EtherCAT Configurator is a program by Beckhoff who’s primary function is generating the ENI file (see EtherCAT Overview). It can also be used to read out ESI files and help debug your system by checking the individual devices. Note that the EtherCAT configurator is not required if the TwinCAT software from Beckhoff is used, and that EtherCAT Configurator is basically a really old, stripped down version of TwinCAT.
Also see: Official Documentation - EtherCAT
If a device is properly connected, it should be detected by EtherCAT configurator if it’s plugged into the PC running it. You can use this to debug the whole network (check if everything is connected in the way you want it to be), or a single slave device by connecting it directly and see if you can read out its data.
See also: Configure EtherCAT Network by using TwinCAT (specifically by Mathworks, for Simulink RT)
EtherCAT Configurator Registration. You can leave this blank and just click evaluate.This no longer works on the Development computer because the 30-days trial expired.
Generating the ENI file with TwinCAT TcXaeShell also doesn’t work for whatever reason…
I/O Devices and click Scan Devices. Click OK on the warning telling you that “HINT: Not all types of devices can be found automatically”…
Activate Free Run. Click no here, since we don’t yet want to put the system into free run mode.Process Data and you should be able to see a list of PDO data and its content.If a device is found, but no data can be read, it is likely because the ESI files are missing. By default, the program only has access to Beckhoff devices, but that’s not the only devices that can be configured. If you connect devices by other manufacturers, you’ll need to supply the ESI files and place them in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\EtherCAT Configurator\EtherCAT
You can find the Beckhoff ESI files in here too. For different manufacturers, these ESI files can be found in different places:
To generate ENI Files, see: Generating Ethercat ENI Files