TwinCAT 3 license dongle

TwinCAT 3 license dongle 1:

No "hot swap"

The TwinCAT 3 license dongles must not be pulled or plugged in during operation.

TwinCAT 3 license dongle is not detected

TwinCAT 3 does not automatically detect a TwinCAT 3 license dongle in the current version. The dongle must be configured in the project.

Check whether the commissioning and configuration of the TwinCAT 3 license dongle is error-free in order to exclude possible side effects within the project. Create an empty project if necessary.

If the TwinCAT 3 license dongle is correctly detected in an empty project after an I/O configuration scan, changes may have been made in your project after the TwinCAT 3 license dongle has been configured. Typical errors can be the use of another EtherCAT slot or a change in the AMS NET ID.

Since the TwinCAT 3 license dongle is not automatically detected in the current TwinCAT 3 version, it may only be inserted at the EtherCAT slot configured in the project after successful configuration. (Note: the TC3 USB dongle can be plugged into any slot.)

The TwinCAT 3 license dongle is only initialized when the TwinCAT 3 Runtime is started.

TwinCAT 3 remembers the "place" (= AMS Net ID) where it finds the license information and not a specific TwinCAT 3 license dongle. The AMS Net ID must therefore no longer change after configuring the license dongle, otherwise the TwinCAT 3 license dongle will no longer be detected.

Licenses are not automatically loaded by the TwinCAT 3 license dongle

The option Cache or check License Response Files during startup must be enabled in the License Device tab of the TwinCAT 3 license manager. Only then are TwinCAT 3 license files automatically copied (and used) from the TwinCAT 3 license dongle to the hard disk of the IPC when the TwinCAT 3 Runtime is started (if required).

TwinCAT 3 license dongle 2:

If TwinCAT 3 detects new license files on the TwinCAT 3 license dongle when starting the Runtime, these are downloaded. TwinCAT 3 must then restart the Runtime.

The name of the license files downloaded from the dongle starts with "Cache….".

Licenses for the TwinCAT 3 license dongle have the status "Pending"

A two-stage procedure is used for validating License Response Files for TwinCAT 3 license dongles:

  1. Is the license file basically valid? (→ file signature is correct)
  2. Does the system contain a matching TwinCAT 3 license dongle (at the configured location)?

As long as no license dongle matching the License Response File is found, the status of the TwinCAT 3 license is "Pending".

In TwinCAT Engineering, check whether the system ID of your TwinCAT 3 license dongle matches the system ID of your License Response File. In the following example, the system IDs do not match.

TwinCAT 3 license dongle 3:

TwinCAT 3 Runtime: License status is "Valid", but the application is not working

Check whether the EtherCAT bus is in "OP" mode. If this is not the case, the license file in c:\twincat\3.1\target\license probably does not match your TwinCAT 3 license dongle.

Check whether the system ID shown in the runtime matches the system ID in the License Response file.

Example: The system IDs do not match, the licenses are not valid for this license dongle:

TwinCAT 3 license dongle 4:

Remove all license files that are not required from the license folder.