How can I study EtherCAT without any background?
I am completely new for EtherCAT. And I am looking for a good starting point to study EtherCAT master.
I found that there is a great open source implementation called SOEM.
But without any background of EtherCAT, it is really hard to understand the code.
Could anybody help me to find the way studying EtherCAT master?
Answer
To start you need to understand the technology before you can dive into the master. I'd recommend the following three resources.
EtherCAT Technology (Section I)
This is an overview of the technology and definitely where you want to start.
EtherCAT Registers (Section II)
This is a dry read, but a good reference to understand the different registers that are used to communicate between an EtherCAT master and slave.
Even drier, but this is a datasheet for a common ASIC for building an EtherCAT slave. It can help you understand even more detail about the communication between an EtherCAT master and slave.
To properly implement an EtherCAT master is no easy task and requires a lot of reading. There is more documentation available but it requires a membership to the EtherCAT Technology Group. That's where you can get access to more technical information.
Another EtherCAT master open source project, that I'm familiar with, is IgH