Real-Time Measurement and Control

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Ethercat with cRIO (RT Linux) possible?

Solved!
Go to solution

Hello everyone,

 

For a project, I'm looking to control third-party Ethercat devices directly with a cRIO on RT Linux.

I'm doing research online, but I cannot find the answer I need. 

 

Is it possible to install NI Ethercat RIO on an RT Linux cRIO with two ethernet ports, so that I can use one port for programming and configuring the RIO and the other one for the Ethercat communication with the third-party devices? If not, how would I want to do this then?

 

To be clear, I'm not interested in the NI-9144 Ethercat Expansion Chassis because of space limitations. If I'm correct this chassis is for connecting Ethercat directly to the FPGA?

 

Thank you in advance and kudos will be given! Smiley Happy

0 Kudos
Message 1 of 8
(4,269 Views)

I know the cRIO-9068 can handle EtherCAT.  I have not used a third party EtherCAT device though.

 

I want to say the cRIOs with a second Ethernet port support EtherCAT on that second port.  But I will not swear by it.


GCentral
There are only two ways to tell somebody thanks: Kudos and Marked Solutions
Unofficial Forum Rules and Guidelines
"Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God" - 2 Corinthians 3:5
Message 2 of 8
(4,226 Views)
Solution
Accepted by topic author Freel

Yes you can do 3rd party EtherCAT on any cRIO with two ethernet ports. You must install NI-Industrial Communications driver besides the normal drivers you install for cRIO. NI-Industrial Communications driver 16.0 driver is the latest but you should pick a driver version that matches your RIO version.

Once you done with SW installation you can use this KB to tell you how to add your 3rd party EtherCAT ESI file into LabVIEW project. 

 

One thing to keep in mind when working with 3rd party EtherCAT slaves, NI EtherCAT driver was mostly written for NI EtherCAT 9144/5 chassis and therefore do not expect all bells and whistles you would see in full-fledged EtherCAT editors (dynamic SDO, PDO creation etc) for EtherCAT slaves. However, if your EtherCAT slave conforms to EtherCAT specs then you will be able to do most of the stuff you want. I know there are many people who were successful using 3rd party EtherCAT slaves with cRIO.

 

For any questions regards to EtherCAT post it to Industrial Communications forum.

Message 3 of 8
(4,218 Views)

Thank you Miro_T,

 

I was hoping this was possible!

 

Cheers. Smiley Happy

0 Kudos
Message 4 of 8
(4,214 Views)

Hi Freel, 

 

Did you ever get this working?  I tried doing this (Linux EtherCAT card talking to cRIO) several years ago but I never succeeded.

 

Steve

0 Kudos
Message 5 of 8
(3,353 Views)

Hello Steve,

 

No, I'm sorry. The project got cancelled by the customers customer. Never got to test it.

 

Best,

Pascal

0 Kudos
Message 6 of 8
(3,340 Views)

Hello Steve,

 

Does cRIO ECAT S by KUNBUS GmbH suit your purpose?

 

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/216709

0 Kudos
Message 7 of 8
(3,330 Views)

Interesting - didn't see this back when we were looking into this.

 

Hmm, it isn't listed in here: http://www.ni.com/product-documentation/2726/en/

 

But now also NI has their own slave module apparently: https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/select/c-series-ethercat-interface-module

 

If I have the need in the future I will look into there modules.

 

Thanks!

 

Steve

0 Kudos
Message 8 of 8
(3,325 Views)