MMT Ethercat User Guide.pdfVIP

MMTO EtherCAT Users Guide D. Clark March 31, 2010 Version 0.1 1. Introduction This document describes getting, installing, and using the IgH (Ingenieurgemeinschaft) EtherCAT master software and EtherCAT hardware from Beckhoff Automation for use in MMT systems using a Fedora 12 Linux PC. It is not intended as an exhaustive description or detailed “how-to”, rather it is more of a quick-start to assist knowledgeable persons in getting EtherCAT applications and hardware working. Lets get going! 2. Prerequisites First, you need a Linux PC running Fedora 12. You should bring the machine completely up to date, and apply all yum updates as necessary to have a fresh installation ready to use. As of this writing, the test machine schwarzwald is running Linux -70.fc12.i686. 2.1 Hardware Prerequisites Next, your PC should have at least two Ethernet ports, at least one of which is an RJ-45 jack; the other could easily be a wireless connection. The port with the RJ-45 will be dedicated to the EtherCAT connection, and you will need a network connection on the other port for connecting to the internet for downloading software, updates, and other uses. While EtherCAT can handle passing ordinary packet traffic across the Ethernet interface, this is an advanced use case that is more complicated than necessary -- network cards are inexpensive, and your motherboard may even already have two Ethernet ports available. Once you have a running Fedora 12 system with a working internet connection, its time to install some software to prepare for running EtherCAT. 2.2 Software Prerequisites MMTO uses the IgH EtherCAT master software from . In order to effectively download and use the software, some extra packages are required to get, build, install, and create documentation for the software. It is recommended to go ahead and install all these packages before starting work with EtherCAT rather than discover later something is needed and have to go back and fix it before contin