NI-Industrial Communications for EtherCAT Known Issues

Overview

This document contains the NI-Industrial Communications for EtherCAT known issues that were discovered before and since the release of LabVIEW 2009. Not every issue known to NI will appear on this list. It is intended to only show the severe and more common issues that can be encountered.

Contacting NI

You can contact NI by phone, email, or the discussion forums. Visit the NI Website to contact us. If you are contacting NI in regards to a specific issue, be sure to reference the ID. If you have feedback on this document, please contact NI on this NI Developer Zone post.

Known Issues by date

Issues added on 08/04/2009
179996 — The NI 9478 doesn't change output to 0A current in overcurrent situations if pluged into NI9144 chassis.
180304 — FPGA bitfile download fails if the 9144 chassis has 2 or more motion modules and at least one of them is pluged into one of the last 4 slots.
180939 — FPGA compiled code fail to meet timing with User-Defined Variables in slower clock domains.
181209 — The NI-9476 module doesn't report overcurrent situations if plug-ed into NI 9144 chassis.
Issues added on 07/29/2010
236792 — The NI EtherCAT Master can NOT construct the correct topology if there is 3-way beckhoff E-Bus device in the middle of the network.
113124 — It is currently not possible to drag/drop C-Series modules from cRIO chassis to NI 9144 ECAT chassis.
219174 — If the NI PCI-8232 is used in RT desktop PCs it cannot be configured to EtherCAT mode.
221057 — The programmatic API does not discover devices if there's no I/O associated to the device.
Issues added 08/08/2013
325944 — Using Real-Time target alias in URL for Raw Data Methods will not function.
Issues added on 05/07/2014
430039 — Shipping 2.6 firmware may not work with older EtherCAT master drivers.
Issues added on 06/08/2015
481615 — EtherCAT Master ID Edit Box Disappears in MAX for PharLap and VxWorks targets.
492751 — Writing value 9 to "CoE Port Override", OD Index=0x5FFF, will cause 9144 to be unable to function correctly.
522318 — Module Input Data are not synchronized when scan engine period is large.
Issues added on 01/18/2016
561797 — sbRIO-9651 target fails to switch Ethernet Adapter eth1 to EtherCAT Mode.
600122 — [Remote I/O] Scaling of REM-11120 is not correct for range 4mA~20mA
Issues added on 06/28/2019
695017 — Warning 2147137817 occurred when trying to read/write IOV with EtherCAT 17.0 on cRIO-9038 (Sync) / cRIO-9039 (Sync) and IC-3171 / 3172 / 3173

 

IDKnown Issue
179996

The NI 9478 doesn't change output to 0A current in overcurrent situations if plug-ed into NI9144 chassis.

Return to Top

Issue: When "Enable Overcurrent Refresh" is disabled in the NI-9478 property page, a particular Channel at a cRIO module goes to off (0A) in case the the current reaches the configured active limit. For NI 9144 chassis the current drops to near zero but the channel doesn't go off. It behaves like in refresh mode only that it floats after it reaches the active limit.

Workaround: None

Reported Version: 1.1  Resolved Version: 2.0  Added: 08/04/2009
180304

FPGA bitfile download fails if the 9144 chassis has 2 or more motion modules and at least one of them is pluged into one of the last 4 slots.

Return to Top

Issue: Under specific circumstances you might get an error dialog "Download failed !" after you have successfully compiled your FPGA code. This error will happen if you have one of your two or more Motion modules plug-ed into one of the last four slots of your 9144 chassis.

Workaround: 1. Unplug the motion modules (if they are in last 4 slots) before download, complete the download and then plug the motion modules back; 2. Download the FPGA bitfile via slave Online State Panel

Reported Version: 1.1  Resolved Version: 1.2  Added: 08/04/2009
180939

FPGA compiled code fail to meet timing with User-Defined Variables in slower clock domains.

Return to Top

Issue: LV FPGA project allows to create derived clocks for different time domains. The FPGA compiler might fail to compile different clock domains used in your FPGA code.

