EL7041-0052 on LinuxCNC

Hey Guys,  
I´m new to LinuxCNC (more or less to Linux to). I have to replace the control system for an old CNC-machine. Therefore this system shall operate on LinuxCNC and EtherCAT. My prof would prefer the EL7041-0052 modules from Beckhoff. I have looked at the EtherCAT drivers and these modules aren’t listed.  So my question is: did somebody use these modules in LinuxCNC and if so, is it a hassle to do so? 


Best Regards

LittleShorty

Getting EtherCAT working for LinuxCNC can be a hassle by itself.

Here an example config:

forum.linuxcnc.org/27-driver-boards/3571...basic-example-el7041

The EL7041 has direct support in linuxcnc-ethercat

Thank you very much. It is good to know, that it is possible. I hope that 12 days will be enough time to get it to run.

Post photos:
<getting popcorn>

@LittleShorty

Ok you have a lot to figure out in less than 12 days.  Here are a few things to hopefully help you with time.

The quickest way to get this working is using Grotius's ISO that he built.  0x2102 pointed you toward Grotius with the link.  I tried it out a couple of times back when he first released (seems like 2yrs ago or so), and it was well built.  I personally build everything so that I can get a pristine build, but for speed you would be better off going the ISO pre-built route, as you will have a huge learning curve to get everything working. 
*EDIT*
I just realized the ISO is not going to work anymore as mercurial migrated and the script will fail.  Sorry about that, wanted to let you know asap so you wouldn't waste time on it.

Ok, if for some reason the ISO did not work for you, then you will need to build from scratch.  Don't waste time on the DEB install that Sascha put up on his server back around 2012 or 2013 as that will not have the EL7041-xxxx files in the code.  Back in the day that was the super easy way to get started with getting EtherCAT working, but you will have to do a full build for the EL7041's to work.  Plus, that is LCNC 2.7 on Wheezy which is outdated, but I still have one machine using it as it is super reliable.

Once you have the EtherCAT Master working where you can see the Beckhoff terminals from the command line by doing an "ethercat slaves" then you can see if the EL7041-0052 shows up like that or a different way.  I'm not familiar with the -0052 model, but there are a few different versions of the 7041.  I have around 15 of these terminals with most being the EL7041-0000 versions.  You may have the problem I ran into.  Many years ago, before the 7041 code was tweaked, ONLY the EL7041-1000 would work.  I could not get any other model to work.  I could have everything working with the -1000 model and LCNC would fire up and work, but if I simply changed out the terminal with a -0000 model and tweak the XML file it would not work.  No matter what you put in the XML, whether "EL7041", "EL7041-1000", "EL7041-0000", "7041-0000", ETC...  Nothing would work.   SO, the work around was to use Beckhoff's TwinCAT software to "rename" the terminal to "EL7041-1000" and sure enough it would work.  I know the code has been fixed years ago for this problem, but I wanted to put this out there in case you can "see" the terminal from the command line but could not get it to fire up in LCNC.  So, if you get a DMESG in LinuxCNC saying "invalid slave EL7041-0052", then you will know what is wrong.

Hope this helps...  Like RotarySMP said, we are <getting popcor> 


Robert

Thank you verry much for your effort. I think this information alone will prevent me from some hour of testing and frustration. I hope that it will be enough. This little mill is just a part project, so I don’t have too much time to spend on it. But I hope that it will work.

I will update as soon as I get some results. Or if I am so frustrated, that I don’t know what to do anymore