• State TI Thinks Resolved
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 4 replies
  • Answers 1 answer
  • Subscribers 101 subscribers
  • Views 619 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Support feedback
Options
Options
Similar topics

This thread has been locked.

If you have a related question, please click the "Ask a related question" button in the top right corner. The newly created question will be automatically linked to this question.

BEAGLEBK: Profibus Slave licensing

Marcos Gonzalez1
Intellectual 270 points

Part Number: BEAGLEBK

Hello,

I have adapted/ported the Profibus slave example provided with the PRU-ICSS Industrial Software for Sitara processors to work in the BeagleBone Black board.

I think it might be a good educational exercise (to learn about industrial communications, RTOS,...) and I was thinking of posting instructions on Github.

But I have a concern regarding the export control restrictions that apply. I'm actually a bit confused because according to the license included with the code redistribution is allowed as long as the copyright notice and non-endorsement conditions are retained.

The question is then: can I publish the code of the Profibus example itself (original or with modifications)?

To make the example work on the BBB I had to modify the source code of the Ti-RTOS PDK, but since that is part of the Processor SDK I'm assuming no restrictions apply on that front.

I do understand there are commercial reasons for TI not to actively support (or at least include the source with the PDK) the Profibus or other industrial communication protocols on the BBB (I'm joining the dots here and I hope not overstretching them but I'm guessing the BBB is not at all a competitor to the Sitara development boards for which the examples are intended so not much profit would be sacrificed there).

On the other hand, Profibus hardware is very expensive and I think there would be an audience for educational purposes. I'm wondering why there is no support for these examples on the BBB...

Thank you in advance for your feedback on this.


  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 35100 points

    Hi Marcos, thank you for working on porting PRU-ICSS Profibus on BB, and thank you for wanting to share it with the community!!. Let me ask internally to our legal team as I am not an expert on these topics.

    Could you please send me your project (as it would be uploaded in Github) in a private message? This will help us to see which code exactly you are planning to share w/ the community.

    Paula

  • 0 in reply to Paula Carrillo
    Intellectual 270 points

    Hello Paula,

    Thank you for your message.

    My idea is to share the binaries (the app file you put in the SD card or the .bin image you can send via serial) in case somebody wants to set up a Profibus slave very quickly (that would be useful when you're commissioning a Profibus network but obviously not much of a learning experience).

    On the code side there are two parts:

    -From the Profibus Slave example, I would like to post at least parts of the main.c (it's inside the APP folder, you can check it out here: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/PRU_ICSS_Profibus_Slave). This file is where most of the stuff happens, so it would be nice to explain how you can change some settings like the size of the Profibus message, alarms and things like that. If I only release this file or parts of it, you'd still have to download the rest of the code from TI (after signing the export control agreement) to be able to compile your own binaries so I don't think this should be a big issue.

    -From the Ti-RTOS PDK I would like to share the whole package with the modified BBB files (these are 6 or 8 files). If that's not possible I can also include the modified files only and ask users to download the package from TI.

    Of course, I would include all credits and non-endorsement statements required by the license.

    Actually, the main part of the project is to explain how to set the pinmux for the BBB, peripherals, PRUs and all other details. And that belongs to the PDK. I could also keep only that and refer to the Profibus slave example with some ideas about what yo change but without any code.

    I'll be looking forward to hearing from you.

    I forgot to mention: I will send you a zip file with the code as soon as have time to organize it (the instructions are not ready yet).

  • 0 in reply to Marcos Gonzalez1
    TI__Mastermind 35100 points

    Marcos, l will mark this E2E as close, and we can keep communication via private message.

    thanks again for your initiative,

    Paula

  • 0 in reply to Paula Carrillo
    Intellectual 270 points

    No problem Paula, thank you for following up.