EtherCAT Industrial Ethernet Chip: High Speed, Reliability, and Ultra-Low Latency

Utilizing the unique 'processing on the fly' data exchange mechanism, EtherCAT technology fully utilizes Ethernet bandwidth, dramatically reducing data transmission latency to less than 1us, thereby ensuring the real-time and deterministic industrial automation communications. ASIX Electronics has introduced the AX58x00 family EtherCAT slave controllers, including the AX58100, AX58200, and AX58400. These chips have been recognized by the EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) and are officially listed in the ETG’s EtherCAT Product Guide.

The AX58400 EtherCAT Slave Controller with Dual-Core MCU integrates the STMicroelectronics STM32H755 dual-core microcontroller, featuring 32-bit 480MHz ARM Cortex-M7 and 240MHz ARM Cortex-M4 cores, and incorporates an EtherCAT slave controller equipped with two fast Ethernet PHYs. It supports various communication and control interfaces, including a 10/100M Ethernet MAC with MII/RMII, USB 2.0 OTG, SPI, UART, I2C, JPEG hardware codec, and more. Additionally, it also supports AES/TDES/HASH/HMAC hardware cryptographic accelerators and ROP/PCROP/Anti-tamper security techniques.

The AX58400 is interoperable with all EtherCAT systems using standard EtherCAT communication protocols such as CoE, FoE, and VoE. It is suitable for various real-time industrial automation control applications, including motor and motion control, digital I/O control, sensor data acquisition, robotics, EtherCAT to IO-Link gateways, and EtherCAT slave junction modules.

Easy-to-Use EtherCAT Slave Reference Design Kits

ASIX provides various AX58400 EtherCAT slave reference design kits, such as motor control, digital I/O control, and EtherCAT to IO-Link gateway module, to help customers expedite early evaluation and product design timelines. These reference design kits come with comprehensive technical documents and sample source codes, including datasheets, reference schematics, PCB layouts, design guides, and software/firmware source codes.

> Hardware Design Process Overview

The AX58400 EtherCAT slave motor control reference design kit includes reference schematics, PCB layout, and hardware design guidelines. Designers can utility these technical resources to quickly finalize the hardware design of AX58400 motor control products. Additionally, the ASIX technical support team offers free schematic and PCB layout review services to assist customers in smoothly completing the development of AX58400 EtherCAT products. The following outlines the hardware design process for AX58400 EtherCAT slave motor control products:

a. Complete the schematic design of your AX58400 device based on the reference schematics and hardware design guidelines.
b. Create the PCB layout for your AX58400 board by referring to the PCB layout files and hardware design guidelines of the AX58400 evaluation board.
c. If needed, submit your AX58400 schematics and PCB layout files to ASIX technical support for a free review.
d. After fabricating the PCB of your new AX58400 device, prepare to verify its hardware functionality.

> Software Design Process Overview

The AX58400 EtherCAT slave motor control reference design kit also includes complete software and firmware source codes, as well as software design guides. Designers can utility these technical resources and tutorial videos to quickly set up the AX58400 development environment, and begin verifying the hardware functionality of the new AX58400 device. If the new AX58400 device is functioning correctly, designers can then begin customizing the source codes based on the product requirements. These source codes include bootloader, application firmware, and TwinCAT PLC applications. The following outlines the software design process for AX58400 EtherCAT slave motor control products:

a. Compile the AX58400 bootloader source code using the ARM KEIL MDK uVision 5 development tool, then flash it onto the new AX58400 device with the STM32CubeProgrammer tool.
b. Generate the EtherCAT SSC source code using Beckhoff EtherCAT SSC tool; compile the AX58400 EtherCAT slave motor control firmware source code using STM32CubeIDE or ARM KEIL MDK uVision 5 development tools, and then flash the new firmware onto the new AX58400 device with STM32CubeIDE or STM32CubeProgrammer tools.
c. Create a new TwinCAT project using the Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 XAE development tool, import and build the AX58400 motor control TwinCAT PLC demo application source code. Run the demo application to flash the EEPROM, and start verifying the motor control functionality of the new AX58400 device.
d. After verifying the functionality of the AX58400 device, designers can begin customizing the source codes based on the product requirements.

EtherCAT Products Conformance Test

After verifying the functionality of the new EtherCAT slave device, designers can use Beckhoff's EtherCAT Conformance Test Tool (CTT) to perform compatibility testing, ensuring the product design complies with the standard EtherCAT industrial communication protocol. This CTT tool can be installed on a Windows PC as the EtherCAT master, connected to the new EtherCAT slave device under test, and loaded with the ESI file. Upon completing these steps, designers can proceed to compatibility testing.