EtherCAT: XG5000 & XG-PM Project Creation - LS Electric XGB PLC from AutomationDirect

the xgb PLC offers several options for controlling motion some of the easiest to use and configure are The Ether cap motion control modules we are setting up a 3axis motion system using an XM dn32 HP CPU with a single xbf PN 08b ether cap module it is connected to three i7 ethercat drives using ethernet cables we cover installing the module and connecting The Ether cat Network in another help topic so please refer to it for further details once the module has been installed and the network connected we are ready to create an ether cap project the CPU is programmed in the xg5000 programming environment and The Ether cap motion axes are configured in the xgp software we will need to create projects in both tools to properly program our system to begin let's open the xg5000 software once in the software most functions will be GR out since we haven't established a project yet to establish a project we will need to either create a new project open an existing project or read a project already in a CPU we cover project creation and another help topic as well so if you need assistance starting a new project feel free to have a look you can always return to this tutorial once you have your project created we also have a topic on the xg5000 programming environment to help you understand where everything is and how to customize the workspace for your workflow let's create a new project and call it ethercat example we are using an XM dn32 HP CPU so these settings are good and we will then click okay remember that we already have our ethercat card physically installed so let's add it into the software we will go to the project window on the left side of the screen and double click IO parameter once the io parameter screen opens we will go to slot two in the drop-down we will go to special module list then to positioning modules and double click on the PN 08b we will then apply this and let the software autogenerate the tags it will need for this module there are access statuses for each of the eight axes as well as a module status flag we also have an array for the eight AIS statuses and finally we have an ethercat link active bit we can save our program and are now ready to create the motion project in the X GPM software to open X GPM from the xg5000 programming environment we go to tools position control once X GPM launches we could either create a new project open an existing project or read a project from a controller we haven't made a project yet so we can't open it and while we could create it from scratch LS motion control modules come from the factory with a preconfigured motion project in them the easiest way to ensure all the settings are correct is to connect with an XM CPU that has the PN 08 be attached and then read the project we cover connecting to the CPU in another help topic so please refer to it for details on establishing a connection for our example we just need to read from the module we have connected we could select open from PLC or we could go to Project open from PLC we are connected via USB so when we select okay the software will read the PLC to see what is available and open the read from PLC module selection window we see here the Sixaxis step and Direction motion controller that is included with the HP series of CPU as well as the 8 AIS PN 08b ethercat positioning module one other great feature of using The Ether cap motion control modules with ls servos like the i7 is that the applicable Servo parameters are editable right from the xgp software to take full advantage of this we will check the includes stto Servo parameter box as well this will read the sdo file stored on the PN 08b this function works even if we don't have any notes connected when we take a look at configuring the axes in a future help topic we will look at how to pull the sdo files directly from the ethercat nodes once they are connected once we configure all these settings we can then click okay the software will then read the project already in the CPU and PN 08b and give us confirmation once the read is complete if we look at the project window on the left side we see both these sixa ACC step and Direction motion controller as well as the PN 08b aais ethercat controller have been added to our project we are now ready to save this project and move forward with configuring our axes