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How to get 4diac to support EtherCAT [message #1864042]

Tue, 12 March 2024 22:36

Eclipse User

I'm new to iec61499. So far I've successfully compiled modbus and lua on windows forte by referring to the tutorials, but I'd like to know how to make 4diac forte support EtherCAT. Thank you!

Re: How to get 4diac to support EtherCAT [message #1864056 is a reply to message #1864042]

Wed, 13 March 2024 16:38

Eclipse User

Unfortunately I don't know how to best start. I think the first question you need to answer is how you would like to access EtherCAT, as controller or as device. I assume it is the first. Then you can use different infrastructure in 4diac FORTE. I would say the better suiting for this would be our new Modular IO infra. For this you could have a look at a few modules that already do that: embrick, modbusng, wago modular. I hope this helps to get you a bit started.

Re: How to get 4diac to support EtherCAT [message #1864062 is a reply to message #1864056]

Thu, 14 March 2024 03:51

Eclipse User

Thank you for guidance. Recently I'm learning modular IO infra and implemented simple led blinking on stm32 board via IO. I have connected my computer to both STM32F767 and STM32F743 via NETGEAR Plus Switch, however, when I deploy the application on both STM32, most of the time, only one resource can be successfully deployed, and the other one reports an error "Could not connect to device" or "Query resources failed for device" . Sometimes there is no error and both work, but only one can be monitored, as if the port is occupied. I would like to know what's going on? Attached is a picture of the problem.
Best wishes!

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Re: How to get 4diac to support EtherCAT [message #1864063 is a reply to message #1864056]

Thu, 14 March 2024 03:53

Eclipse User

Re: How to get 4diac to support EtherCAT [message #1864064 is a reply to message #1864062]

Thu, 14 March 2024 03:54

Eclipse User

Can you please also post a screenshot of your system configuration?

Re: How to get 4diac to support EtherCAT [message #1864065 is a reply to message #1864064]

Thu, 14 March 2024 03:58

Eclipse User

OK！

Attachment: configuration.png
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Re: How to get 4diac to support EtherCAT [message #1864067 is a reply to message #1864065]

Thu, 14 March 2024 04:01

Eclipse User

Thx. That helped to clarify a doubt I have. Could not connect to device means that the port 61499 is not available or 4diac IDE could not establish a connection to your device. There are several reasons for this: the most simplest 4diac FORTE is not running. Could it be that your 4diac FORTE instance is crashing?

Other reasons is that a previous connection is not cleanly closed. Are you useing the latest development version from github? There where some change by Franz to improve connection management.

Re: How to get 4diac to support EtherCAT [message #1864069 is a reply to message #1864067]

Thu, 14 March 2024 04:11

Eclipse User

Thanks for your answer. My forte instance sure crashed once or twice for unknown reasons. And the device works fine in another computer, the problem could be in the connection. The version I'm using is forte 2.0.1 from the 4diac website.

Re: How to get 4diac to support EtherCAT [message #1864071 is a reply to message #1864069]

Thu, 14 March 2024 04:18

Eclipse User

Unreliable connections are unfortunately a real problem that we currently have a hard time to fix. However we just merged yesterday the first commits that will allow to use OPC UA for the communication between 4diac IDE and 4diac FORTE. With that we hope that the situation will improve. Deployment will definitely be faster.

Re: How to get 4diac to support EtherCAT [message #1864637 is a reply to message #1864071]

Sun, 31 March 2024 20:45

Eclipse User

Alois Zoitl wrote on Thu, 14 March 2024 08:18

Unreliable connections are unfortunately a real problem that we currently have a hard time to fix. However we just merged yesterday the first commits that will allow to use OPC UA for the communication between 4diac IDE and 4diac FORTE. With that we hope that the situation will improve. Deployment will definitely be faster.

Sir, is there any user side setup required to enable OPC UA deployment support?

Re: How to get 4diac to support EtherCAT [message #1864638 is a reply to message #1864637]

Sun, 31 March 2024 23:27

Eclipse User

Thank you for your help! Currently my distributed deployment is stable and does not need OPC UA deployment support. i am sure 4diac will get better and better and would like to see new versions of ide and forte!
Also, I have another question. As you suggested, I have implemented the basic IO and ADC functions of forte on stm32. But when I use the IW function block to display the read voltage value, it is in hexadecimal, is there any way to change it to decimal?

Re: How to get 4diac to support EtherCAT [message #1864649 is a reply to message #1864638]

Mon, 01 April 2024 07:48

Eclipse User

I'm sorry that i asked an unnecessary question. I solved it using the IEC61131-3 function block library and did the maths to convert the ADC acquisition to the actual voltage value, although several data type conversions were required as I don't know enough about ANY data types.

Re: How to get 4diac to support EtherCAT [message #1864700 is a reply to message #1864649]

Wed, 03 April 2024 15:41

Eclipse User

I guess this would be more suited for a simple FB where you use concrete types at its in and output and use the IEC 61131-3 functions internally. Then no conversion blocks would be needed and it may be clearer.

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