1 EtherCAT – General information
1.3 Modular Device Profile
XN-312-GW-EC gateway 07/20 MN050010-EN Eaton.com 11
Within this context, the data sequence is independent of the physical order
of the nodes on the network and specific addresses can be targeted. The
datagram header specifies the type of access that the master wants on the
network:
• Read, write, or read & write
• Access to a specific node with direct addressing or access to multiple
slaves with logical addressing (implicit addressing)
The configuration and the process data mapping are configured by the mas-
ter in the slaves during startup.
Logical addressing is used for cyclical process data transfers. When using
this method, each datagram addresses a specific section of the process
image table on the EtherCAT segment. Moreover, when the network starts
up, each slave is assigned one or more addresses in the corresponding
address space. In addition to cyclical data, other datagrams can be inserted
as well in order to use asynchronous or event-driven communication.
In addition to logical addressing, the master can address a node based on its
position on the network. This option is used to determine a network's topol-
ogy when starting up and to then compare it to the expected configuration.
Once the configuration has been checked, the master can assign each node
a configured node address and reach the nodes using these fixed node
addresses. This means that accessing specific devices will still be possible
even if the topology changes.
1.3 Modular Device Profile
Within the context of EtherCAT, a modular device is a device with modular
and functional expansion options.
The XN-312-GW-EC EtherCAT gateway conforms to the Modular Device Pro-
file (MDP) as defined in the EtherCAT specification (ETG 5001) based on CoE
(CANopen over EtherCAT). Meanwhile, the XN-322 modules are functional
expansions within this context. The modules' properties are defined in the
ESI (EtherCAT slave information) device descriptions, which in turn are
grouped together in a single XML file.
Using the module configuration as a basis, a dynamic object dictionary is built
for each gateway based on the modules actually connected to the gateway.
This object dictionary is stored in the device's RAM when restarting.
Within this context, every XN-322 module has entries for input, output, con-
figuration, and information data that are assigned directly to the module.
The object dictionary, process data objects (PDO), and service data objects
(SDO) are represented on the gateway, but are transmitted in an EtherCAT
data frame and are not subject to the usual limitations in CANopen.
The process data objects (PDO) are used to transfer real-time data quickly
and efficiently (e.g., I/O data, setpoint and process values). No objects are
addressed in the EtherCAT frame. Instead, the contents of the process data
for previously mapped parameters are sent directly.