EasyCAT Gateway
EasyCAT Gateway
The EasyCAT Gateway is a device that enables data exchange between an EtherCAT® bus and a USB host or an Ethernet network. It is seen by the EtherCAT® master as a slave, with two data exchange areas—one for inputs and one for outputs. The integrated microcontroller, an ARM M0 SAMD21G18, transfers this data to and from a different interface, i.e., USB or Ethernet, thus implementing the gateway functionality. The firmware of the microcontroller can be developed using the Arduino IDE, allowing the gateway’s behavior to be easily customized by leveraging the simplicity of the Arduino environment and the vast amount of available software libraries.
The default size of the data exchange area is 32 bytes input and 32 bytes output.
Important: The EasyCAT Gateway is an EtherCAT® Slave and CANNOT be used to create an EtherCAT® Master.
Some possible applications are:
- Educational purposes
- Data acquisition and storage
- Serial gateways RS-232, RS-485, CAN, Modbus TCP/IP, etc., to and from EtherCAT®
- Simulators for other EtherCAT® devices
- EtherCAT® operator panels
SPECIFICATIONS:
- EtherCAT® interface: LAN9252 with 4K bytes configuration EEPROM
- Ethernet interface: W5500 with unique MAC address preprogrammed in external EEPROM (128 bytes available for general purpose)
- USB interface: Native Samd21 USB 2.0, USB programming through FTDI FX230 USB-serial converter
- Microcontroller: SAMD21G18, 32-Bit ARM Cortex M0+, Clock speed 48 MHz, Flash 256 KB, SRAM 32 KB, compatible with the Arduino IDE
- Power Supply: 5V, max. 350mA
WARNING:
The EasyCAT Gateway was NOT designed for industrial environments or applications, and its use in such environments or applications is strongly discouraged. Therefore, AB&T S.r.l. disclaims any liability for improper use of this device.
The USB cable is NOT included in the package.
Easy Navigator
To meet the request of many customers asking for a simple software tool to test applications developed with our EasyCAT boards, we have developed Easy Navigator. It is a very simple EtherCAT® Master, featuring an easy and intuitive operator interface that allows you to easily read and write values from/to the EasyCAT boards. No special library like WinPCAP is required, as it uses the EtherCAT® protocol’s ability to be encapsulated in a UDP frame. Simply connect your EasyCAT board to your PC’s LAN port, start Easy Navigator, and enjoy EtherCAT®.
Open Source Master
to test our boards
There are numerous EtherCAT® Masters on the market; some of them are open source and are a great help for starting to test with our boards. We recommend three of them:
which works in the Windows environment
which works in the Linux environment
which works in Windows and Linux environments