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wezhunter / ESP32_LinuxCNC_MotionController_RealTime

ESP32 hardware based real-time LinuxCNC motion controller
GNU General Public License v3.0
11 stars 7 forks source link

Implement EtherCAT support #26

Open wezhunter opened 4 months ago

wezhunter commented 4 months ago

Many benefits. Initial technical assessment concludes that it's possible.

See here why it's important:

https://forum.linuxcnc.org/38-general-linuxcnc-questions/51816-esp32-s2-s3-linuxcnc-controller-6-axis-hardware-step-gen-usb-plug-and-play?start=70#294860

wezhunter commented 4 months ago

In order to use the software stack (ET9300 slave stack) and develop a virtual ESC FSM would need to be part of the ET group which costs money. Better to just use a readily available ESC IC PHY (e.g LAN9252) and implement opensource SOES with a bespoke PCB. Certainly possible and beneficial for those that want it but parking this for now.

For typical ESP32/S2/S3/P4 use-cases then custom Ethernet frames avoiding TCP/UDP overheads for motion is likely quicker to develop. TCP/UDP can still be used for WebUI/Mgmt/Config/Status etc