT Master

Next Steps

• Creating User Interfaces with the VeriStand Editor
• NI EtherCAT RIO: Deterministic Expansion for LabVIEW RIO Systems