Can I Use My EtherCAT P Slave Device With EtherCAT Master Devices Like cRIO?

Updated Dec 21, 2021

Reported In

Hardware

  • CompactRIO Chassis

Driver

  • NI-Industrial Communications for EtherCAT

Issue Details

I have an EtherCAT P sensor and want to connect it to CompactRIO which has an EtherCAT port on it. Can I do it?

Solution

The EtherCAT P (P stands for Power) devices use hybrid cables that include wires for both EtherCAT communication and powering the device.
Meanwhile, EtherCAT cables are suitable only for communication and can't provide the slave device with the needed power. This makes the communication of EtherCAT P slave devices and EtherCAT master devices impossible. For communicating the devices both have to use the same communication method. 

Additional Information

Besides EtherCAT and EtherCAT P protocol there is an existing EtherCAT G protocol as well. This is the advanced version of EtherCAT that lifts it up to Gigabit levels. 
Not like in the case of EtherCAT P devices, the EtherCAT G devices can act with traditional EtherCAT devices, but there will be a speed limit of up to 100Mb/s (the maximum information streaming speed of EtherCAT devices)

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