How to Choose the Right EtherCAT Products – Interoperability is Key

EtherCAT offers higher transmission efficiency and flexibility. After more than a decade of development, EtherCAT technology has become one of the mainstream real-time Ethernet fieldbus systems worldwide. Additionally, EtherCAT technology is fully open. Consequently, both domestically and internationally, more and more devices are adopting EtherCAT as their bus interface.

In the domestic automation market, as the complexity of machines continues to increase and performance improves, the system scale gradually enlarges. Therefore, in an increasing number of applications, PC-based control technology and EtherCAT bus control architecture have become the top choice for system integration.

For EtherCAT devices, interoperability is crucial and truly effective. Thanks to the classification of EtherCAT master functionalities and the consistency certification mechanism of the slaves, you can easily select suitable EtherCAT devices.

The Master Must Support the Functions Required by the Slaves

EtherCAT supports various application layer communication protocols (device profiles) to better meet application needs. When manufacturers implement EtherCAT devices, they can choose to implement different device profiles. We categorize EtherCAT master devices into Class A and Class B. Different categories of devices indicate varying levels of implementation of the EtherCAT application layer protocol (as shown in Figure 1: Figure 1 illustrates the differences between Class A and Class B masters (partial)). Therefore, when selecting your master, in addition to performance requirements that must meet control tasks, consider whether the master functionality can support all slaves’ requirements for device profiles.

For instance, some servo drives utilize “Ethernet over EtherCAT” (EoE) to achieve file exchange or configuration functions, which requires the connected master to also possess EoE functionality, while simple EtherCAT masters (Class B masters) do not implement EoE, hence they cannot connect.

How to Choose the Right EtherCAT Products – Interoperability is Key

Figure 1

Consistency Requirements for Slaves

Consistency is crucial for an open technology, and device providers must ensure product consistency to be responsible for the final application. According to the ETG’s Vendor ID Policy, all EtherCAT devices must guarantee consistency. Therefore, during system integration, you need to confirm whether the EtherCAT slave devices meet the consistency requirements. So how can you verify that the slave devices you purchased meet the consistency requirements? Mainly through the following two methods:

A. Request an Official Consistency Test Certificate from the Device Supplier

If they can provide an official consistency test certificate issued by ETG, it indicates that the product has passed authoritative certification, and the product is marked with the “EtherCAT conformance tested” logo. Device suppliers can go to ETG authorized EtherCAT testing centers (ETC) for testing certification. After passing the tests, they receive a certificate issued by ETG headquarters (an example of the official certificate is shown in Figure 2). EtherCAT consistency testing is conducted according to the ETG standard document “ETG. 7000-2 Conformance Test Record”. The testing content includes not only items automatically tested by the consistency testing tool but also manual tests such as ESI checks, slave status indication tests, device identifier display tests, distributed clock tests, miscellaneous tests, semiconductor device profile tests, device identifier tests, interoperability tests, and more.

Figure 2 Example of a Certificate Passed at ETC Consistency Testing

This method of obtaining a consistency test certificate through official certification is very efficient. Device providers can directly present it to system integrators/machine manufacturers to prove that the device has good EtherCAT consistency.

It should be noted that the consistency test certificate corresponds to each version number of the device. When the device is updated, new testing is required to ensure that the updated device maintains consistency. Therefore, please pay attention to whether the product number and serial number indicated on the certificate match the devices in use.

Additionally, the ETG authorized testing center has an interconnection testing environment that includes products from multiple device suppliers, which can better test whether the device can work with other devices. Furthermore, the EtherCAT experts at the authorized testing center are more specialized, and the testing results are more authoritative. ETG encourages device suppliers to conduct testing at ETG authorized testing centers.

B. Request Self-Completed Testing Results from the Device Supplier

Besides going to the official consistency testing center for official testing, device suppliers can verify their product’s consistency by purchasing consistency testing tools (CTT) and performing self-testing. The device provider’s laboratory testing results clearly show the items that passed and failed the tests, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 CTT Self-Consistency Testing Results

In addition to using CTT software for testing, suppliers also need to test other items specified in the ETG standard document “ETG.7000-2 Conformance Test Record” and maintain test records.

The above considerations should be taken into account at the beginning of system design. Besides specific considerations for master functions and slave consistency, the design of machines and cabinets, wiring, and other electrical safety features should comply with GB/T 5226. Compliant designs will reduce unnecessary debugging, maintenance, and engineering work, as well as associated hidden costs in subsequent installation, commissioning, and usage.

For any system integration, it is clear that choosing products from the same brand for integration poses the lowest risk and higher reliability. At least the manufacturer of that brand will be responsible for all systems that encounter issues.

However, sometimes, due to cost requirements or the lack of a complete product line from a certain brand, it becomes necessary to procure products from different brands for system integration, thereby shifting the risk to the system integrator or machine manufacturer. For Ethernet fieldbus systems, EtherCAT offers high performance and flexibility, coupled with full openness, which leads to more device manufacturers supporting it.

Therefore, when different brand products are integrated into the same EtherCAT system and communication failures occur, facing numerous EtherCAT device providers, the system integrator or machine manufacturer should follow the two troubleshooting steps mentioned above, first confirming the master functionality and slave consistency issues, and then performing other checks.

How to Choose the Right EtherCAT Products – Interoperability is Key

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How to Choose the Right EtherCAT Products – Interoperability is Key

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