AIM EtherCAT - Custom Slave Control Board

This project is a custom EtherCAT Slave implementation running on an STM32H750 microcontroller with an AX58100 EtherCAT Slave Controller (ESC). It leverages the SOES (Simple Open EtherCAT Slave) stack to provide real-time control for various robotics peripherals.

Hardware Specifications

• MCU: STM32H750VBTx (ARM Cortex-M7)
• ESC: AX58100
• Communication Interface: EtherCAT (SPI to ESC)

Features

• Dynamic Task Loading: Tasks are instantiated dynamically based on arguments received from the EtherCAT Master during initialization, allowing for flexible configuration without recompiling.
• Real-time Control: Uses FreeRTOS for task scheduling and synchronization.
• Safety Mechanisms:
  • Safe state handling for actuators upon connection loss.
  • System reset after EtherCAT state change (From any to Init).

Support Tasks

Tested & Verified

They're tested by various test cases, and should be working fine.

• Remote Controller
  • DBUS: DJI DT7/DR16 RC system
  • SBUS: Standard Futaba SBUS protocol
• Actuators
  • LKTECH Motors: CAN bus control for motors from Shanghai Lingkong Technology Co., Ltd.
  • DAMIAO Motors: CAN bus control for motors from Shenzhen Damiao Technology
  • DJI RoboMaster Motors: CAN bus control for DJI RoboMaster GM series motors
  • DSHOT: Digital protocol for drone ESCs (DSHOT600)
  • PWM (Onboard): Standard PWM output (4x2 channels)
• Sensors
  • HIPNUC IMU (CAN): Custom HIPNUC ch0x0 series imu forward board

Untested

They're probably not working or are not working properly.

• Actuators
  • PWM (External): External PWM expansion (4x4 channels) via UART
• Sensors
  • MS5837: Pressure sensor (I2C interface)
  • PMU: Power Management Unit (UAVCAN Protocol)
  • ADC: Analog-to-Digital Converter readings

Status Indicators (LEDs)

The board uses onboard LEDs to indicate system status.

LED	State	Description
LED0 & LED1	LED0 Blinking (4Hz), LED1 Off	Slave is currently not in OP (Operational) state.
LED0 & LED1	LED0 Blinking (40Hz), LED1 On	Task list received from Master and loaded; Slave is currently in OP state.
LED0 & LED1	LED0 Blinking (40Hz), LED1 Off	Task list received from Master and loaded, but connection to Master has been lost.
LED2	Off	ESC (EtherCAT Slave Controller) initialization failed.
LED2	On	ESC initialization succeeded.
EEP	On	ESC successfully loaded EEPROM.
EEP	Blinking	ESC failed to load EEPROM.
ERROR	On	Communication fault between MCU and ESC.
ERROR	Off	MCU and ESC communication is normal.
RUN	On	Slave is in OP state.
RUN	Off	Slave is not in OP state.

Additional Info

• EtherCAT currently running in Free-run mode.
• SOES are added as a submodule. For first-time initialization, please use the command git submodule update --init --recursive

Sponsors & Partners

We would like to thank RT-Labs for supporting our project.

Maintainer

• Hang (scyhx9@nottingham.ac.uk)