General Questions about using ethercat

Hello,

I mainly have a few questions about Ethercat in combination with linuxcnc. I want to retrofit a machine that i currently own and possibly some more machines in the future. I have looked at a ton of different options for motors and servo's and came across the Ethercat servo's and servo drivers from leadshine. That system looks amazing just a few small cables very fast and extremely accurate. However i don't fully understand how it works and what i need to make it work because i see some convoluted things in some videos. My main Question is what do i need to make the motors work. Just make them able to run G-code. Because in some video's i see that they use a motion controller and in other they don't like is it necessary? Or could i just plug them into the back of my pc/pi or whatever system i end up using. And the other thing that i am still trying to figure out is does anyone know the quality of the drivers and servo from omc-stepperonline? i have used there stepperdrivers and motors which are great but is their system as good as the ones from leadshine? or is it a whitelabel? 

Im sorry if any of these questions are answered already but i just was not able to find a definitive answer to them

From what i am able to gather from your question is that you dont understand how to retrofit or use linuxcnc yet. It is deffinitly something you have to put time into.

Simply said, ethercat is just a communcation protcol for your motion controller to talk to your motors. With ethercat you just use ethernet cable which simplify the hardware side. Ethercat is not new but there are deffinitly more people doing it with mesa cards (so more examples to follow).

The ethernet cable just goes into your pc or RPI. I tend to get a seccond hand pc, with a pci slot left over and put a ethernet card which will be the dedicated ethercat connection.
here and example:
For IO stuff we tend to use the beckhoff system. EK1100 with some EL1818 and EL2818 modules

As for what brand. Yes, there is a difference between brands. Leadshine is realy good, however it also comes with a pricetag. I got Lichuan servo motors for half the price. There are also Stepper motors with an integraded driver, i think omc also sell them.

i would recommend you to watch some videos and read through some topics on how things are done. Marco reps has also done some nice videos on ethercat and linuxcnc:

Thanks for the response, and indeed i am new to Linuxcnc and Ethercat. In the past i have made my own controllers etc but i want to use a bit better of a system that is why i want to switch to servo instead of stepper etc. But what i am trying to figure out is if i need a motion controller? and if so what is it used for etc etc i kinda wanna learn the ropes from using ethercat as well as linuxcnc but before buying some really expensive servo's etc just thought about putting the question out here. But thanks for the replies i will look into the video's!

LinuxCNC IS the motion controller, so EtherCAT should work without any additional controllers.

Ohh amazing that is exactly what i need to hear thanks! I think i will order a servo and driver and will start on getting to know linuxcnc some more thanks!

You are welcomed, always.