BECKHOFF ET2000 - Manual (Page 11)

Product overview
• Operation without ESL evaluation
The parser ..\Wireshark\plugins\ethercat.dll integrated in Wireshark > 1.0.2 as standard only decodes
EtherCAT frames and makes them readable. The additional 16­byte data (ESL) are referred to as
padding byte. It is not possible to filter the information that they contain.
• Operation with ESL evaluation
The ESL information can be decoded by replacing ethercat.dll with a version that can be downloaded
from the Beckhoff website:
­ CRC Error in the original frame
­ Alignment Error
­ Time stamp of ET2000
Note
Display of EtherCAT frames with ESL information
In the case described above Wireshark can only display Ethernet frames sent by the
ET2000, i.e. frames containing ESL information! To enable reading of Ethernet frames with­
out ESL information, delete/rename ethercat.dll and restart Wireshark.
Only software for Windows operating systems will be considered in these instructions.
Operation without ESL time stamp evaluation
Generally speaking, any appropriate software, such as Microsoft Network Monitor (NetMon), or Wireshark/
Etherreal Network Analyser can be used to record the Ethernet frames. It may be necessary to use
additional tools in order to analyze the information contained in the frames, and such tools are not
necessarily available for any software whatsoever. The further processes are therefore described using the
Wireshark network analysis software as an example.
Note
Etherreal vs. Wireshark
At present, Etherreal, unlike Wireshark, is not being further developed. Wireshark is the
continuation and further development of the well­known Etherreal network analysis pro­
gram, under a new name. Both are available free, and both (as well as NetMon) can be au­
tomated with scripts.
• Install the current version of Wireshark (www.wireshark.org) on your PC. Wireshark thus provides the
user interface and the data management for the recorded frames. The current WinPcap driver will be
installed at the same time, if it does not already exist. This takes the Ethernet frames from the network
port at the PC, and passes them on to Wireshark.
• Following installation, select Wireshark, choose Capture ­­> Interfaces to select the 1 Gbit network port
to which the ET2000 is transmitting, and start recording.
Note
Process data
Large quantities of data can sometimes accumulate in a very short time, depending on the
EtherCAT cycle time and process data range
ET2000 11 Version 2.0