• Home
• User Interface - Reference
• PLANT Area
• Project Sub-nodes
• Controller Sub-nodes
• EtherCAT Node
• 'Online Functions' Editor (EtherCAT Master)

'Online Functions' Editor (EtherCAT Master)

The following information refers to a specific, typical device type. Your screen may differ.

This help topic describes the 'Online Functions' editor of the 'EtherCAT' PLANT node (which represents the EtherCAT Master). The online functions are used to determine the current state of the EtherCAT network in a simple way. Information about the components involved as well as about the communication between the nodes is retrieved from the network and displayed in various editor tabs. Thus, the available editors allow a detailed diagnosis.

To use the EtherCAT online functions, it is not required that the PLANT tree represents (models) the EtherCAT topology in iCube Engineer. This means, the structure of the PLANT in iCube Engineer may differ from the actually connected EtherCAT network. However, the controller must be connected to iCube Engineer.

Further Info Refer to the topics "EtherCAT Online Functions" for more details and procedures how to work with the editor.

This topic contains the following sections:

• Structure of the EtherCAT Online Functions editor
• Editor tabs for the EtherCAT Master and slave devices

Structure of the EtherCAT Online Functions editor

On the left, the found EtherCAT network nodes are listed. An LED-like icon symbolizes the current state of the node.

The colors of this icon corresponds to the color of the state icon displayed on the right (in the editor section 'State Machine'):
Red = Init or Bootstrap, blue = Pre-Op, yellow = Safe-Op and green = Op.

The information displayed in the tab on the right and the operations you perform there relate to the EtherCAT node selected in the tree.

Editor tabs for the EtherCAT Master and slave devices

On the right side, several editor tabs are visible, depending on the selected node (EtherCAT master or slave)