EtherCrab

An EtherCAT master written in pure Rust.

EtherCrab is looking for sponsors! I (@jamwaffles) am developing EtherCrab in my spare time with currently no fulltime income, so if you want a safe, performant Rust EtherCat master please consider becoming a sponsor!

Community

We're on Matrix!

MSRV

Unfortunately, nightly Rust is currently required.

The MSRV for EtherCrab can be found in rust-toolchain.toml.

Current goals

• [x] Become a member of the EtherCAT Technologies Group (ETG) and get access to the EtherCAT specification.
• [x] Explore basic master architecture to support current design goals
• [x] Autoconfigure slaves from their EEPROM data
  • [x] Also support configuration using CoE data
• [x] A first pass at a safe async API
  • [ ] Tested in no_std environments with either RTIC (once async support is released) or Embassy
• [x] Usable in multi-threaded Linux systems with e.g. tokio or std::thread and block_on.
• [x] Configuration and cyclic communication with multiple EtherCAT slaves.
• [ ] Basic support for CiA402 torque, position and velocity control of common servo drives in a high-level way.

Current test hardware is an EK1100 + modules and two LAN9252 dev boards.

Future goals

These may change at any time.

• [-] ~~A blocking API which spins on internal futures for best compatibility, possibly using casette or nb-executor.~~
• [ ] Integration with LinuxCNC as a HAL component using the Rust linuxcnc-hal.
• [ ] A multiplatform configuration/debugging/management GUI

• [ ] Loading slave configurations from ESI XML files

  Current test hardware consists of a Kollmorgen AKD servo drive and three Leadshine EL7 servo drives

Sponsors

Thank you to everyone who has donated test equipment, time or money to the EtherCrab project! To help the EtherCrab project progress faster, please consider becoming a sponsor, or donating EtherCAT hardware to ensure best compatibility.

• @nealsjoe generously donated an EK1100 with several IO modules for testing with.
• Trisk Bio generously donated some additional Beckhoff modules and some optical ethernet gear.

License

Licensed under either of

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.