Distributed clocks / SYNC message

[thetooth]

I'm currently working on a robotics project and have been entertaining the idea of replacing CODESYS which I have been using for the RT aspects of the system with an open source stack. Found this library and it's very cool, took maybe all of an hour to adapt the example and get my drive booted and PDO mapped. The problem I now face is its a Delta B3 drive and apparently wont move unless it's receiving some form of sync message.

Delta servo drives only support synchronous operation which is the controller periodically sends the SYNC object (COB-ID = 0x80).

The drive is fully powered up (locked shaft), receiving control word, target position and mode of operation, it's sending back all the right status word bits as well as actual position + velocity. But it refuses to budge. The only configuration difference between this and CODESYS I can see is that its not receiving a distributed clock.

Now the problem is that I only know a little bit about CoE, and next to nothing about EtherCAT itself. Reading what's out there it seems as though SYNC messages and distributed clocks are two different things, if that's true is there a quick and dirty way to generate that payload and get this project moving forward? I assume the only reason we don't already have DC in this library is because it's a non trivial task and unfortunately I'm probably not in the position to contribute one even though I would like to.

Any help would be much appreciated.