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AM263P2: AM263P EtherCAT Master Development (PRU vs. R5F)

G Gypso
Prodigy 10 points

Part Number: AM263P2

Dear TI Engineer,

I am an engineer developing an EtherCAT Master on the AM263P. I am seeking your expert guidance due to critical roadblocks in the PRU firmware development.

1. Current Blockers

Our core goal is to implement an EtherCAT Master using the AM263P. We face two major issues:

1) Example Mismatch: The PRU examples in the MCU+SDK handle standard Ethernet frames, not EtherCAT. Adapting them requires massive rework.

2) The existing PRU code is in Assembly, making modification, debugging, and maintenance extremely difficult.

2. Required Support (PRU Path)

Please advise on the following:

1)  Development Best Practices: Recommended workflow for integrating PRU firmware with the EtherCAT Master.

2) Alternative Resources: Does TI provide a pre-built PRU firmware for AM263P EtherCAT Master? If not, is there a C-language example or one requiring minimal changes?

3) Modification Guide: Key modules to modify in the existing Assembly examples and any official documentation to reduce debugging time.

3. Feasibility Study (R5F Only Path)

We are also evaluating a solution without PRU:

Performance Benchmark: If using one R5F for the Master and another for control logic, what is the minimum cycle time achievable with 32 slave nodes?

4.Current Resources

TI AM263P launchPad, CCS 12.8.1,mcu_plus_sdk_am263px_10_02_00_15, ind_comms_sdk_am263px_10_02_00_22

The PRU example mentioned above is located at mcu_plus_sdk_am263px_10_02_00_15\source\networking\icss_emac, named dual_emac_am263px-lp_icss_m0_pru0_fw_ti-pru-cgt.


Thank you for your time and support. Please let me know if you need further details.

 

Best regards

  • 0
    TI__Guru 58920 points

    Hi G,

    Thank you for your query. The EtherCAT master does not need a specific networking peripheral like ICSS.

    EThercat master and EThercat slave fundamentally differ at the MAC level interface, because even your Windows PC can act as a master, as long as it can support sending packets out of the Ethernet interface.

    So that means you should use the CPSW interface to implement the EtherCAT master. I can give you one example:

    Let's take the SOEM master stack as an example. The SOEM stack only needs a network socket i.e a way to generate an Ethernet packet with a specified Eth Tag, which can be done using CPSW.

    - Implement an OS abstraction layer compatible with  FreeRTOS
    - Develop a network interface adapter for CPSW
    - Implement necessary socket/packet handling functions

    - Port SOEM's low-level Ethernet access functions to use CPSW
    - Adapt timing functions to work with AM263Px timers
    - Implement proper interrupt handling for packet reception

    - Create a project structure for the EtherCAT master application
    - Implement initialization sequence for CPSW and SOEM
    - Add configuration options for EtherCAT master behavior
    - Implement a state machine for EtherCAT communication

    public.acontis.com/.../os_freertos.html