Academic Company Events NI Developer Zone Support Solutions Products & Services Contact NI MyNI

NI Master and Slave Devices for EtherCAT

National Instruments offers a complete line of master controllers, intelligent slave devices, and NI LabVIEW graphical programming software that support the EtherCAT protocol. For masters that have the processing power of a PC and the ruggedness of a programmable logic controller (PLC), choose from a wide selection of NI real-time programmable automation controllers (PACs). NI also presents the world’s first EtherCAT slave with customizable field-programmable gate array (FPGA) intelligence, which provides onboard analysis, signal manipulation, and decision making at the node.

What Is EtherCAT?

EtherCAT, eCAT, e-cat, Beckhoff, ETG, real-time Ethernet

EtherCAT is a high-performance, real-time Ethernet protocol that uses a master/slave architecture that daisy chains into a line topology. Find out why this technology is well suited for high-speed I/O and control applications.

Learn about the protocol

Why Add FPGA Intelligence?

XFC, field programmable gate array, smart slave, intelligence, intelligent, high speed, vhdl

A typical EtherCAT device offers basic I/O or motion registers that are controlled by the master. Learn how the embedded FPGA logic on NI slaves provides onboard analysis, waveform data, and other new capabilities.

Read about smart EtherCAT slaves

How Do I Get Started?

Lv, labview, real-time, labview rt, fpga, scan mode, compactrio scan mode, i/o variable

Need to set up an NI system with EtherCAT support? Walk through step-by-step instructions that take you from unpacking your hardware to programming I/O with LabVIEW graphical software.

See the Getting Started guide

Shop for EtherCAT Products

Technical Details about NI Products