Ethercat drive configuration woes

I think I might leave this setup as it is for now. It's only a testing setup to try LinuxCNC and EtherCAT, although it may eventually get fitted to my little milling machine.
The real reason for testing this, is I'd like to use EtherCAT on a router that is currently a pile of metal in the workshop, but that will be using servos.


How would I change to the older ethercat master?

All drives report the same pdos.

IIRC the EK1101 came online without any issue, but I've only got an Encoder module for it (EL5xxx IIRC), and I don't have any encoders to test it just now, so I'm not sure if the values that showed in Hal config were active or not.
Although I might be able to use a linear scale on my CMM to provide an encoder...

I should have my drive up and running tonight. It is on Rpi4 4gb following Hakan's guide: forum.linuxcnc.org/ethercat/42048-notes-...spberry-pi-4?start=0, and use the etherlab master: github.com/icshwi/etherlabmaster, as recommended
I only have one drive but I also have a EK1100, with a EL1809,EL2809. of another machine that I can use while I'm waiting for the ones I ordered to arrive. I'm just at the point of making my .hal files and .xml files.

I can confirm that LinuxCNC starts without the drive connected. currently can't get out of Estop but I believe I just have to change my configuration. I don't have a lot of time tonight to do testing but I will see what I can get done

Ok, I am getting exactly the same behaviour if I start LinixCNC with the drive connected I get the same issue with the status word etc. if I start LinuxCNC and then connect the drive I get no problems and can jog the drive etc.

If I get time tonight I will implement the EK1100 and see how the system behaves from there

I'm glad to hear it's not just me getting the drive connection issue.

Wazza, out of curiosity, does FireFox open on your Pi?

There is only Chromium installed and no it won't run. I didn't get time last night to run the EK1100 but I will see what I can do, I'm curious if it followed what happened with you where it didn't configure the first drive but worked for the rest if it will configure the EK1100 end then the drive

Ah yeah, it's Chromium as default on Raspian.
I did find that if you remove Chromium, Dillo works, but that's much use for any site designed since the 90s, and I couldn't get Firefox to even install.
I was wondering if it was because I only tried a 2GB Pi, but obviously that isn't the problem.

In case you've not realised yet, don't try updating the Pi. It'll try updating the kernel, at which point the installer fails, you then won't be able to boot the Pi again, and the OS will need re-installed.

I think the first drive thing was a false flag on my part, and it's all to do with ensuring the drives aren't connected during booting.
I thought at one point I had to have a drive connected for the master/LinuxCNC to load, but the unplugging discovery was made having spent several hours trying various things.
It was only when I started fresh that I realised you could leave all the drives unplugged during loading.

I don't really have a use for a web browser. this unit will be for a plasma table and I will just transfer files to it. about the first drive, it should still be interesting to see if the EK1100 will start ok. i just need to steal it from my mill. its set up with estun servos for probably 8 or 9 years now with a mini pc the cia402 component really makes things easy to set up now, I think I will do a refresh of the mill setup and use the 402 and have a look at the new homing setup

Yeah, once installed a machine I wouldn't really care about a browser, but it's a bit of a pain when setting things up.

Can't copy and paste commands, and have to use a USB stick to copy any files off the Pi.
I'm probably going to move back to the Pi for testing, as I need to put the itx board back in my mill.