EtherCAT Diagnostics: Performance Tab

To access this window: In the EtherCAT Diagnostics, in the EtherCAT Explorer pane, click the MainDevice in the list, then click the Performance tab.

The Performance tab of the EtherCAT Diagnostics displays the load on the CPU load and the load on the EtherCAT network (Bus). The Performance option must be enabled on the EtherCAT MainDevice General tab before it can be viewed.

The CPU load and Bus load can be used for large EtherCAT networks to help determine if there is enough time in the desired loop time to handle the network.

Use the CPU Load and Bus Load buttons to view the respective information.

CPU Load

The Cycle Overview chart graphically displays the time in the cycle at which each processing job starts, and how long it takes. Each job is color-coded and listed in the Details list. The Details list displays the average, minimum, and maximum values of the starting time (offset) and duration of each job.

The chart below the Details list is a histogram view of the selected item in the Details list. The Logarithmic option may provide finer detail in the histogram. Hovering the mouse over each bar will give the value of the bar.

Click the Reset button to reset the average, minimum, and maximum values.

The Cycle Time is automatically set to be the same as the RMC’s loop time. The Cycle Overview chart timing is offset from the loop time, so the beginning of the Cycle Overview chart is not the same as the beginning of the loop time, and contains some jitter relative to the start of the loop time. Therefore, the actual Cycle Time may appear in this data to have more variation than it actually has.

Bus Load

The Bus Load chart graphically displays the average (gray) and maximum (green) load on the EtherCAT network in both Bytes per cycle and Bytes per second.

If the Bus Load becomes too heavy, the amount of PDO data may need to be reduced, or a longer loop time may need to be selected.

Click the Reset button to reset the average, minimum, and maximum values.

The Cycle Time is automatically set to be the same as the RMC’s loop time.