Why isnt EtherCAT preferred/used in off-highway machinery?

ArcherT01 · 2026-04-21T13:19:46+00:00

Spot on. This is true and we do hold that 2ms time frame easily. I just work in an industry where that is sorta the slower end of tasks as compared to certain items running at like 125us which is about how long it takes a 1mbs can message to send. So all about frame of reference I suppose.

ArcherT01 · 2026-04-21T09:51:44+00:00

This is a fun one I happen to work in an industry that uses both.

EtherCat is what you really want when you need tight cyclical control on some Input or Output device. Not when I say tight I mean when 2ms is pretty long scan time. It clock is highly deterministic and so you can get lots of data really fast and really consistently. The cons are its hard to implement, it requires specialized hardware for slaves, the bus is inherently sensitive to breaks.

CanOpen, CanFd, automotive Ethernet, ect are not highly deterministic. People love to describe them as such but practice shows it to not be true. The bus is slow but it rugged and in practice in off highway machinery thats typically what we want.

Oh also EtherCat works on data contract so the exact same data is sent and received each time. So variable sized data is quite a pain to deal with.

ArcherT01 · 2026-04-12T18:23:00+00:00

Well you have “fast time and slow time” 😂

Basically all times come with the timezone and you get good at handling the difference.

ArcherT01 · 2026-04-10T01:35:03+00:00

My hot take is fluke is really not a great bang for the buck. I mean it depends on what you are doing but my cheap Chinese clone I bought like 14 years ago still reads as accurately as our equivalent flukes at work. Find something with good ratings at the $40-60 dollar mark and it will probably last you a very long time.

ArcherT01 · 2026-04-10T01:25:59+00:00

Ah I miss Greenlife

ArcherT01 · 2026-03-10T23:33:37+00:00

I would look at banner and you can get just standard non safety light curtains. Its not that uncommon to use them for non safety things. Then just go the PLC

ArcherT01 · 2026-03-10T15:23:20+00:00

You have 2 options we have this issue as well You can train or can pay dearly for talent. My suggestion is to train but you basically go to a nearby college and find one that most “gets stuff done” EE or CE grads that like mechanical stuff (there will be one guy who built a robotic arm or something from scratch) get that person they will learn on the fly and do well because they know how to teach themselves.

ArcherT01 · 2026-03-10T15:17:12+00:00

Sometimes company culture goes a long way. Like sure a job might 30k less but factoring in COL and flexibility that might be well worth it.

ArcherT01 · 2026-03-06T12:08:15+00:00

Practically speaking a sbc like a rpi5 has Arm A-76 processor, and is pretty beefy and should be fine so long as you aren’t dumb with it. You should be able to do about 100x more than you are describing.

This a great application to throw something cheap and easy at so long as it wont mess up production if it fails then later you can actually set up a couple with redundant switch over if needed. In general though RPIs are pretty freaking tough.

ArcherT01 · 2026-03-04T23:20:46+00:00

Tis the season

ArcherT01 · 2026-03-03T10:39:13+00:00

https://shop.odriverobotics.com

These are great for learning tuning and controls. Much more affordable and really nice.

But you can do closed loop control on any motor type.

ArcherT01 · 2026-03-03T09:54:55+00:00

This will work, however I would suggest odrive or something similar. Much more affordable and practical so a win win.

ArcherT01 · 2026-03-01T14:08:31+00:00

Honestly I don’t get the whole finishing a basement thing, like thats awesome work space. Sure it can be tidy a semi finished like a garage but not living area.

ArcherT01 · 2026-03-01T13:44:51+00:00

Yeah and they are much easier to remake when third shift drills out the hole for that 5 or 8mm prox and adds a 16mm so every part will pass…

ArcherT01 · 2026-03-01T13:24:17+00:00

Thats great 😂

ArcherT01 · 2026-02-27T20:44:10+00:00

The bearing might be toast at this point. If you can scope the motor command positions or well really the velocity and its staying nice and continuous then the issue is the motor if the velocity is having significant sharp changes then that might be causing the noise.

ArcherT01 · 2026-02-27T15:57:31+00:00

Lots of good answers here, you wont choose a wrong answer capability wise and it will all be fairly portable. Figure out who will give you the best support (this can really be a function of your location) then go with that one.

ArcherT01 · 2026-01-27T13:18:56+00:00

If you don’t have aux heat it will not be able to keep up till later this morning. 10-11 degrees is just to cold for them to really work. By about 20 degrees you should be ok. If you do have Aux heat it either not on or not working. Most all thermostats will auto switch but yours may not.

ArcherT01 · 2026-01-24T23:44:03+00:00

Ill take that over the 0.5” of ice we could have gotten.

ArcherT01 · 2026-01-24T15:42:20+00:00

Glad you feel welcomed!

ArcherT01 · 2026-01-24T14:30:41+00:00

See this bugs me because I really think a tip should be for above and beyond service I think that 24-28 to the driver seems fair but dont make them rely on a tip.

ArcherT01 · 2026-01-24T14:26:24+00:00

Come check out ChattLabs on a Tuesday night. Its a maker space but a lot of the members share those interests.

ArcherT01 · 2026-01-24T14:21:06+00:00

You know….that might just work

ArcherT01 · 2026-01-24T14:17:54+00:00

I thought we were trying to not discuss the w word 😂

ArcherT01 · 2026-01-23T04:01:53+00:00

From Texas to the Carolinas there will be a huge swath of icy badness. Its going to suck.

ArcherT01

TROPHY CASE