VS EtherCAT Master can configure bus on the fly without EtherCAT® configuration tools.
The Autoconfigurator module allows a user application to select slave’s configuration (uESI). uESI is a file describing custom slave’s configuration and generated in VS EtherCAT Studio. It is possible to create a set of uESI-s in advance and then applied them to Master depending on the user’s needs. The module generates Master configuration file (ENI) with applied uESI. Further, this ENI will be used at Master work.
The Autoconfigurator functionality may be used at least in two ways:
- To switch between different configurations of the slave. For example, Servo Drive has two working modes Velocity and Position that require different slave settings.
- To switch between bus configurations with different number of slaves. For example, when mandatory and optional Hot-Connected slaves are on the bus. Since Hot-Connected or optional slaves can absent, the number of slaves on the bus may vary on the fly and Autoconfigurator allows to work with dynamic configuration.
The Autoconfigurator functionality is available in VS EtherCAT Master v2.4 or higher and is provided as feature pack that should be additionally activated through license file.