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.

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.

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:

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:

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.