New LinuxCNC-Ethercat git tree

As probably everyone has noticed, it's difficult to get things merged into  github.com/sittner/linuxcnc-ethercat , as the maintainer doesn't really have much time to devote to it any more.  With his blessing (see github.com/sittner/linuxcnc-ethercat/pul...uecomment-1368261269 ), I've forked it into a new repository  github.com/linuxcnc-ethercat/linuxcnc-ethercat and I've been trying to fix issues and merge pull requests.  I think it's finally at a state where it'd be good to have people poke at it.

A few changes compared to the current sittner tree:

• There's an auto-generated list of supported devices:  github.com/linuxcnc-ethercat/linuxcnc-et...mentation/DEVICES.md
• Device driver code has been moved from src/ into src/devices, and there is no longer a need to edit lcec_main.c, lcec_conf.h, lcec_conf.c, or Kbuild.  Just drop properly-configured code into src/devices and it'll build automatically.  This should make new module distribution via this forum less work.
• Drivers for several additional devices have been added.  In addition to all of the pending PRs from the old repo, I've added (currently mostly untested) support for ~all of the EL3[01]xx analog input devices.
• There's a Github release and testing process, so at least we can't commit code that doesn't build.  I'm working on getting Debian packages build automatically, but that's kind of a pain right now.

I've also assembled a test system with a bunch of random Beckhoff modules and I have a shell script that verifies that everything probes correctly and does some basic operations against the stack.  I'm slowly adding additional tests here as missing modules arrive in the mail.  I'd like to run this automatically this against every new change, but there are security issues with doing it the easy way in Github, so it may take a while.

At this point, I'd love people to do a few things:

• Test out the new tree, especially the new EL3xxx code, and let me know what works and what doesn't.
• Submit bug reports against the new tree.
• Send new drivers, bug fixes, and documentation updates.
• Send updates to the device list , especially updating notes and testing status.  If you're using devices and they work, then let's update the doc to say so.

I'd also love to add a couple extra maintainers for the repository.  I don't want to get into a state where I move on to something new and the PR backlog piles up like it did before.  

Thank you.

There is no need to maintain this repository because Sasha Itner has made an agreement with iGH the etherlabmaster people to host it on their repository. This repository is installed with the linuxcnc 2.9.x live installers.

If you download and install the Linuxcnc 2.9.2 iso from the downloads page linuxcnc.org/downloads/ all you need to do is to 
Then follow the normal ethercat steps documented in this sticky here
www.forum.linuxcnc.org/ethercat/45336-et...-how-to-step-by-step

There is a very brief description (readme.md) deployed to your home folder by the linuxcnc ISO installer

Great, that was needed.

Can we have a look at the halType=float for the generic driver? It's less than ideal today.
As it is today, lcec does a type conversion between ethercat datatype dint (int32) and hal's float (64-bit), so conversion between integer to float on bit level.
When I actually send a float through ethercat (real), it comes out wrong from lcec. This has been adressed by the halType=float-ieee, and another one halType=float-unsigned (I think it was).
I'm making  my own ethercat device and want to send a double (64-bit float) because it has better range, 14-15 digits, and float in hal is 64-bits (since LCNC 2.5 or so). Just normal C/C++ "double" datatype, ethercat datatype lreal.
And that can not be done today, it isn't possible to get 64-bit variables through lcec.

I see two ways.
The quick solution is to add a halType=float-double along the lines of float-ieee.
A more general way, which might raise other questions, is to acknowledge the data conversion aspect of the lcec generic driver and add something like ethercatType=lreal in the config line. Then lcec will read the ethercat data as a lreal (64-bit float) and convert it into the requested halType. It's my understanding that there is no info on datatypes in the ethercat data stream, only the data sizes, otherwise one should have used that to identify what comes in via ethercat, and how it should be sent out.



 

This was the email I received from Bjarn van Horn from IGh on 10 November 2023:

I'm happy to announce that Sascha Ittner's linuxcnc-ethercat package is now
available in our Debian 12 repository at  build.opensuse.org/project/
show/science:EtherLab . Yesterday we hat a very interesting call with Sascha,
he was fine that we distribute his package.
Now, linuxcnc users only have to add our debian repository to their machines,
like you explained in the forum post, and install linuxcnc-ethercat which
automatically installs the ethercat master too.

On a closer read, it looks like all you need to do is
I'm just not sure where you would send PRs for new drivers. Perhaps here somewhere?
build.opensuse.org/package/show/science:...ab/linuxcnc-ethercat

Already done, I think: github.com/linuxcnc-ethercat/linuxcnc-ethercat/pull/103/files