[etherlab-users] Knowing when the packet has finished

[Jeff Krasky]

> You get data of last night, issue commands and send the postman at night.
> Delay? 1 day
> Our method, you get the data of today, issue commands and send the postman
> again today (another thread). Delay? As short as it can be. (If you
> remember, that is also something we wanted. Not to be restricted to
> sending the postman only once a day, but as soon as we need him).

In EtherCAT, I believe this would be accomplished by setting the cycle time
to a shorter value.  If you set it to 1 hour instead of 24, you can get in
24 values of new data in a day, not just one (and the postman will be in
excellent physical condition, ready for Boston Marathon!).  So why not go
from 40ms to something significantly smaller?  If something prohibits you
from going to a smaller cycle time then I would guess you have reached the
limits of EtherCAT.  (Maybe the "post office" isn't good enough for you and
you need a team of dedicated FedEx workers to go out and collect mail when
you order them to.  Certain FedEx workers go out every hour, others every 3
hours, etc., you decide.  If that's the case, I don't think it's the
EtherCAT model.)