Retrofitting an existing Ethercat machine

Hi all,
as it turns out I'll have the chance to retrofit a brand new 5 axis machine that already uses Ethercat hardware . Thing is it's fitted with power automation components, so that's another thing to have in mind .
I have absolutely no experience with Ethercat on LCNC, and i"d like to get a head start with some reading and researching .
Is it possible to use non Beckhoff equipment ?
How do I go about getting everything in hal ?

Any input is welcome .

Thank you in advance .
Cheers
Nikolai

if you are willing to invest some Money you coudt better change to a Mesa setup
that gives you the full comunity background
or as you are within some base cnc stuff fast respond
with only a view cable changes

if the driver board is one of this list you are quick on the system as it is supported
EtherCatDriver
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?back=EtherCatDriver
100+ pages of info here
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?back=EtherCatDriver

I have thought about switching over to Mesa hardware but that won't be too logical . The drives are with absolute encoders and Ethercat communication and it would be a shame to switch back to analog .

Hi @Niko,

Hi all,
as it turns out I'll have the chance to retrofit a brand new 5 axis machine that already uses Ethercat hardware . Thing is it's fitted with power automation components, so that's another thing to have in mind .
I have absolutely no experience with Ethercat on LCNC, and i"d like to get a head start with some reading and researching .

It seems like a great project, very interesting, if you don't have a lot of knowledge and work is in a hurry, the best thing would be to go to MESA, if you have time and you want to do it all!If possible without problems, the best way to start is with the generic driver included in linuxcnc-ethercat, there are several examples here in the forum.

How do I go about getting everything in hal ?

You have to do a little research on linuxcnc-ethercat, it is not very difficult if you have some knowledge, it is just time and bad head.