Are the PXIe-8862 and PXIe-8842 compatible with the NI-9145 EtherCAT chassis?

Issue Details

When I try to set the second ethernet port on my PXIe-8862 or PXIe-8842 to EtherCAT, the port disappears from NI-MAX and is not seen when using the ifconfig -a command, preventing connections to the NI-9145 EtherCAT chassis. Is it possible to connect my NI-9145 EtherCAT chassis to these controllers?

Solution

April 2025 UPDATE: The PXIe-8862 and PXIe-8842 now support connections to the NI-9145 EtherCAT chassis. NI-Industrial Communications for EtherCAT 2025 Q2 or newer is required to be installed on the PXIe controller.

Linked here is the download site for NI-Industrial Communications for EtherCAT.

As of November 2024, the PXIe-8862 and PXIe-8842 do not support connections to the NI-9145 EtherCAT chassis. 

The NI-Industrial Communications for EtherCAT 2025 Q2 driver release is estimated to include support for these controllers.

Current workarounds:

• Use a PXIe-8861 or PXIe-8881 embedded controller to connect to the NI-9145.
• Use a PXIe-8245 Ethernet Interface module to connect to the NI-9145.

Additional Information

If a user installs the NI-Industrial Communications for EtherCAT driver and sets the adapter mode of ethernet port 1 to EtherCAT, they will see the behavior listed below. To regain control of ethernet port 1, reformat the controller.

1. Setting the adapter mode to EtherCAT
   1. 
2. Save and restart the controller
3. The LinuxRT Terminal will show that eno1 is set to EtherCAT
   1. 
4. NI-MAX will no longer be able to recognize Ethernet port 1 and the user will not be able to connect to the NI-9145.
   1. 

Reformat the controller to regain control of the Ethernet port.