On Friday 25 October 2013 12:51:37 Jan de Kruyf did opine:

> So perhaps this is the right time for the ultimate solution:
> 
> --lets stop lusting after the idols of Beckhoff.--
> 
> I have and I burned badly. Lots of good productive time down the drain,
> because I liked the IgH stack so much.
> And of course I still respect that piece of software. But in my
> experience the Beckhoff attitude, the Beckhoff hardware and Beckhoff
> service are bad news.
> The hardware changes version every 5 minutes (read the configuration
> files) and when you need real service you get the Disperin solution.
> A while back I spend some very expensive money (i.e. lots of it) sorting
> out an intermittent problem in a 10 axes machine running on a Beckhoff
> NT computer. Beckhoff in Verl could not tell me (at any price) how to
> monitor the Sercos loop in a case like this. I had to find it out
> myself. In an Opensource environment that is off course quite
> acceptable, but THIS WAS NOT. (And I dont think it even fair on the
> local agent to talk about them)
> 
> In my experience that company has sold its soul to Microsoft, which is
> good for business, but bad for technological exellence.
> 
> Perhaps this is a good solution to the communities dilemma:
> 
> http://www.ethernet-powerlink.org/
> 
> The opensource stack might be configured as a master or a slave (good
> for building your own io) and WAGO and a few others sell io off the
> shelf.
> 
> cheers,
> 
> 
> j.

Sounds interesting Jan, but the site isn't 100% functional.  I ran into 2 
links that gave me black screens forever.

And I was not able to determine if it works using OTS hardware for the 
ethernet itself.
 
> On Fri, Oct 25, 2013 at 2:57 AM, EBo <e...@sandien.com> wrote:
> > On Oct 24 2013 2:23 PM, John Morris wrote:
> > > On 10/24/2013 02:06 PM, andy pugh wrote:
> > >> On 24 October 2013 19:55, John Morris <j...@zultron.com> wrote:
> > >>> I believe that these restrictions mean that neither the LinuxCNC
> > >>> project
> > >>> nor anyone else may distribute EtherCAT drivers in source code
> > >>> form or
> > >>> otherwise, since with EtherCAT drivers, the software would
> > >>> essentially
> > >>> become an 'EtherCAT device' subject to Beckhoff's licensing
> > >>> requirements.
> > >> 
> > >> Does it matter that the HAL driver in question is not itself an
> > >> EtherCAT master, but simply a glue layer between HAL and a
> > >> third-party
> > >> EtherCAT Master?
> > >> (An inexact analogy would be a GPL filter to save a document in
> > >> Microsoft Word format)
> > > 
> > > I'm no authority at all, of course, just trying to interpret these
> > > matters for myself.  I was becoming involved with packaging EtherCAT
> > > before this topic was raised, so it affects me personally.
> > > 
> > > I'm focusing on the paragraph of Gerd's email following the title
> > > 'For
> > > product /device manufacturers'.
> > > 
> > > He writes, 'Making, marketing and sale of a product making use of
> > > the EtherCAT technology requires membership in the ETG and
> > > licensing of the
> > > technology'.  This sounds like LinuxCNC would qualify as such a
> > > product,
> > > and therefore those of us engaged in those activities (most all of
> > > us here in emc-developers) would be bound by those requirements,
> > > were EtherCAT to be included.
> > > 
> > > A bit further down, he writes, 'if a product is a master stack
> > > software,
> > > a vendor of the master stack or the master device does require a
> > > technology license agreement for the master product'.  I don't
> > > understand what 'master device' means or when the term would apply
> > > to LinuxCNC or systems it runs on.  In any case, it does apply to
> > > IgH's EtherCAT Master for Linux implementation, and is a 'further
> > > restriction'
> > > explicitly prohibited by the GPL.
> > 
> > We are going to run around and around and around wasting time on this
> > until someone 1) emails both IgH and FSF and ask for a determination
> > on a) will LinuxCNC require to have such an agreement, and b) if
> > their added requirement is a violation of the GPL; or 2) someone
> > hires a copyright lawyer to sort it out.  All us arguing about it is
> > a wast of time unless somone here IS actually a lawyer, hired one, or
> > emailed the two principal determining parties.
> > 
> > 
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Cheers, Gene
-- 
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Spock: We suffered 23 casualties in that attack, Captain.
A pen in the hand of this president is far more
dangerous than 200 million guns in the hands of
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