If your motion controller uses SERCOS, you can take advantage of specialized status information. The MPIStatusMask in the MPIStatus structure makes it possible to read the MPIStatusFlag(s):

/* MPIStatus */
typedef enum {
	MPIStatusFlagINVALID,
	MPIStatusFlagCOMM_ERROR,
} MPIStatusFlag;

#define	mpiStatusMaskBIT(flag)    (0x1 << (flag))

typedef enum {
    MPIStatusMaskNONE         = 0x0,
    MPIStatusMaskCOMM_ERROR   = mpiStatusMaskBIT(MPIStatusFlagCOMM_ERROR),  /* 0x00000001 */
    MPIStatusMaskMOTOR        = MPIStatusMaskCOMM_ERROR,                    /* 0x00000001 */
    MPIStatusMaskALL          = mpiStatusMaskBIT(MPIStatusFlagLAST) - 1	    /* 0x00000001 */
} MPIStatusMask;

typedef struct MPIStatus {
    MPIState        state;
    MPIAction       action;
    MPIEventMask    eventMask;

    long     settled;
    long     atTarget;

    MPIStatusMask     statusMask;
} MPIStatus;

Presently, the only MPIStatusFlag supported is MPIStatusFlagCOMM_ERROR. This flag represents the communication status. For XMP-Series SERCOS controllers, this flag represents the status of the SERCOS communication. When the SERCOS communication ring fails, the MPIStatusFlagCOMM_ERROR is set. The flag can only be cleared by re-initializating the SERCOS ring with mpiSercosInit(...).