I was not specificaly seeking the monetary cost, more the loss of rights, which could be far more costly than the monetary cost. As always, keep TANSTAAFL in mind.
As far as Beckhoff are concerned this isn't a free lunch. Similar to Mesa they make their money on the hardware. Supporting the software is simply a cost of doing business.
Obviously they sell their own hardware but they also charge a royalty fee for every Ethercat slave device manufactured. For instance Microchip sell Ethercat device controllers. For each controller chip they sell, they pay a royalty to Beckhoff.
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