Overview

The IC-Monitor enables the analysis of IO-Link systems. In addition to packet-based protocol analysis and the general tools of the IC-Monitor, the user also has access to specific functions and views for analyzing IO-Link communication.

Analysis of an IO-Link system with the IC-Monitor

Packet-based Analysis

The IC-Monitor offers a comprehensive set of tools to extract and process-specific data from the packet-oriented communication between multiple participants.

  • Display of process data, resolved on the basis of device description files (IODDs)
  • Individually configurable protocol fields for IO-Link
  • Different representation formats of the telegram fields, including Byte, Binary, Hex and String
  • Use of filter, trigger and export functions
  • Simultaneous analysis with other communication systems, e.g. a higher-level Industrial Ethernet system for connecting the IO-Link master

Packet-based analysis of an IO-Link Event

Working with IO-Link Transmissions

For an analysis and diagnosis of an IO-Link system a separate view is available which displays the IO-Link transmissions, the so-called M-Sequences. The transmissions are created automatically based on the communication and identification parameters determined in the startup phase or specified manually. By referencing device description files (IODDs), transmissions such as events or ISDUs are decoded according to the IODDs.

View for displaying the IO-Link transmissions

Functions of the IO-Link Transmission View

  • List of all IO-Link transmissions of the different phases
  • ISDU Search by Index and SubIndex
  • Performance optimization through active filtering of IDLE transfers
  • Advanced filtering options, e.g.:
    • Transmission Type: Page, ISDU, Diagnosis
    • Transmission Sub-Type: Command, Page 1 or 2, ISDU Idle or Request
    • Direction: Read/Write
    • Master/Device: Depending on the IP address
    • Further filter
  • Information on individual IO-Link transmissions
    • Listing of the individual master and device messages (M-Sequences)
    • Transmitted process data, parameter data and diagnostic data

In addition to the IO-Link Transmissions view, general tools and views of the IC-Monitor, such as the Oscilloscope view and the Diagnostic Trace view, are also available for further analysis and diagnostics.

Configuration

  • Storage folder for IODD files
  • Automatic detection of properties of an IO-Link device based on stored IODDs
  • Overview of all automatically detected and manually set up IO-Link devices and their device-specific information:
    • IP address, Cycle-Times, Capability, PDin und PDout
    • Revision-, Vendor-, Device-, and Function-ID

Diagnosis

The Diagnostic Trace view provides an overview of all diagnostic messages that occur during a packet capture. In addition to general messages such as phase changes, protocol-specific diagnostics such as IO-Link events are also displayed in this view. If required, trigger or filter conditions can be applied to these events, for example to start a packet capture only in the event of an error.

IO-Link Events dispayed in the Diagnostic Trace view

Supported TAPs

The IC monitor supports the following TAPs required for capturing IO-Link packets:

IO-LINK Specifications

The IC-Monitor supports IO-Link 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.2 and 1.1.3.