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SOEM (Windows)

Table of Contents​

  1. Prerequisites
  2. Poor Synchronization Issue
  3. Step-by-Step Guide

SOEM (Windows)

Prerequisites​

  • 1.Windows Operating System: A 64-bit version of Windows 7, 8, 10, or later.
  • 2.Visual Studio: Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 or newer (Community, Professional, or Enterprise editions).
  • 3.WinPcap or Npcap: A packet capture library that allows applications to capture and transmit network packets bypassing the protocol stack.

Poor synchronization of the system kernel caused ethercat to fail to run continuously!

Therefore, it is not recommended to run under Windows system unless it can solve system synchroniztion.

Step-by-Step Guide​

1. Install Required Software​

a. Install Visual Studio​

  • Download and install Visual Studio Community Edition if you don't have it installed.
  • During installation, ensure that you include the Desktop development with C++ workload.

b. Install WinPcap or Npcap​

  • WinPcap has been deprecated and is no longer maintained. It's recommended to use Npcap.
  • Download Npcap from the official website and install it.
  • During installation, ensure the following options are selected:
    • Install Npcap in WinPcap API-compatible Mode
    • Support raw 802.11 traffic (and monitor mode) for WiFi adapters (if required)

2. Download SOEM Source Code​

Clone the SOEM repository from GitHub:

git clone https://git.zeroerr.cn/Don/eRob_SOEM-windows

Alternatively, download the ZIP archive from the SOEM GitHub page and extract it. And unzip this archive in your computer.

3. Start a Visual Studio command prompt​

Start a Visual Studio command prompt(e.g. x86 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2017) then:

cd "The path of SOEM file, e.g.  D:\SOEM"
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -G "NMake Makefiles"
nmake

4. Run the SOEM master​

cd  test/win32/simple_test
eRob_test.exe

It will print out your network devices, including your EtherCAT device. Look for the ethernet adapter for your EtherCAT network and take a note of the path, for example, \Device\NPF_{A54146EA-CD6F-4A95-93E4-0919C4B2D685} .

eRob_test.exe  "\Device\NPF_{EFxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}"    (your etherCAT device)

This program will enavle eRob devices, but will not run for a long time due to sychronization issues, hopefully the developers can solve this problems.