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List:       orocos-users
Subject:    [Orocos-users] How to use IOComponent with EtherCAT
From:       peter.soetens () fmtc ! be (Peter Soetens)
Date:       2009-02-21 22:17:51
Message-ID: 200902212317.51378.peter.soetens () fmtc ! be
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On Wednesday 18 February 2009 10:25:05 Fuchs Clemens wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'd like to extend our control system prototype implemened in OROCOS
> with EtherCAT communication ability. I studied the OCL EtherCAT demo
> example and the IOComponent API reference. Before starting the
> implementation I want to make sure, wether I understood everthing
> correctly.

We should seriously consider removing the EtherCat demo, because the EtherCat 
Master Library (EML) it requires is no longer available due to license/patent 
issues. There's an alternative library available on Berlios: 
http://developer.berlios.de/projects/soem
but no Orocos component bindings are available.

>
> Here is a rough draft of my design:
> - a TastContext, which handles EtherCAT communication (configuring
> master, receive/transmit)
> - implementations of Analog/DigitalOutput/InputDevices writing/reading
> to buffer(s) provided by the EtherCAT task
> - other tasks write/read IOs via ports/methods provided by the
> IOComponenet.
>
> Am I on the rigtht track?

>From what I can see, that's ok. The IOComponent can benefit from some 
improvements/rework (also discussed not so long ago) so you might have to 
improve it (or skip it). There's nothing wrong with an application specific IO 
Adaptor component.

Peter

-- 
Peter Soetens -- FMTC -- <http://www.fmtc.be>

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