I’m trying to connect some Clearlink motor controllers via Ethernet/IP using an X20(c)IF10D1-1 master.
Unfortunately the .EDS file provided by Clearlink does not seem to be parsed correctly by Automation Studio. It is discarding datatype/name/description and just provides 1 channel/byte, which I assume is some kind of parsing fallback.
Does anyone know what format B&R expects from Ethernet/IP .EDS files, or does anyone have an example of an .EDS file that B&R correctly parses?
Hi Christopher!
Did you follow the correct procedure?
Tools > Manage 3rd party devices > Import DTM Devices.
Here you can filter by EtherNet/IP devices.
Then just add your interface card (probably X20IF10D1-1) and your Ethernet/IP device.
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Yes, I followed that exact procedure using the .EDS file provided by Clearlink. It does not raise any errors.
Hence why I am looking for a known functional Ethernet/IP .EDS file for comparison.
EDIT: I suppose it’s also possible the Automation Studio just does not support importing all the data from Ethernet/IP devices? Which would also be good to know.
Hi Christopher. you can try to contact local support office, provide them EDS file and they will try to analyze file together with developers.
Take care during this step that you are importing a DTM device, not the fieldbus device:
Also note that you can use the “ENIP Generic Adapter” and manually configure the device in lieu of the EDS file, if needed.
I can confirm I followed the suggested procedure.
It does partially import the EDS file. I can select the connection type and it shows that there are such and such input and output byte, it just fails to automatically map those bytes to datatypes like I would expect, which is problematic since there are over 500 bytes I would have to configure as channels manually.
Hence why I’m looking for a known working file so I can tell if this is expected B&R behavior or if the EDS file I was provided is not correctly formatted for B&R to parse.
I think this is normal. I am using Cognex cameras over eth/ip and I have the same result. Only many bytes. You can edit eth/ip settings and adjust format of datas like remove all bytes and insert octet and then parse in some task. Same like for IOLink device - no easy to implement.
Ok, so I’ve been trying to set the configuration up manually.
Here is part of the device definition pdf I have:
You can see that the first two bytes are an array of 13 bools, So my first question is if I need to define 13 bool type channels, or do I need to define only 2 channels, or do I need to define 16 channels with some being unused?
So I guess where the specification says INT[4] I need to create 4 separate channels?
Is there any way to skip defining channels I don’t need? Because later on it defines a USINT[128] array which will be a major pain to define.
Hi Christopher. What is the status of this topic, have you found good solution for you? Can you mark answer that helped you the most?
The issue remains open due to B&R not having good support for Ethernet/IP devices. However I did find a workaround because Teknic came out with a new Ethercat version of their device which B&R handles better.
Thanks for feedback. I marked your answer/workaround as a solution. And please contact B&R support with advice for improvements. Jaroslav