Electronic access to the BIC (eBIC)

Electronic BIC (eBIC)

The Beckhoff Identification Code (BIC) is applied to the outside of Beckhoff products in a visible place. If possible, it should also be electronically readable.

The interface that the product can be electronically addressed by is crucial for the electronic readout.

EtherCAT devices (IP20, IP67)

All Beckhoff EtherCAT devices have an ESI-EEPROM which contains the EtherCAT identity with the revision number. The EtherCAT slave information, also colloquially known as the ESI/XML configuration file for the EtherCAT master, is stored in it. See the corresponding chapter in the EtherCAT system manual (Link) for the relationships.

Beckhoff also stores the eBIC in the ESI‑EEPROM. The eBIC was introduced into Beckhoff IO production (terminals, box modules) in 2020; as of 2023, implementation is largely complete.

The user can electronically access the eBIC (if present) as follows:

• With all EtherCAT devices, the EtherCAT master (TwinCAT) can read the eBIC from the ESI‑EEPROM
• From TwinCAT 3.1 build 4024.11, the eBIC can be displayed in the online view.
• To do this, check the "Show Beckhoff Identification Code (BIC)" checkbox under
  EtherCAT → Advanced Settings → Diagnostics:
  
• The BTN and its contents are then displayed:
  
• Note: As shown in the figure, the production data HW version, FW version, and production date, which have been programmed since 2012, can also be displayed with "Show production info".
• Access from the PLC: From TwinCAT 3.1. build 4024.24, the functions FB_EcReadBIC and FB_EcReadBTN for reading into the PLC are available in the Tc2_EtherCAT library from v3.3.19.0.
• EtherCAT devices with a CoE directory may also have the object 0x10E2:01 to display their own eBIC, which can also be easily accessed by the PLC:
• The device must be in PREOP/SAFEOP/OP for access:
  
• The object 0x10E2 will be preferentially introduced into stock products in the course of necessary firmware revision.
• From TwinCAT 3.1. build 4024.24, the functions FB_EcCoEReadBIC and FB_EcCoEReadBTN for reading into the PLC are available in the Tc2_EtherCAT library from v3.3.19.0
• The following auxiliary functions are available for processing the BIC/BTN data in the PLC in Tc2_Utilities as of TwinCAT 3.1 build 4024.24
• F_SplitBIC: The function splits the Beckhoff Identification Code (BIC) sBICValue into its components using known identifiers and returns the recognized substrings in the ST_SplittedBIC structure as a return value
• BIC_TO_BTN: The function extracts the BTN from the BIC and returns it as a return value
• Note: If there is further electronic processing, the BTN is to be handled as a string(8); the identifier "SBTN" is not part of the BTN.
• Technical background
  The new BIC information is written as an additional category in the ESI‑EEPROM during device production. The structure of the ESI content is largely dictated by the ETG specifications, therefore the additional vendor-specific content is stored using a category in accordance with the ETG.2010. ID 03 tells all EtherCAT masters that they may not overwrite these data in the event of an update or restore the data after an ESI update.
  The structure follows the content of the BIC, see here. The EEPROM therefore requires approx. 50..200 bytes of memory.
• Special cases
• If multiple hierarchically arranged ESCs are installed in a device, only the top-level ESC carries the eBIC information.
• If multiple non-hierarchically arranged ESCs are installed in a device, all ESCs carry the eBIC information.
• If the device consists of several sub-devices which each have their own identity, but only the top-level device is accessible via EtherCAT, the eBIC of the top-level device is located in the CoE object directory 0x10E2:01 and the eBICs of the sub-devices follow in 0x10E2:nn.