At Hannover Fair this year, the Baumüller group presented an EtherCAT application configured with its ProMaster engineering software. The application comprised a controller-based PLC as EtherCAT master with three EtherCAT slaves - one b maXX 4000 drive, one I/O bus coupler and one position sensor from TR-Elektronik. The drive emulated a cam disc motion that was generated in ProMaster with motion control.
The ProMaster Engineering Framework allows the user to create projects and applications using intuitive 'drag-and-drop' functionality. Simple parameterisation and configuration takes the place of complicated programming thus reducing engineering complexity and time-to-market.
Both EtherCAT and CANopen are now fully integrated in ProMaster. EtherCAT integrates and connects the IT network and the Internet with a fast realtime Ethernet solution for machine communication.
EtherCAT can emulate the well-known CANopen device profile via CANopen over EtherCAT (CoE). The Servo over EtherCAT (SoE) protocol is also available as a slave.
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