EtherCAT demo on MIMXRT1180-EVK

[pnc]

Hello,

I am using the MIMXRT1180-EVK Eval Board to try out the EtherCAT Demo as described in UG10322 UG10322: OOBE Guide for EtherCAT with ICE Tool | NXP Semiconductors

I have downloaded the Ethercat Eval Binaries from i.MX RT1180 Evaluation Kit | NXP Semiconductors 

I have carefully followed all the steps. I am able to flash the binary successfully and launch the ICE tool with configurations described in above doc.

However, when I select the Network Interface in the GUI and try to enable ethercat, I get "could not be enabled". If I scan the interface, I get "0 devices found"

I am using a Window Laptop, and have connected to ETH0 and ETH4 using a USB 3-to-Gigabit Ethernet adapter, which otherwise works fine (I use it for other work too).

Any help to troubleshoot this would be appreciated. 

Also, can you point me to the sources of this EtherCat Eval binary :goal_nxp_evkmimxrt1180_rtos_flash_boot.bin? I have checked out your SDK, and I see some EtherCat examples, but I am not sure if any of these examples correspond to the above binary.

thanks

regards

pnc

[pnc]

Hi Diego, 

thanks for your response, but I had already taken care of these issues previously, so it did not help.

Anyway, I have changed tacks now: instead of trying to use the pre-built image, I am now trying to build and run the ecat/digital_io example from SDK, using the AN14155 User Guide (Using the i.MX RT1180 EtherCAT together with BECKOFF TwinCAT3 and SSC tool Rev. 1.0)

Here also I am facing the same problem. I am able to build, flash and run the example (both for CM33 and CM7). I have put a printf in the main loop in digitial_ip.c to verify that it is indeed running.

However, I am stuck in section 5.1.8 of AN14155 : If I do a scan for EtherCAT devices using TwinCAT, it says "No I/O Devices found". I have tried connecting the Ethernet cable to both J28 and J32.

I have made the following jumper settings: J63, J73 and J72,J65 have been moved to 1-2 shorted position (non default position)

I don't know if any other jumper settings or other HW settings are required for Ecat. Other than these , all jumpers are in the default position (what it was out of the box). The only other jumper change I made was for using the Segger probe (JP5 shorted).

Btw, I have also tried running the ICE Tool. Same situation as before. 

I would appreciate if you could provide any inputs

thanks

regards

Pnc

[pnc]

On re-reading the EVK user manual UM12021 carefully, I think I made a mistake with jumpers. Here is what I have now:

J63 and J65 : default 2-3 shorted

J73 and J72: non-default 1-2 shorted

HOWEVER, it is STILL not working, even after above changes.

Also, I am not sure if this line on page 36 is relevant "Multiplexing between ECAT and FLEXSPI2 signals is implemented through resistor reconfiguration. By default, the FLEXSPI2 connection is enabled."

Do I need to do something about this too? If so, what?

By the way, this EVK User Manual is really hard to read. I really think you ought to write in a concise and clear way in one place, what users need to do to get the ECAT stuff working on EVK. A simple "Make these jumper settings to enable ECAT on EVK....." instead of all the scattered pieces of confusing information.

[pnc]

Hi Diego,

On restarting everything this morning, the Scan of devices started working. I guess the changes I made yesterday evening to th jumpers had effect.

However, if I do a scan of Device 1, I do not see "Box 1" as described in section 5.1.9, so it seems the slave is not getting detected. I am not seeing any traffic related to EtherCAT in Wireshark also. I am debugging further, but if you have any hints, that would be highly appreciated!

[diego_charles]

Hi @pnc 

Thank you for reaching out

We already located some issues with first release the UG10332,(and we will updated it)

Please see below an internal report a colleague generated, hopefully it can help you 

In page 5, for step 12, the RT1180-EVK Console should be MCU-Link USB, not USB_OTG1. And for the Note, it seems there is no section called EEPROM.

On my side, after step 11 of section 5.4, the font color of the EtherCAT interface will not turn red, only after step 15, it will trun red.

In Table 1 and Table 2 of page 24, the mapped objects listed in the table are inconsistent with the actual display of the ICE tool.

On my side, before step 9 of section 5.4, need to configure the IP address of the host PC, otherwise will report internal error.

Let us  know if you still  face further  troubles or have further related questions

All the best, 

Diego

[pnc]

By the way, are any specific jumper setting required for the EtherCAST demo? The abovementioned doc does not mention anything in this regard.