Question/Problem
How do I connect to an MC4 Controller using the ECATAnalyzer / EtherCAT Fieldbus Analyzer tool?
Environment
MC4 controller, Customer-provided VDI, ECatAnalyzer program.
Answer/Solution
The EtherCAT Fieldbus Analyzer tool is one of many helpful tools that we can have access to when attempting to troubleshoot issues with an MC4-based conveyor control system. For the sites that permit us connection to the controller using this tool, there are some minor steps that need to be taken to ensure that we are actually able to connect to that controller.
Above displays what the screen may look like upon launching the ECATAnalyzer program. It does not automatically populate with connection information upon first launch, but does save successful session information after you connect to a controller once (the above example shows that there is connection information for an 'RTC01' and an 'RTC06', that can be loaded by clicking on either of them).
In order to connect to a controller, the four fields displayed above need to be filled out as follows:
| MC4 Controller |
You can enter anything you like into this field. We suggest naming it such that you have a clear understanding of which specific controller / site this connection correlates to. |
| RDS Instance |
This field needs to match the <name> entry from the mc4_util_rds#rds.xml file from the MC4 controller in question. See graphic below for a sample. |
| IPAddress |
This field needs to match the IP Address of the MC4 controller in question. |
| Port No. |
This field needs to match the <port> entry from the mc4_util_rds#rds.xml file from the MC4 controller in question. See graphic below for a sample. |
Above: the 'mc4_util_rds#rds.xml' file from an MC4 controller. The <name> is 'RDS_RTC06', and the <port> is '4503'.
Once that information has been populated into the ECatAnalyzer program, you are then able to press the 'Connect' button to establish connectivity to the controller.
Related Item
In the case that you were not able to successfully connect using the above, you may have encountered an issue with connection on the specific port referenced in the above file. In that case, we then suggest running any of the following commands, and then inspecting the results of that command to determine whether or not the MC4 controller is listening on that port. If it is, then you should engage in network troubleshooting with site's IT personnel to determine why port traffic on that port may be blocked.
netstat -an
netstat -an | grep LISTEN
netstat -an | grep <port> (replacing <port> with the port number from the file)
above: From running the netstat command, we can see that tcp port 4503 is being listened to by the MC4 controller. In the case that ECatAnalyzer wasn't able to connect to this controller, we would suspect that traffic on port 4503 was being blocked somewhere in the building between the MC4 controller and the specific customer-provided VDI instance that we utilize to connect to the site in question.
Internal Notes
none
Reason for Confidentiality
none