diff -r fe4688f2c9e7 -r 11f4b6e10d74 documentation/ethercat_doc.tex --- a/documentation/ethercat_doc.tex Wed Oct 15 10:31:31 2008 +0000 +++ b/documentation/ethercat_doc.tex Wed Oct 15 10:32:54 2008 +0000 @@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ \SVN $Date$ \SVN $Revision$ -\newcommand{\masterversion}{1.4.0} +\newcommand{\masterversion}{1.5.0} \newcommand{\linenum}[1]{\normalfont\textcircled{\tiny #1}} \makeindex @@ -568,6 +568,7 @@ % Pdo entry registration % Sdo configuration % Sdo access +% VoE handlers % Cyclic operation The application interface provides functions and data structures for @@ -1871,6 +1872,32 @@ %------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +\section{Vendor-specific-over-EtherCAT (VoE)} +\label{sec:voe} +\index{VoE} + +The VoE protocol opens the possibility to implement a vendor-specific mailbox +communication protocol. VoE mailbox messages are prepended by a VoE header +containing a 32-bit vendor ID and a 16-bit vendor-type. There are no more +constraints regarding this protocol. + +The EtherCAT master allows to create multiple VoE handlers per slave +configuration via the application interface (see chap.~\ref{sec:ecrt}). These +handlers contain the state machine necessary for the communication via VoE. +One read or write operation may be issued at a time. After the operation is +initiated, the handler must be executed cyclically until it is finished. After +that, the results of the operation can be retrieved. + +A VoE handler has an own datagram structure, that is marked for exchange after +each execution step. So the application can decide, how many handlers to +execute before sending the corresponding EtherCAT frame(s). + +For more information about using VoE handlers, see the application interface +documentation (chap.~\ref{sec:ecrt}) or the example applications provided in +the \textit{examples/} subdirectory. + +%------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + \chapter{User Space} \label{sec:user} \index{User space}