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EtherCAT: All you need to know
Table of Contents

Summary

image-20251223-171357.png


Github

https://github.austin.utexas.edu/rh43278/EcApp

Setup

Install atemsys kernel module: 

git clone https://github.com/acontis/atemsys.git
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
cd atemsys
make CC=x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc-13 modules
sudo mkdir -p /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra
sudo cp atemsys.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/
sudo depmod
sudo vim /etc/modules-load.d/atemsys.conf
add this line "atemsys"

Make the intelGBE library available to application:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:~/EcApp/bin/
sudo chmod +x bin/libemllIntelGbe.so
sudo cp bin/libemllIntelGbe.so /usr/lib/
sudo ldconfig

Unbind the active eth driver if needed:

If you get the error: ioctl ATEMSYS_IOCTL_PCI_CONF_DEVICE failed: Device or resource busy confirms that the Linux kernel is still managing the NIC (Network Interface Controller) at PCI address 0000:00:1f.6 with its default driver (likely e1000e). Your PCI address may be different.

  1. Identify the active driver:

$ lspci -k -s 00:1f.6

0000:00:1f.6 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (17) I219-LM (rev 11)
        Subsystem: Dell Ethernet Connection (17) I219-LM
        Kernel driver in use: e1000e
        Kernel modules: e1000e

  1. Unbind the NIC from the Linux Driver

$ echo "0000:00:1f.6" | sudo tee /sys/bus/pci/drivers/e1000e/unbind

  1. Bind the NIC to atemsys kernel object

echo "0000:00:1f.6" | sudo tee /sys/bus/pci/drivers/atemsys_pci/bind

Build and Run

cd EcApp/
make
sudo ./ecApp

Thread Table

Thread Name

Function

Real-Time?

CPU Core

Priority

Main

State Management

No (Standard)

21

39

TimingTask

Cyclic Trigger

Yes

21

99

doCycle

EtherCAT I/O

Yes

21

98

Logging

Message Writing

No (Low Prio)

0

29

Link Layer

NIC Polling

Yes

21

N/A

Action Items

Type your action, use '@' to assign to someone.
Write a udev rule or bootup script to load atemsys.ko and bind to eth interface, ​@Reed Hamilton​
Type your action, use '@' to assign to someone.
Use ECEngineer to generate an eni.xml for the expected EtherCAT network, ​@Reed Hamilton​
Type your action, use '@' to assign to someone.
Integrate shared memory writes into myAppWorkpd() function, ​@Reed Hamilton​
Type your action, use '@' to assign to someone.
Move github repo to appropriate location, ​@Reed Hamilton​
Type your action, use '@' to assign to someone.
Test EtherCAT application on networked test environment, ​@Reed Hamilton​
Type your action, use '@' to assign to someone.
Create a clean build process for EcApp builds, version control them, deploy them etc. ​@Reed Hamilton​