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This is the README file of the IgH EtherCAT Master.

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$Id$

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Contents:

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1) General Information

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2) Requirements

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3) Building and installing

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4) Realtime & Tuning

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5) License

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1) General Information

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======================

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This is an Open-Source EtherCAT master implementation for Linux 2.6.

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See the FEATURES file for a list of features. For more information, see

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http://etherlab.org

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or contact

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Florian Pose <fp@igh-essen.com>

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Ingenieurgemeinschaft IgH

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Heinz-Baecker-Str. 34

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D-45356 Essen

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http://igh-essen.com

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2) Requirements

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===============

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1) Software requirements

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Configured sources for the Linux 2.6 kernel are required to build the EtherCAT

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master.

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2) Hardware requirements

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The EtherCAT master needs a RTL8139 (or compatible) network interface card to

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run. Drivers for other widespread devices (i. e. Intel PRO/100) will be

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implemented soon.

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3) Building and installing

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==========================

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See the INSTALL file.

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4) Realtime & Tuning

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====================

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Realtime patches for the Linux kernel are supported, but not required. The

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realtime processing has to be done by the calling module (see API

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documentation). The EtherCAT master code itself is completely passive (except

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for the idle mode).

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To avoid frame timeouts, deactivating DMA access for hard drives is

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recommented (hdparm -d0 <DEV>).

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5) License

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==========

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Copyright (C) 2006  Florian Pose, Ingenieurgemeinschaft IgH

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This file is part of the IgH EtherCAT Master.

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The IgH EtherCAT Master is free software; you can redistribute it

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and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License

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as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the

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License, or (at your option) any later version.

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The IgH EtherCAT Master is distributed in the hope that it will be

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useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of

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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the

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GNU General Public License for more details.

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You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License

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along with the IgH EtherCAT Master; if not, write to the Free Software

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Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA

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The right to use EtherCAT Technology is granted and comes free of

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charge under condition of compatibility of product made by

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Licensee. People intending to distribute/sell products based on the

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code, have to sign an agreement to guarantee that products using

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software based on IgH EtherCAT master stay compatible with the actual

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EtherCAT specification (which are released themselves as an open

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standard) as the (only) precondition to have the right to use EtherCAT

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Technology, IP and trade marks.

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