Distributed Clock

Precisely synchronization between the slaves is always required if distributed slaves are used to carry out actions at the same time. One of those applications for example is the control of several servo axes, which shall carry out coordinated movements.

Another application is the AC500 Camswitch functionality. In this application it is important to calculate the angle velocity and the position of the main axis precisely.

EtherCAT® uses synchronization according to IEEE 1588. This method provides synchronization which is very resistant to communication disturbances.

This synchronization mechanism eliminates:

• different start-up times
• delay times between the slave with the master clock and all other slaves
• drift of the local clocks.