Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => Mach4 General Discussion => Topic started by: hamsune on May 23, 2023, 03:09:14 PM
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Hello, I have bought an EtherCAT AC servo drive and servo motors and was wondering if it is possible to control them using mach4 and EtherCAT PLC without an EtherCAT motion controller.
Also, can I use IS620N Inovnoce with XPLC004E motion controller (I doubt anyone would find this out but It does not heart to try ^^)
ty in advance.
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Hi,
Ethercat is a realtime communication protocol and Mach4, because it runs on Windows which is not realtime, cannot do Ethercat natively.
There are two ways to induce Mach4 to do Ethercat.
1) Buy a Vital Systems motion control board. Mach4 talks to the motion board per normal but the motion board itself does realtime Ethercat comms
to any and all Ethercat slaves.
2) Buy a system from Kingstar. Kingstar have collaborated with Interval Zero. Interval Zero have a solution where one core of a multicore PC is dedicated to realtime
and it communicates to the rest of the cores which run Windows. It is a way for Windows to enjoy the benefits of a genuine realtime scheduler. Kingstar wrote the Etherctat comms
software to take advantage of the realtime scheduler. Such a system is on sale, it consists of a refurbished PC, probably ex lease??, with a high end Ethernet card, a Mach4Hobby
license, and the Kingstar and Interval Zero runtime licenses for $1600USD.
I considered this later option very VERY closely indeed when I built my machine. As I already had Mach4Hobby and an ESS I could not justify the extra expense of a Kingstar
Ethercat solution....but I wanted to.!! Put a proverbial 'horn on a jellyfish' that Kingstar Ethercat does!
I'm of the opinion that the Kingstar solution is the best, with the Vital Systems solution next. Neither are cheap.
Why did you buy Ethercat hardware? Presumably you knew you must have an Ethercat Master to make them work.....and that an Ethercat Master is not free.
Craig