[Etherlab-users] Timeout while setting state INIT.

Fri Mar 20 16:34:32 CET 2026

My suspicion is that your problem is way before the master tries to
configure the slave, as I have said before.

When the master is activated, it jogs the slave through the INIT,
PREOP, SAFEOP and eventually OP states. A slave gets configured (SDO
parameters, PDO setup) between the PREOP and SAFEOP state -- but your
slave never gets there. Your slave might go into INIT, but somehow the
master does not get this state change.

Can you change the slave state from the command line? With your slave
attached but without your application running (i.e. idle free-run bus),
what is the output of:
	ethercat slave
	ethercat state -p0 init
	ethercat slave
	ethercat state -p0 preop
	ethercat slave
	ethercat reg_read -p0 -tuint32 0x900
	ethercat reg_read -p0 -tuint64 0x910
	ethercat reg_read -p0 -tuint16 0x120
	ethercat reg_read -p0 -tuint16 0x130

Now start your application and:
	ethercat state
	ethercat reg_read -p0 -tuint16 0x120
	ethercat reg_read -p0 -tuint16 0x130

-p0 assumes the affedted slave is the first slave in the network.
Adjust accordingly if that is not the case.

On Fri, 2026-03-20 at 00:02 +0000, Graeme Foot wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi Oguz,
>  
> If this is a potential fix for your slave, you would require more
> separation, plus I’m not sure you got your reads vs writes assigned
> quite right.  i.e. from your log 0x6000:01 is being assigned to
> domain 0 when it looks like it should be assigned to domain 1.
>  
>  
> The issue with the Texas Instruments ESC’s in particular is that if
> you use one domain the writes (control) and reads (status) are too
> close together for the ESC’s syncs to handle gracefully.  E.g.:
>  
> + domain 0 -------------------+
> |[slave 0 write][slave 0 read]|
>  
> If you split them into two domains you get:
>  
> + domain 0 -----+ domain 1 ----+
> |[slave 0 write]|[slave 0 read]|
>  
> Which timing wise is no real difference and still a problem.
>  
> But if you add a few more slaves (they don’t even need to be online)
> you get:
>  
> + domain 0 -------------------------+ domain 1 ----------------------
> --+
> |[slave 0 write][slave 1 write][...]| [slave 0 read][slave 1
> read][...]|
>  
> You can see you now have more separation between the slave 0 write
> and read.
>  
> In your example (apart from the potential incorrect allocation which
> could itself cause issues) I don’t think the EL2008 would be enough
> to give a big enough separation (only 1 byte?).  Try adding two or
> three more of your problem slaves (they’re around 78 bytes each).
>  
>  
> Here’s some background info on the Texas Instruments
> issue:https://www.ti.com/lit/an/spracj7/spracj7.pdf?ts=1669243747147
>  * section 3.1.3 describes the TI ESC not working with non-
> overlapping PDOs
>  * Section 3.6 describes a malformed packet issue and its
> workarounds, due to overlapping PDOs
>  
> In our cases where we’ve had problems with slaves our symptoms were:
>    1. On assigning the FMMU configuration the slave would stop
> forwarding on frames
>    2. I think we had one that got stuck in INIT, but can’t remember
> for sure
>  
> Regards,
> Graeme.
>  
>  
> 
> 
> From: Bilko AS, Oguz Dilmac <odilmac at bilko-automation.com>
> Sent: Thursday, 19 March 2026 23:49
> To: Graeme Foot <Graeme.Foot at touchcut.com>;
> etherlab-users at etherlab.org
> Subject: Re: [Etherlab-users] Timeout while setting state INIT.
>  
> Hi Graeme,
> I connected a EK1100 bus coupler and a EL2008 digital output card.
> The first slave is the EK1100, and my device stay at the end.
> I created two domains
> Unfortunately the device still don't go to INIT.
> Here, I put my test code and the dmesg output:
> https://we.tl/t-Dj1MtId6LA
> Best regards,
> Oguz.
>  
> 
> On 19-Mar-26 1:16 AM, Graeme Foot wrote:
> > Hi Oguz,
> >  
> > It’s not looking likely to be an SII problem then.
> >  
> > From the log it looks like you’re using a single Read/Write
> > domain.  I don’t recall if you mentioned, have tried putting it in
> > separate read and write domains?  If you try this, also ensure that
> > there are at least two other separate read and write domain slaves
> > also configured in your system.
> >  
> > I’ve had a few slaves in the past (generally with Texas Instruments
> > ESC’s) that work well with overlapped PDO’s in a single Read/Write
> > domain (TwinCat’s default method), but fail when the PDO’s are not
> > overlapped (EtherLab’s default).  If this is the case you can put
> > them in separate read and write domains to separate them within the
> > EtherCat frame.  But, you need to ensure there’s a couple of other 
> > read and write domain devices also configured to ensure there’s
> > enough separation in the frame.
> >  
> >  
> > Graeme.
> >  
> > 
> > 
> > From: Bilko AS, Oguz Dilmac<odilmac at bilko-automation.com> 
> > Sent: Thursday, 19 March 2026 02:33
> > To: Graeme Foot <Graeme.Foot at touchcut.com>; Richard
> > Hacker<ha at igh.de>; etherlab-users at etherlab.org;
> > james.benway at gleeble.com
> > Subject: Re: [Etherlab-users] Timeout while setting state INIT.
> >  
> > Hi,
> > I noticed, the correct path with option is: "--enable-sii-
> > override=/lib/firmware"
> > This way, the master can find my ec_xxx.bin file. But still at the
> > end, slave doesn't respond to go INIT command.
> > Here is the dmesg output:
> > https://we.tl/t-BGDmNzZv2b
> > Best regards,
> > Oguz.
> -- 
> Oguz Dilmac
>  
> Bilko AS, R&D Manager
> ====================================
> Perpa Ticaret Merkezi B Blok Kat 13 Nr. 2536
> TR-34384 Okmeydani Istanbul Turkey
> Tel : +90 212 563 00 00
> e-mail : odilmac at bilko-automation.com
> web site : http://www.bilko-automation.com
> https://www.youtube.com/@LyncaCNC

-- 
Mit freundlichem Gruß / Best regards,
Richard Hacker
--  
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