Make my own EtherCAT device. 2. MCU and SPI

Connecting the STM32F407VET6 MCu to the LAN9252 and run an existing etherCAT slave code.
Simple Open Source EtherCAT Slave and Master
github.com/OpenEtherCATsociet...
github.com/OpenEtherCATsociet...
The EtherCAT slave code I used in the video
github.com/kubabuda/ecat_serv...
The shut door to Beckhoff Slave Stack Code
www.ethercat.org/en/products/...

[@sundinmikael]

Nice video and board for EtherCat :)

[@markusvau923]

Ich verstehe von dem Thema überhaupt nichts.😂 Aber ich finde die Idee Super 😁🎉

[@sebaschtl9710]

very nice, thanks a lot! it is a very cool project

[@darkobul1]

I will try to make my own version of protocol. I am considering 2 options to try. To forget nanosecs and be happy with microsecs which may be fine for home use. I am testing cheap esp32 for this. Or use some RISCV (again few dollar chips) that has support for 1588, PTP and do exactly same thing EtherCat is doing just with my protocol.which would be interesting learning experience.
What I need is "digital cable"

[@darkobul1]

Here are some of my observations while reasearching it.
EtherCAT is a protocol that rides directly on Ethernet frame
[1]
like Ipv4 protocol. As EtherCAT uses same standard 802.3 network PHY no special hardware is needed.
What it seems to me after researching this into more details is that EtherCAT uses point to point connection in combination with 1588
[2]
standard, PTP
[3]
to establish precise synhronisation of master/slaves clock and packet communication among self ( in range of nanoseconds) and for that purpose PTP was made.
What advantage then EtherCAT has if it uses same hardware and standards? That was my next question. And here is how I explained it to my self.
By removing IPv4 protocol they shaved many of bytes from protocol which allows faster repeat of packets which improved speed. AI said to me(with grains of salt as I could not find exact info online) that EtherCAT header is of same size as UDP header which makes sense that they used UDP(which is supported by hardware) directly over Ethernet frame on the point to point network which is by Ethernet standard. While master is easy to find code for slave stack for EtherCAT seems not public(you have to ask them to send you perhaps driving you trought corporate nighnare) in simple form (whats available about slaves you have to use special chips that has prebuilt hardware implementation for EtherCAT protocol) which prevents me to confirm that such protocol could be implemented on many other hardware which has support already for those standards and means for low level programing for making such custom protocols.
For Automation perhaps is useful protocol at time being but unless it becames full open source I dont see it being a future.
And still faster network speeds of 1, 2.5-10GbE+ each bringing massive speed and timing improvements over previous may make such custom protocol not needed yet many benefits of standard Ethernet/ip can be still preserved.

[@darkobul1]

And turns out that ESP32 has support for 1588 PTP. Imagine that. But its not exposed in API.
I think now that every network device has to have support for it. Because same inteface is used for initial clock sync before ethernet is established. There is a sequence that occurs on PHY before link is established to enshure same clock speed on both sides of network cable.
Think that we already have capability for it. You dont need anyyhing special but access to it lol.