EtherCAT XML Configuration help (Elmo drive)

Ive been wading through posts here for a few days now. managed to get a master up and running, and the slaves to appear. As far as I can tell the next step add the drive to linuxcnc is to either find or create an XML file for the drives. I scavanged some Elmo Gold - G-CEL50 drives that I would like to use and figured I'd ask if there was anyone here who already created or found one. I've searched a bit around for next steps but did not have much luck, any help would be appriciated.

Thanks in advance, 

Steve Cap

Put the output of "lcec_configgen" into the ethercat-conf.xml file. With some luck it will work right away. Or cut and paste the info for the slave you are intrested in.

Thank you @Hakan! Is there a place in documentation that this can be referenced? I have found a few manuals like getting started and the ones listed at: linuxcnc.org/docs/stable/pdf/ but this command did not seem to be mentioned.

Thanks again,

Steve Cap

It's a relatively recent tool, developed by Scott when he overhauled lcec.
Bits and pieces are around, but I am not aware of any structured documentation on
how to set up Ethercat and find info like the one you asked for.

I did copy the output of `lcec_configgen` into `~/linuxcnc-dev/configs/` . After rebooting I did not notice anything different. Is there some initialization or command to get this xml processed by HAL? I have attached my xml to ensure it appears as expected.

Regards,

Steve Cap

Ok, I see. Have a look here, it outlines what you need to do. Save the output in ethercat-conf.xml and have a look at some examples.
github.com/linuxcnc-ethercat/linuxcnc-ethercat

There is also some good info in the sticky here forum.linuxcnc.org/ethercat/45336-etherc...-how-to-step-by-step

At a minimum you need some lines in the hal file, like
loadusr -W lcec_conf ethercat-conf.xml

and you need to have the ethercat-conf.xml (which you got from lcec_configgen)


 

I looked at the ethercat-conf.xml you attached. This can be easy.
They are cia402 drives.
Check out here for a complete, small example on how to connect cia402 drives.
github.com/dbraun1981/hal-cia402/tree/main/example
 

Thank you for all the help so far. I've been running into an issue and feared it may have been caused by my fumbling earlier on and some weird state I may have put the installation into. To resolve this, I started a fresh install from current ISO and so far it has been much smoother given that I have a little more understanding. However, I have still ended up getting stuck at the same place, lol. I have included a screenshot and some config files to assist troubleshooting. 

Thanks, 

Steve Cap 

There are probably several things. But let's start with the line
"loadusr -W ./lcec_conf ethercat-conf.xml'"
Remove the ./ and it will find the lcec_conf module at /usr/lib/linuxcnc/modules/lcec_conf.so
The filename ethercat-conf.xml on that line must match the file name where you have the config. You attach ethercat-conf_2025-02-26.xml.  If that's the one you use use the line "loadusr -W lcec_conf ethercat-conf_2025_02_26.xml".
You will get error because slave 0 and 2 do not have hal pins with the mentioned names. You had them as basic cia402 in the earlier xml file. Either go back to that or change the pin name in ethercat-conf.xml the "halPin" value there.
There is no slave 3 in ethercat-conf.xml so you will get errors when trying to use lcec.0.3.out-03 in the hal file.
 

Thanks for the reply again Hakan,
I have been trying numerous files from different cia402 examples, and im having a hard time understanding what is what. for example, my `lcec_configgen` output seems a bit disjointed. for example it seems to show some drives as "generic" and some as "basic_cia402", but they are indeed all the same make and model of drive. How does `lcec_configgen` generate this information? Is the a basic .hal, .xml & .ini available that has only the bare minimum to establish a connection? I have made the suggested changes and now have an error at "lcec.0.0.cia-statusword".

Thanks again for your patience

Steve Cap