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Installation

Prerequisites

The JCS dev_host library requires:

  • A real-time operating system.
  • SOEM Ethercat master
  • yaml-cpp

Realtime Linux operating system

The real-time requirements for the robotic system are left up to the user. JCS dev_host runs on Linux Preempt/RT kernel quite well, however hard real-time patches (RTAI etc) are supported.

yaml-cpp

Ensure libyaml-cpp-dev and libyaml-cpp are installed. Minimum version: 0.6.2

SOEM EtherCAT master

Obtain the latest version of Simple Open EtherCAT Master Library from:

https://github.com/OpenEtherCATsociety/SOEM

Build the library per the SOEM instructions:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

Install the SOEM library files:

make install

This will gather all the required SOEM files and install them into $(SOEM_DIR)/install

Integration into your project

JCS dev_host is provided as the static Linux library libjcs_host.a and a number of C++ header files. You should have the following files:

libjcs_host.a
jcs_host.h
jcs_host_types.h
jcs_user_external.h

Ensure your Makefile links to the jcs_host library, YAML and SOEM and includes the headers. For example:

# Include JCS library
LIB_EXT += -L$(JCS_DIR) -ljcs_host
INC_EXT += -I$(JCS_DIR)

# Include SOEM library
LIB_EXT += -L$(SOEM_DIR)/install/lib -lsoem
INC_EXT += -I$(SOEM_DIR)/install/include/soem/

# Include YAML library
LIB_EXT += -lyaml-cpp
INC_EXT += -I/usr/include/yaml-cpp

JCS dev_host requires a minimum of c++11.

jcs_user_external

The C++ header jcs_user_external.h has prototypes for a number of functions that the user needs to implement.

All functions within jcs_user_external.h are functions that may be required to make calls to the underlying real-time system.

Please inspect the header file and implement any functions defined within.