gatorcat

WARNING this project has migrated to codeberg. you can find it at https://codeberg.org/jeffective/gatorcat

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gatorcat is an EtherCAT maindevice written in the Zig programming language.

WARNING gatorcat is alpha software. Using it today means participating in its development. You may find bugs or need features implemented before you can use gatorcat effectively.

gatorcat provides the following:

• CLI: a pre-built executable for running and scanning ethercat networks.
• module: zig module for writing applications that interact with ethercat networks.

Documentation

See doc.

Notably Working Features

automatic configuration via SII and CoE
process data published on zenoh
network operation and topology verification against a config file
multi-OS support (Linux and Windows)

Notably Missing Features

distributed clocks
cable redundancy
Ethernet Over EtherCAT (EoE), also AoE, FoE, SoE, VoE
user configurable processing of CoE emergency messages
mapping the mailbox status into the process data
async / event loop frames, multi-threading friendly API
linux XDP, mac-os, embedded support
Segmented SDO transfer
EEPROM write access
Network diagnosis in the CLI (CRC counters etc.)
resilient mailbox state machine

TODO

change deserialization of embedded protocols to do zero backtracking
tech debt
remove external dependency for CLI parsing
arbitrary maximum mailbox size
simulator should use simulated time (std.Io eventually)

Sponsors

Please consider ❤️ Sponsoring if you depend on this project or just want to see it succeed.

Release Procedure

1. roll version in build.zig.zon
2. commit
3. tag commit
4. push commit, push tags
5. wait for CI pass
6. click release in github

Contributing

Please open an issue before contributing so we can discuss.