[etherlab-users] Debugging inconsistent slave behaviour

[j.sikorski at utwente.nl]

Dear Etherlab Users,


For a few years now I've been enthusiastically using Etherlab master along with Gavin Lambert's patchset (up to kernel 4.4) to drive a handful of Technosoft Motion iPOS4808 BX-CAT slaves in various robotics projects. My framework involves  <ecrt.h> wrapped in custom C++ code. I thought that by now I have a reliable plug-and-play software stack. Unfortunately, I was proven wrong when I tried to use my code with another drive from the same family (iPOS3602 VX-CAT).


I managed to narrow down the problem to an issue with <ecrt.h> PDO exchange. When I run the cyclic process, I keep on receiving empty datagrams from the 3602 slaves regardless of what I do. Running the same code on the same machine with iPOS4808 slaves connected through the same cable works just fine. I can also read all CoE fields in 3602 slaves via SDO ("sudo ethercat upload" in console) with no problem. The manufacturer (Technosoft) claims that their Ethercat functionality should be consistent across the entire iPOS ...-CAT family, but something is clearly not right.


Since I have never ran into similar issues, I miss the know-how that would allow me to dig deep enough to establish the source of the problem (even the simple fact whether it's a problem with the slaves or the master). Hence, I thought I may check here, whether a similar situation has happened to anyone before. If you had any tips on how I could investigate the problem further, I would be much obliged.


Thank you very much in advance for any help.


Yours sincerely,

Jakub Sikorski


Doctoral Candidate

Surgical Robotics Laboratory

University of Twente

7500 AE Enschede

The Netherlands
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