EL6731

"EtherCAT" text box

Name of the EtherCAT Terminal in the EtherCAT Terminal network. The EtherCAT slave terminal represents a master device for the PROFIBUS.

"Identify Device…" button

The "Identify Device…" button opens a dialog box for identifying the hardware channel of an FC card.

"Station No." NumericUpDown control

Each PROFIBUS device – including the master – requires a unique station number.

"Baudrate" drop-down list

Set the PROFIBUS baud rate. In the drop-down list you can set "12M", "6M", "3M", "1.5M", "500k", "187.5k", "93.75k", "45.45k", "19.2k" or "9.6k".

"Bus-Parameter (DP)…" button

The "Bus-Parameter (DP)…" button opens the Bus Parameter dialog.

"Operation Mode" drop-down list

The operation modes "DP", "DP (Equidistant/ no GC)" or "DP/ MC (Equidistant)" can be selected.

In all three operation modes the task with the highest priority linked to the corresponding device controls the PROFIBUS cycle and is therefore synchronized with the DP cycle. When the synchronizing task is stopped or hits a breakpoint, the EL6731 terminal switches to CLEAR mode.

All other tasks are served asynchronously via corresponding buffers. If one of these tasks is stopped or hits a breakpoint, the System Manager usually displays a message indicating that the watchdog of the corresponding asynchronous mapping has been triggered. The response of the respective slave device depends on the entry in its GSD file under the keyword Fail_Safe. If the entry under the keyword Fail_Safe is 1, the slave device can decide how it wants to set its outputs. If the entry under the keyword Fail_Safe in the GSD file is 0 or if an entry under the keyword Fail_Safe is not available in the GSD file, the outputs of the associated slave device are set to 0 by the EL6731 PROFIBUS master terminal.

In all operation modes, a dedicated poll rate can be set for each slave device in the "Features" tab of the box. The sequence of the slave devices in the PROFIBUS cycle corresponds to the sequence in which they appear in the tree under the EL6731 device. The "DP" mode is intended for free-running standard DP operation, the "Equidistant (no GC)" and "DP/MC (Equidistant)" modes are intended for synchronous PROFIBUS operation.

"Cycle Time (µs)" text box

The "Cycle Time" text box contains the task cycle time in microseconds.

"Estimated DP-Cycle (µs)" text box

The estimated DP cycle time is derived from the baud rate and the number of devices. The text box contains the estimated DP cycle time in microseconds.

"DP Cycles/Task Cycle" NumericUpDown control

The control element can be used to set how many DP cycles are to be executed within a task cycle. The DP cycle is the cycle of the PROFIBUS fieldbus.

"Timing DP-Cycle…" button

The "Timing DP-Cycle…" button opens a dialog. The dialog shows at which points in the PROFIBUS cycle the slave devices are called. The dialog also shows how much reserve time is left.

"Start Up-/Fault-Settings" button

The "Start Up-/Fault-Settings" button opens the "Start Up-/Fault-Settings" dialog.

"Search…" button

All EL6731 channels are searched for and displayed in a dialog. The desired channel can be selected.

"Firmware" text box

The text box shows the current firmware version of the EL6731 terminal.

"Firmware Update…" button

The "Firmware Update" button enables firmware updates for PCI cards.

"Hardware Configuration…" button

The "Hardware Configuration" button can be used to change the PCI configuration for PCI cards.

"Upload Configuration" button

The "Upload Configuration" button searches for PROFIBUS slave devices on the bus. TwinCAT must be in configuration mode.

"Verify Configuration" button

The "Verify Configuration" button compares the actual configuration with the set configuration.

"Flexible Process Image" check box

If the check box is checked, the memory areas for inputs and outputs are distributed such that the utilization of the available memory in the process image is optimized.

"Optimized Cycle" check box

If the "Optimized Cycle" check box is checked, the output and input data are transferred in a cycle that is optimized with regard to the transfer time.

With the EL6731 PROFIBUS master terminal the process data must be copied once, which is not necessary with the older FC310x, FC3151 and CX1500-M310 PROFIBUS master devices. Copying the process data, in addition to transferring the telegrams, extends the cycle. Compared to the standard cycle, the optimized cycle generally reduces the additional time required for copying.

Standard cycle

In the standard cycle, the output data for all slave devices are copied, the cyclic DP telegrams are then sent and received, and finally the input data for all slave devices are copied.

Optimized cycle

In the optimized cycle, the transfer time of the cycle is ideally reduced to the time required for copying the output data of the first slave device associated with the corresponding data transfer in the I/O tree plus the time required for sending and receiving the cyclic telegrams plus the time required for copying the input data of the last slave device associated with the corresponding data transfer in the I/O tree, since all other copying processes take place while the telegrams are transferred.

In the optimized cycle, the output data associated with the first slave device in the I/O tree associated with the corresponding data transfer is copied first. Then the first telegram is sent. Since the microcontroller of the EL6731 terminal has time to continue copying the output and input data while telegrams are transferred, the copying process and the telegram transfer can essentially run in parallel. A telegram is only sent if the corresponding output data have already been copied and the input data are only copied if they were received with an associated telegram. The only remaining task is copying of the input data associated with the last slave device in the I/O tree associated with the corresponding data transfer.

"Disable Dp-State Modification" check box

If the check box is not checked and a datagram assigned to terminal "EL6731" has a WC state with a value of 1, the DP slave devices associated with terminal "EL6731" switch to an error state with a Dp state value of 31. If the check box is checked, the DP slave devices associated with terminal "EL6731" do not respond to a datagram assigned to terminal "EL6731" having a WC state with a value of 1 and do not change its state and do not switch to error state.