# soem

**Repository Path**: pinkedge/soem

## Basic Information

- **Project Name**: soem
- **Description**: ROS package wrapping the Simple Open EtherCAT Master (SOEM) from https://github.com/OpenEtherCATsociety/SOEM
- **Primary Language**: C
- **License**: Not specified
- **Default Branch**: master
- **Homepage**: None
- **GVP Project**: No

## Statistics

- **Stars**: 0
- **Forks**: 0
- **Created**: 2021-11-09
- **Last Updated**: 2021-11-09

## Categories & Tags

**Categories**: Uncategorized

**Tags**: None

## README

# SOEM for ROS

**Table of Contents**

- [Package Description](#Package-Description)
- [Installation](#Installation)
- [Usage](#Usage)
- [Development](#Development)

## Package Description

SOEM is an open source EtherCAT master library written in C.
Its primary target is Linux but can be adapted to other OS and embedded systems.

SOEM has originally been hosted at http://developer.berlios.de/projects/soem/
but has been moved to [GitHub and the OpenEtherCATsociety organisation](
https://github.com/OpenEtherCATsociety/SOEM).

This package contains the original SOEM C code provided by the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven,
the development of which has been taken over by [rt-labs](https://rt-labs.com/).
As the original source is down, it is not totally clear what the state of this package is with respect
to the upstream repository.
It is, however, approximately the one merged in [OpenEtherCATsociety/SOEM#1](
https://github.com/OpenEtherCATsociety/SOEM/pull/1).

**Disclaimer**:
This package is not a development package for SOEM, but rather a wrapper to provide SOEM to ROS.
In the end, this just provides the CMake quirks that allows releasing SOEM as a ROS package.

All bug reports regarding the original SOEM source code should go to the bugtracker at
https://github.com/OpenEtherCATsociety/SOEM/issues.

All ROS related issues should target the [bug tracker on GitHub](https://github.com/mgruhler/soem/issues)
(but might be redirected ;-)).

Obviously, any support, being it bug reports or pull requests (obviously preferred) are highly welcome!

## Installation

If `soem` has been released for your respective ROS distribution, you can simply install it using

```bash
sudo apt install ros-<DISTRO>-soem
```

Currently, `soem` has been released for ROS `indigo` and `kinetic` and will soon be released for `melodic`.
If you want to use `soem` from source, please check out the section about [Development](#Development).

## Usage

To use `soem` in your ROS package add the following to your `package.xml`and `CMakeLists.txt`, respectively.

In your `package.xml` add:

```xml
  <build_depend>soem</build_depend>
  <exec_depend>soem</exec_depend>
```

and in your `CMakeLists.txt`, add it to `find_package` and adapt the `include_directories` as shown:

```CMake
find_package(catkin REQUIRED COMPONENTS
  ...
  soem
  ...
)

include_directories(
  ...
  ## The following work around allows SOEM headers to include other SOEM headers.
  ## SOEM headers assume all headers are installed in a flat directory structure
  ## See https://github.com/mgruhler/soem/issues/4 for more information.
  ${soem_INCLUDE_DIRS}/soem
)
```
**Note** that this assumes you have installed `soem` from `apt` or followed the setup layed out in the [Development](#Development) section!

## Development

If you want to use `soem` in ROS using a ROS distro it has not been released for, or build it from source,
you need to make sure to use it from an [`install space`](http://wiki.ros.org/catkin/workspaces#Install_Space).
In its current state, this repo is doing some copying of header files during the installation step, which is not done
and thus will not work in regular build/devel space layouts.

Thus, if you want to use `soem` from source, it is encouraged that you put this in an underlay install space.

This has been tested using both, `catkin_make` and `catkin build`.