Replace EtherCAT Drive for AZ or EL

This guide will only cover the replacement from the software point of view, the electrical and mechanical parts are not part of this guide.

Once the new drive is mounted and electrically connected to the rest of the EtherCAT line, the steps listed below must be followed:

• Open the MainAxesPXI.lvproj LabVIEW project, located here. It should look something like this, see image below

  

• Delete the replaced drive from the project

  • Copy the name of the replaced drive and note it somewhere, it will be required in a future step

  • Select the replaced drive in teh LabVIEW project and press supr key on the keyboard

• Connect to the AXES PXI

  Make sure that the IP from the project corresponds to the one for the AXES PXI on the TMA.

  

• Add the new drive to the LabVIEW project

  • Right click on the ethercat master, MainDrives EtherCAT Master

    

  • Select New > Targets and Devices…

    

  • On the new window, called Add Targets and Devices, expand the ethercat master and select the slave that is missing in the project and press OK. This will add the device to the project, but with an incorrect name.

    

  • Rename the newly added Device to the stored name from the delete slave step

    

  • Check the serial number from the new drive and the data stored in the project

    • Right click on the new drive and select Online Device State...

      

    • On the new window, go to Parameters and expand the Identity Object.

      

    • Note the Revision Number and Serial Number

    • Close the pop up window

    • On the LabVIEW project, right click on the new drive and select Properties

      

    • On the new window, check that the contents of the General view matches the previously noted Revision Number and Serial Number

      

      • If they match move on, if not, close the LabVIEW project and edit it in text mode to make the revision/serial number match. If by doing this the project marks the new slave as unknown, a new XML must be created with the right revision/serial for the new drive. For doing this, take the existing XML, create a new copy and edit the required parameter to match the one taken from the slave in the Identity Object page.

  • Once the configuration in the project is okay, the new master configuration can be deployed onto the PXI

    • Right click on the MainDrives EtherCAT Master and select Deploy

      

    • When deploying, it si likely that a conflict resolution pop up will appear. Before clicking apply, make sure the conflict solution is set to an option that leaves the scan engine in active as the last step.

      

    • Then a progress pop up will appear and if there is no problem while deploying, the new slave should be properly working

  • Check the ethercat is running, this can be done from the EUI ethercat management window or from the NI Distributed System Manager

    • Ethercat Management Window

      • Navigate to the corresponding window in the TMA EUI

      • Check that all the slaves for the AXES PXI are in OP state and that the master is in active state

        

    • NI Distributed System Manager

      • launch the app on a windows computer that has access to the TMA AXES PXI

      • expand the MainDrives EtherCAT Master

      • expand a couple of slaves

      • check that the variables are being updated

        

Troubleshooting

Ethercat master deployment error -> LabVIEW: (Hex 0x80DF0002) A file I/O error occurred

Source

This error occurs when for some reason the deployment process gets corrupted.

This can be fixed by removing the .xml files from the PXI, this can be done as follows:

• SSH into the AXES PXI

• go to the directory where the XML files are stored -> cd /var/local/natinst/deployfwk/config/

• remove the XML files -> rm *.xml

• Try deploying the ethercat master from the project again