FaulhaberSerial Class Reference

Class for communicating with Faulhaber MCBL 3006 through serial COM ports. More...

#include "FaulhaberSerial.h"

Public Member Functions
	FaulhaberSerial ()
	Constructor. More...
	~FaulhaberSerial ()
void	initialize (const QString pCOMPortName)
	Initialize the COM port member variables. More...
void	attachErrorHandler (QSharedPointer< ErrorHandler > pDIOCard)
bool	open (QString pBaudRate="19200", QString pParity="n", QString pByteSize="8", QString pStopBit="1")
	Open communication with the COM port. More...
bool	close ()
	Close communication with the COM port. More...
bool	receivePacket (int &pData)
	Read a full packet of data from the COM port. More...
bool	send (int pUnit, QString pCommand, int pData, bool pUseData)
	Send a packet to the COM port. More...

Protected Attributes
QSerialPort *	mSerialPort
	In Qt5, QSerialPort handles the COM port. More...
QSharedPointer< ErrorHandler >	mErrorHandler
	Error handler. More...
bool	mIsPortInitialized
	Flag that defines if port has been initialized or not. More...
bool	mIsOpen
	Flag that defines if port has been opened or not. More...

Static Protected Attributes
static const unsigned char	CR = '\r'
	Carriage return character used as special end character when communicating with Faulhaber motors. More...
static const int	RXTIMEOUT = 500
	Communication timeout limit in milliseconds. More...

Detailed Description

---

This class handles serial port communication with Faulhaber MCBL 3006 Motion Controller. It is based on QSerialPort provided in Qt5. It provides simpler methods for reading and writing to serial COM ports. It is designed for the commands required to control robots embding Faulhaber motors. It allows to control a set of n motors through a unique serial COM port. To begin communication with a port, you must first initialize it, then open it. The Faulhaber motors can have variable packet sizes and therefore use a special character (a carriage return ASCII character) to distinguish the end of the packet.

Constructor & Destructor Documentation

FaulhaberSerial::FaulhaberSerial

(

)

---

Initializes all flags to False.

FaulhaberSerial::~FaulhaberSerial

(

)

Member Function Documentation

void FaulhaberSerial::attachErrorHandler

(

QSharedPointer< ErrorHandler >

pDIOCard

)

void FaulhaberSerial::close

(

)

---

This calls the QSerialPort::close() function.

See also

QSerialPort::close

void FaulhaberSerial::initialize

(

const QString

pCOMPortName

)

---

Initializes the COM port.

Parameters

[in]

pPortName

Name of the COM port used.

See also

QSerialPort::setPortName

bool FaulhaberSerial::open	(	QString	pBaudRate = "19200",
		QString	pParity = "n",
		QString	pByteSize = "8",
		QString	pStopBit = "1"
	)

---

This method first checks if the port isn't already open (using a QSerialPortInfo structure). It sets the baud rate, the number of data bits, the parity, the nomber of stop bits and the flow control. Finally, it opens the port for read and write.

Parameters

[in]	pBaudRate	Baud rate used for the communication.
[in]	pParity	Parity used for the communication.
[in]	pByteSize	Number of data bits used for the communication.
[in]	pStopBit	Number of stop bits used for the communication.

Returns

True if the port has been suffessfully opened and configured, false if an error occured.

See also

QSerialPortInfo::isBusy, QSerialPort::setBaudRate, QSerialPort::setDataBits, QSerialPort::setParity, QSerialPort::setStopBits, QSerialPort::setFlowControl(QSerialPort::NoFlowControl), QSerialPort::open(QIODevice::ReadWrite)

bool FaulhaberSerial::receivePacket

(

int &

pData

)

---

This method reads the COM port while new data is available. It keeps reading until either no new data is available or the RXTIMEOUT time limit is reached.

Parameters

[out]

pData

The data is converted from char* to int using atoi().

See also

QSerialPort::readAll, QSerialPort::waitForReadyRead, RXTIMEOUT

bool FaulhaberSerial::send	(	int	pUnit,
		QString	pCommand,
		int	pData,
		bool	pUseData
	)

---

This method sends a packet of bytes as a char* to the COM port as specified for the Faulhaber motors. The packet is constructed for the Faulhaber motors: it is sent as an array of ASCII characters with a CR character at the end, as explained in section 4 (page 50) of the Faulhaber 3006S Motion Controller Instruction Manual. For all commands, the QSerialPort::waitForBytesWritten() command is called with the RXTIMEOUT time limit, in order to ensure the full delivery of the packet.

Parameters

[in]	pUnit	Unit number of the motor to which the command should be sent.
[in]	pCommand	A string that defines the command to be sent.
[in]	pData	The optional integer data to be sent with the command (such as position, distance, speed, etc). If no data is necessary, then use 0.
[in]	pUseData	A flag defining whether the pData parameter should be used or not when sending the command.

See also

QSerialPort::write, QSerialPort::waitForBytesWritten, CR, RXTIMEOUT

Member Data Documentation

const unsigned char FaulhaberSerial::CR = '\r'

staticprotected

QSharedPointer<ErrorHandler> FaulhaberSerial::mErrorHandler

protected

bool FaulhaberSerial::mIsOpen

protected

bool FaulhaberSerial::mIsPortInitialized

protected

QSerialPort* FaulhaberSerial::mSerialPort

protected

const int FaulhaberSerial::RXTIMEOUT = 500

staticprotected

---

The documentation for this class was generated from the following files:

• FaulhaberSerial.h
• FaulhaberSerial.cpp