Dynamixel {#mainpage}
Description
This library provide a server to handle all the devices connected to a Dynamixel Bus and also low level read and write functions to access each one of this devices.
The server allows to:
-
Scan the bus for devices: it checks all the possible addresses (from 0 to 254) for all the possible frequencies. Once a device responds in a given frequency, all other frequencies are discarded.
-
Change the ID of a given device on the bus. By default all devices came with the same address (0) and it is necessary to change it in order to have multiple devices on the same bus.
-
Change the bus baudrate. Some device have a slow baudrate by default and to achive the peak performance it is necessary to change it.
For each device, the following operations are provided:
-
Read and write to any 8 or 16 bit register. Allow access to all the device registers.
-
Synchronized write operations. Allow loading a given value to a given register to all the devices at the same time. The value is sent to the device using a REG_WRITE operation, but it does not take effect until the ACTION command is sent.
-
Broadcast a command to several devices.
Dependencies
This package requires of the following system libraries and packages
- cmake, a cross-platform build system.
- doxygen and graphviz to generate the documentation.
- stdc++ and pthread libraries.
- xsdcxx, W3C XML Schema to C++ Compiler
Under linux all of these utilities are available in ready-to-use packages.
Under MacOS most of the packages are available via fink
This package also requires of the following IRI libraries:
Compilation and installation
Download this repository and create a build folder inside:
mkdir build
Inside the build folder execute the following commands:
cmake ..
The default build mode is DEBUG. That is, objects and executables include debug information.
The RELEASE build mode optimizes for speed. To build in this mode execute instead
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE
The release mode will be kept until next time cmake is executed.
make
In case no errors are reported, the generated libraries (if any) will be located at the lib folder and the executables (if any) will be located at the bin folder.
In order to be able to use the library, it it necessary to copy it into the system. To do that, execute
make install
as root and the shared libraries will be copied to /usr/local/lib/iridrivers directory and the header files will be copied to /usr/local/include/iridrivers directory. At this point, the library may be used by any user.
To remove the library from the system, exceute
make uninstall
as root, and all the associated files will be removed from the system.
To generate the documentation execute the following command:
make doc
How to use it
To use this library in an other library or application, in the CMakeLists.txt file, first it is necessary to locate if the library has been installed or not using the following command
FIND_PACKAGE(project_name)
In the case that the package is present, it is necessary to add the header files directory to the include directory path by using
INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES(${project_name_INCLUDE_DIR})
and it is also necessary to link with the desired libraries by using the following command
TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(<executable name> ${project_name_LIBRARY})
Disclaimer
Copyright (C) 2009-2018 Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial, CSIC-UPC. Mantainer author_name (author_email)
This package is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty. It is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program is with you. should the program prove defective, the GMR group does not assume the cost of any necessary servicing, repair or correction.
In no event unless required by applicable law the author will be liable to you for damages, including any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the program (including but not limited to loss of data or data being rendered inaccurate or losses sustained by you or third parties or a failure of the program to operate with any other programs), even if the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/