Workaround: The FPGA compiler can only compile the default 40 MHz clock domain for the 9144 target.

Reported Version: 1.1  Resolved Version: 2.0  Added: 08/04/2009
181209

The NI-9476 module doesn't report overcurrent situations if plug-ed into NI 9144 chassis.

Return to Top

Issue: The NI-9144 chassis firmware currently doesn't support the over-current report feature that is supported for cRIO chassis.

Workaround: None

Reported Version: 1.1  Resolved Version: 2.0  Added: 08/04/2009
236792

The NI EtherCAT Master can NOT construct the correct topology if there is 3-way beckhoff E-Bus device in the middle of the network.

Return to Top

Issue: Currently one can not use a 3-way beckhoff E-Bus device in the middle of a EtherCAT network with the NI EtherCAT master software. Devices connected to this 3-way device might not be detected or work properly.

Workaround: Use the 3-way beckhoff E-bus device at the end of the network chain.

Reported Version: 2.0  Resolved Version: 2.6  Added: 07/29/2010
113124

It is currently not possible to drag/drop C-Series modules from cRIO chassis to Ni 9144 ECAT chassis.

Return to Top

Issue: It is currently not possible to drag/drop C-Series modules from cRIO chassis to Ni 9144 ECAT chassis. This is because NI 9144 chassis do not support "specialty digital" modes for digital C-series modules.

Workaround: Unspecified

Reported Version: 2.0  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 07/29/2010
219174

If the NI PCI-8232 is used in RT desktop PCs it cannot be configured to EtherCAT mode.

Return to Top

Issue: This problem happens only when you use a NI PCI-8232 and another non-Intel 8254x Ethernet adapter (e.g. Broadcom 57xx adapters or Intel 8255x adapters) on his/her RT Desktop PC target. In this case, it's possible that the PCI-8232 is listed by RT as the first Ethernet adapter, so user cannot set it to EtherCAT mode in MAX (even though you can configure another adapter as Primary).

Workaround: 1. In MAX, make sure the non-PCI-8232 adapter is set as Primary. 2. Install RT software (including EtherCAT) to your Desktop target. 3. FTP to your target, modify your "ni-rt/system/ethernet/ethernet.ini" file as follows: In [DRIVERS] section, for both StandardDrivers and IPEthernetDrivers, change the "Intel 8254x Ethernet" to the last place. 4. Reboot your target. 

Now the PCI-8232 will be listed as the 2nd Ethernet adapter and you can configure it to EtherCAT mode in MAX.

Reported Version: 2.0  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 07/29/2010
221057

The 2.0 programmatic API does not discover devices if there's no I/O associated to the device.

Return to Top

Issue: Whenever there is a device in the network that doesn't have I/O assigned to it the API is not able to discover the device profile during refreshing modules. If there is no profile for any slave/module, the driver cannot get the PDO/IO information of it. Thus it cannot be added to the I/O list.

Workaround: None

Reported Version: 2.0  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 07/29/2010
325944

Using Real-Time target alias in URL for Raw Data Methods will not function

Return to Top

Issue: Using the LabVIEW Project Alias name of an Real-Time target instead of the target IP address will not function when using the RawData.InputInfo and RawData.OutputInfo methods. 

Workaround: Use IP address of Real-Time target instead of alias name when using the GetInputRawDataInfo and GetOutputRawDataInfo methods.

Reported Version: 2.3  Resolved Version: 2.7  Added: 08/08/2013
430039

Shipping 2.6 firmware may not work with older EtherCAT master drivers.

Return to Top

Issue: The old EtherCAT master(<=2.5) cannot change to active with 9144 of the newer firmware with module 9213 plugged, (>=2.6) because 9144 firmware update the PDO layout of 9213, which introduced the incompatibility. Users who are using 9213 on 9144 of the 2.6 and above firmware and using EtherCAT Master 2.5 or lower will see this issue.

