Ethercat HAL driver

I've been using LinuxCNC for a few years now on a Bridgeport control retrofit with analog servo drivers, and would like to continue using it for a new project that involves 5 Chinese EtherCAT servo drives (3.8kW servos+drives from a properly supported brand is a little... expensive.) Could I get an overview of what integration with these drives would entail when using the generic driver? I do have the full datasheet for the drives I intend to use, I'm assuming that's crucial. I was also wondering how one could go about using LinuxCNC to tune the drive's PID loop - is it possible to set the PID and feed forward values over EtherCAT, and use position feedback from the drive for F_ERROR? I am mostly intrigued by EtherCAT as a means of reducing wiring clutter, if integration with generic EtherCAT devices is still untenable from an ease of use standpoint I may consider going with analog drives again.

Thanks for the help.

Hello

Could I get an overview of what integration with these drives would entail when using the generic driver?

This depends on the drive. Is it an CoE or Soe Drive and how the manufacture has done the implementation. Usually you have to setup
the communication with the generic driver and then the control/handling operations has to be done in the hal.

I was also wondering how one could go about using LinuxCNC to tune the drive's PID loop - is it possible to set the PID and feed forward values over EtherCAT,

if you want to change the parameters in the drive with linuxcnc, that's possible. Most people do the position pid in linuxcnc, and the drive does velocity and current control.

if integration with generic EtherCAT devices is still untenable from an ease of use standpoint

If you are firm with hal, xml file format and read a little about what is Ethercat and how the communication is done then setup is straight forward. The most problems here in the past are PC, emv, network card or linux installation related. If the environment is fine, then linuxcnc ethercat is very easy to handle.

hello fjcarroll,

setting up an CoE drive should be much easier in the future.

forum.linuxcnc.org/24-hal-components/418...can-bus-ethercat-etc

db1981 wrote: strike......

did you pluged the patch cable in the ethercat network? this will not work...

You would need an second network port on your pc. The ec master now has created an virtual network interface for your eoe device : eoe0a8. (if you type ip addr it shoud be listed...)

What you now need is (virtual)bridge between your second hardware ethernet interface and the eoe network interfaces. Then you can connect from your indradrive pc to the virtual eoe interface over your wifi or second lan port...

I'm not an network administrator, but i reads simple. google "debian bridge interfaces"

Hi @db1981

I´ve tried to set up a bridge fot my eoe8a0 to my WiFi adapter, but my Indraworks does not find them, but i even don´t know if i must specify a ip adress to talk to the drive or if it is done by the bridge itself.

Hi,

is the interface listed with "ipp addr"? Has it got an adress?

This is what i get when i type "ip addr" in terminal

lcnc@LinuxCNC-M75q:~$ ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp3s0f0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 6c:4b:90:cd:99:1d brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlp2s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 40:5b:d8:e3:ad:cf brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.178.42/24 brd 192.168.178.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute wlp2s0
valid_lft 861541sec preferred_lft 861541sec
inet6 2003:c1:1f06:6500:1585:13ed:3d56:eee5/64 scope global temporary dynamic
valid_lft 6928sec preferred_lft 1219sec
inet6 2003:c1:1f06:6500:a85e:f39a:30ad:aa76/64 scope global dynamic mngtmpaddr noprefixroute
valid_lft 6928sec preferred_lft 1219sec
inet6 fe80::d1ad:c6f1:5202:2f96/64 scope link noprefixroute
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
4: wlan1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/ether 42:5b:d8:e3:ad:cf brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
5: eoe0a8: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 02:cd:99:1d:00:08 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.178.233/24 brd 192.168.178.255 scope global noprefixroute eoe0a8
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever