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Ethercat, Linux and a TI Sitara based Development board... Is it possible.

Andrew Frazer
Expert 2305 points

Hi Folks,

I'm a reletive newbie to the Sitara plaform, i got a a couple of beaglebones and have had a good play with them.  Got Debian linux up and running and have them doing some useful stuff.  I'm contemplating a couple of product designs now..   Because its christmas i also had enough time to read some stuff and came across the ethercat solution that is on the ICE Development board...     I'm really interested in that because it could solve some problems i've had.

Is there a Sitara based Dev system that will allow me to use linux and ether cat?     Obvsioulyt he beagleboard won't, it only has one ethernet port!   I've ordered the ICE platform, but it seems that running linux on it,  is going to be challenging... and i've ordered the TMDSSK3358 - AM335x Starter Kit, which does have two ports,  and seems to run linux, but i'm not sure if it supports ethercat..

Does anyone have any wisdom on this they want to share?

  • 0
    TI__Expert 3353 points

    Hello,

    Do you need EtherCAT Master or slave? For EtherCAT slave, we've sys/bios RTOS running on ICE board for smaller footprint and faster response times. For Master, typically an RTOS like QNX or RT-Linux is used. We do've a  QNX based EtherCAT Master demo on TMDSSK3358 that was shown at SPS show last month.That'd be one option. There was a webinar recently on this topic.

    Have fun,

    - Srik

  • 0 in reply to Srik Gurrapu
    Expert 2305 points

    Right now, i'm more interested in the slave side of thing..     The master is much more likely to be a PC based system.. Or something much more powerful than a Arm-8.. My slave devices dont' need to have much processing power.

    When i think about the problem more, i don't nessarily need to run linux..  In fact theres probably a bunch of good reasons for not running linux.     The applications are written in C/C++ and probably could be ported without too much problem.     In fact we ported most of the application from a PIC 24H platfom into linux in the first place.

  • 0 in reply to Andrew Frazer
    Expert 2305 points

    Will Ethercat run on the AMX335x Starter Kit. since it has two ethernet portS?

  • 0 in reply to Andrew Frazer
    TI__Guru 50281 points

    Hi,

    No - EtherCAT slave wont run on starter kit because GEMAC MII pins are connected to ethernet ports in this EVM. For EtherCAT slave, PRUSS MII pins need to be connected to ethernet ports like in ICE and IDK EVMs.

  • 0 in reply to PratheeshGangadhar
    Expert 2305 points

    Thanks Pratheesh.

    I spent a long time reading the schematics and datasheets last night, and saw the various differences...  For my particaular applicaiton, I'm looking just to use Ethernet over Ethercat, so i use daisy chain toplogies.. I also note from the datasheet that this means i need to use a 3359 as its the only Sitara that supports Ethercat.

    I'd really liek to be able to run linux as well..    I see there is some people making some progress with that ICE board and Linux.

  • 0 in reply to Srik Gurrapu
    Prodigy 90 points

    Hello Srik,

    I'm developing EtherCAT Master on Sitara.  As you said TI HAVE QNX based EtherCAT Master demo on TMDSSK3358,  Was it free for us. Would you please give me the Web-link of the Demo?

    Thanks in advance,

    Xerxes