Workaround:  Update the ESI profile for 9213, i.e. CompactRIO9213.xml to the version corresponding to the firmware of 9144 in use. both on host(for Deployment use) and target(for Programmatic API use).

Or downgrade the 9144s that are of newer firmware version(e.g. 2.6) to the current version(e.g. 2.4) of EtherCAT Master.

Reported Version: 2.6  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 05/07/2014
481615

EtherCAT Master ID Edit Box Disappears in MAX for PharLap and VxWorks targets.

Return to Top

Issue:  Installing EtherCAT through RSS on PharLap and VxWorks targets can cause the EtherCAT Master ID Box in Network Settings for EtherCAT ports to disappear.

Workaround:  The EtherCAT Master ID edit box requires the NI Web-Based Configuration and Monitoring to be installed on the target.  This is not listed as a dependency in RSS.  To resolve this issue, manually select NI Web-Based Configuration and Monitoring.

Reported Version: 14.0  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 06/08/2015
492751

Writing value 9 to "CoE Port Override", OD Index=0x5FFF, will cause 9144 to be unable to function correctly.

Return to Top

Issue:  Writing 9 to the object dictionary register 0x5FFF will cause the user to no longer be able to write any value to 0x5FFF on the NI 9144.  Restarting the NI 9144 will resolve the issue.

Workaround:  None

Reported Version: 14.0  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 06/08/2015
522318

Module Input Data are not synchronized when scan engine period is large.

Return to Top

Issue:  When the scan engine is set to a large value, for example 500 ms, the input data of the different modules are no longer synchronized.

Workaround:  Use a faster scan period.

Reported Version: 14.0  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 06/08/2015
561797

sbRIO-9651 target fails to switch Ethernet Adapter eth1 to EtherCAT Mode.

Return to Top

Issue:  When trying to switch sbRIO-9651 target Ethernet Adapter eth1 to EtherCAT mode, the eth1 disappears from MAX network tab after restarting the target.

Workaround:  Download the patch on ni.com at this link.

Reported Version: 15.0  Resolved Version: N/A  Added: 01/18/2016
600122

An error in EtherCAT 16.0 Remote I/O Scale API.

Return to Top

Issue:   There is an error in the Block Diagram of the shipped "_Scale REM-11102.vi" which is located in your system path "...\LabVIEW 2016\vi.lib\indcomecat\Remote IO\internal\". The base value should be 0.004(A) instead of 4(A) in range "4 mA...20mA". 

Workaround:  Please manually correct the value "4" into "0.004" in the Block Diagram of the VI. It will be fixed in 16.1 release. See this KB for more details.

  

Reported Version: 16.0  Resolved Version: 16.1  Added: 08/30/2016
695017

Warning 2147137817 occurred when trying to read/write IOV with EtherCAT 17.0 on cRIO-9038 (Sync) / cRIO-9039 (Sync) and IC-3171 / 3172 / 3173

Return to Top

Issue:  Using the EtherCAT driver with master cRIO-9038 (Sync)/cRIO-9039 (Sync)/IC-3171 /IC-3172 /IC-3173. When you try to read/write IOV on the slave, you could get the warning 2147137817.

Workaround:  None.

Reported Version: 17.0  Resolved Version: 17.6  Added: 06/28/2019

Document last updated on 06/28/2019

Glossary of Terms

 

  • Bug ID - When an issue is reported to NI, you may be given this ID or find it on ni.com.  You may also find IDs posted by NI on the discussion forums or in KnowledgeBase articles.
  • Legacy ID – An older issue ID that refers to the same issue.  You may instead find this issue ID in older known issues documents.
  • Description - A few sentences which describe the problem. The brief description given does not necessarily describe the problem in full detail.
  • Workaround - Possible ways to work around the problem.
  • Reported Version - The earliest version in which the issue was reported.
  • Resolved Version - Version in which the issue was resolved or was no longer applicable. "N/A" indicates that the issue has not been resolved.
  • Date Added - The date the issue was added to the document (not the reported date).