Sercos Slave & Ethercat Master

The Ethercat® master is located on the S3ECm module and takes care of data exchange between the two busses.

On the Sercos® bus the S3ECm module acts as an IO device with FSP-IO profile. The engineering tool uses the device description file (SDDML file) to integrate it into the bus topology. Number and characteristics of the connected Ethercat slaves are described in a configuration file (ENI file) generated by an engineering tool from the device descriptions of the connected slaves (ESI files). The upload of the ENI file to the S3ECm module can either be done directly from the Sercos master via UCC or over the additional available standard Ethernet port. In both case TFTP protocol is used.

The bidirectional transmission of real-time data between Sercos master and Ethercat slaves is consistent and synchronized. The shortest cycle time of the module at the Sercos bus is 250 microseconds; also for high-speed applications more than enough. The startup of the Ethercat bus to the real-time operation mode is carried out automatically after power-on. On demand, it also can be controlled by the application running on the Sercos master. The real-time data transmitted by the S3ECm module to the Sercos master contains extensive diagnostic data and status information about the Ethercat side and enables thus a safe and stable communication with the connected Ethercat slaves.