The first North American EtherCat Plug Fest was well attended with more than 20 experts from 11 EtherCat Technology Group (ETG, www.ethercat.org) member companies, the ETG reported on Oct. 28. At this Plug Fest, four new master implementations were tested with slave devices from eight different vendors. The main goal of this event, which was hosted by National Instruments Corp., in Austin, Texas, was to check the interoperability of EtherCat implementations.

On this note, Dr. James Truchard, president, chief executive officer and cofounder of National Instruments, underlined in his opening speech the need for conformance and interoperability for the success of a communication technology.

All EtherCat slave devices are operated individually and in groups with all present EtherCat masters. In addition, the devices have been checked with the official EtherCat Conformance Test Tool. With Plug Fests held in North America, Asia and Europe, the ETG is improving worldwide support and interoperability of EtherCat devices, the group said. Due to the demands of numerous upcoming EtherCat implementations and enhancements to existing devices, a date for the second North American Plug Fest will be announced soon, the ETG added.

EtherCat Technology Group
www.ethercat.org

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