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AM2612: EtherCAT evaluation stack vs SSC stack in AM261x Industrail communications SDK

Robert Huang
Prodigy 141 points

Part Number: AM2612

Hi experts,

There are 2 EtherCAT SubDevice demos, (1) one is using evaluation stacks (or called TI integrated stack) and (2) the other is using SSC stack in AM261x Industrail communications SDK. For evaluation stacks, they will run for 1 hour only if SSC library is not built up. For this case, when I build the example project, the error shown "[0]error #10008-D: cannot find file "ethercat_subdevice_bkhf_ssc.am261x_lp.r5f.ti-arm-clang.release.lib"", which seems we still need to have beckhoff library (SSC library). Could you please help how to solve this issue? Note: The imported project name is 'ethercat_subdevice_cia402_demo_am261x-lp_r5fss0-0_freertos_ti-arm-clang'

If we take option (1) and build up SSC library in advance, whic is unlimited TI integrated stack, what is the benefit compared to SSC library? What 's your suggestion for development EtherCAT SubDevice?

BR, Robert Huang

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 40843 points

    Hi Robert,

    Both EtherCAT SubDevice paths in the AM261x SDK ultimately depend on the Beckhoff SSC — the "evaluation stack" demos are not SSC-free; they link against a prebuilt SSC library (ethercat_subdevice_bkhf_ssc.*.lib). If that library hasn't been built yet, the linker throws error #10008-D because the file doesn't exist 1.

    To resolve it, you must obtain and build the SSC library first:

    1. Download EtherCAT SSC version 5.13 from the ETG website (license required) 2.
    2. Place the SSC source files in: ${SDK_INSTALL_PATH}/source/industrial_comms/ethercat_subdevice/beckhoff_stack/stack_sources/
    3. Patch the sources — either via the provided patch files (TI_ECAT.patch, or TI_ECAT_cia402.patch for CiA402 support) or by regenerating via the Beckhoff SSC Tool (v1.5.3.0) 2.
    4. Rebuild the library per the readme at: ${SDK_INSTALL_PATH}/source/industrial_comms/ethercat_subdevice/stack/patch/SlaveFiles/src/readme.md 3.

    Version note (important): An E2E thread for AM2612 confirms that building the Beckhoff SSC stack correctly requires MCU+SDK 11.0 and MCSDK 2025.0 — it does not work with ICSDK/MCSDK 10.02, which produces preprocessor errors (OBJ_STRUCT_PACKED_START) and unresolved source-file paths 4. Confirm your SDK version matches this before building.

    Also, if you're building the CiA402 variant, note that TI_ECAT_cia402.patch was reported missing from some SDK packages — TI provided a temporary download in a separate E2E thread and confirmed it will be included in the next SDK release 5. Do not apply TI_ECAT.patch separately if using the CiA402 patch — it's a combined patch already including the base changes 2.

    Clarifying "evaluation stack" vs "SSC demo" — they're not two independent stacks

    The documentation does not describe the "evaluation stack" demos (Simple Demo, CiA402 Demo, Webserver Demo, ESI Parser Demo) as a separate/alternate stack from SSC — rather:

    Evaluation stack demos Beckhoff SSC Demo
    Underlying stack Beckhoff SSC + TI adaptation, prebuilt library 1 Beckhoff SSC, source added/patched manually 2
    Features CiA402/Modular Device profile, dynamic OD reconfig, EoE w/ LwIP, Flash NVM adaptation (per demo) 6 Base SSC functionality only, no TI feature adaptation
    Runtime limit 1 hour unless SSC library is rebuilt (unlimited once rebuilt) 1 No runtime limit noted, but requires more manual integration effort

    Suggestion for EtherCAT SubDevice development

    • The CiA402 Demo (which you're already using) is the TI-adapted stack with more built-in features (CiA402 profile, dynamic OD reconfiguration, EoE, Flash NVM) 6, once you rebuild the SSC library per the readme, this becomes your unlimited, feature-rich starting point.
    • The plain Beckhoff SSC Demo is a more minimal/base example without the TI feature adaptations, useful mainly as a reference for raw SSC integration.

    Given you already have the CiA402 project imported, rebuilding the SSC library for that project (rather than switching to the bare SSC demo) aligns with the documented feature set. Just confirm your SDK version is 11.0/MCSDK 2025.0 to avoid the build errors seen in the E2E case above 4.

    Resources:

    1. EtherCAT SubDevice Demos (evaluation stack)
    2. EtherCAT SubDevice Beckhoff SSC Demo
    3. Examples Industrial Comms
    4. E2E: AM2612 ECAT Beckhoff link error
    5. E2E: AM2612 TI_ECAT_CiA402.patch is missing
    6. AM26x Academy: EtherCAT stack comparison table

    Best Regards,

    Zackary Fleenor