Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

<[email protected]> · Thu, 12 Sep 2013 08:21:46 +0000

Hi Damien,

We trialled the National Instruments modules with the NI 9144 [1]
backplane that supports several compact RIO modules.

I tested it with the NI 9125 [2] and the NI 9239 [3] at 1 KHz. Even  
though the modules are capable of acquiring samples faster, acquiring
them over Ethercat would mean modifying the backplane FPGA and we were
not prepared to reprogram it (it also involved purchasing more
hardware and licenses). Our Detectors group characterised the ADCs
and found them superior to Beckhoff ADCs.

Diamond's EtherCAT driver depends on XML information files that
National Instruments don't provide. They do provide a tool to generate
the xml description files and I only managed a few configurations
using product revisions as a marker for configurations.

The backplane's EPROM also has to be programmed for Etherlab to bring
up the chain, as described in Etherlab's FAQ page [4].

I have not tested any counters. Would the Ethercat update rate of 1
Khz be sufficient for your counters?

HTH,

Regards,

Ronaldo

[1] NI 9144 8-Slot EtherCAT Slave Chassis for C Series I/O Modules
    http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/206735
[2] NI 9215 4-Channel, 100 kS/s/ch, 16-bit, ±10 V Analog Input Module
    http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/208793
[3] NI 9239 4-Channel, 24-Bit Analog Input Module
    http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/208797
[3] I'm trying to establish communication with a slave, but the
    configuration fails. What can I do?
    http://www.etherlab.org/en/ethercat/faq.php

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Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System