Re: Anyone using Zaber motion controllers

[Torsten Bögershausen via Tech-talk <tech-talk@aps.anl.gov>]

(Reply-all not working, Ralph ?)

Salut,
I read the information from Matt in a completely different way.

- The fact that you can build a system using the existing driver
  which links to a vendor library is one way to go.
- The thing that they provide a lot of documentation (
  And the source code for the vendor library ? Need to dig deeper)
  opens the opportunity to write a model 3, which doesn't
  need the external library.

What is the best way ?
It depends.
For simple motion I would probably write my own driver.
simple motion is all functionality that can be reached
through the motorRecord:
  Read the status, position...
  Move to a position
  Home the motor
  Move with constant velocity
  Stop the motor.

  For advanced features, like coupled axes, trajectories, pulses
  to and from the controller to other devices:
  Look deeper what the libraries offer.

Back to the basics. The documentation is pretty good, I think.
  For the binary format, they use 6 bytes for each message:
 
<https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://www.zaber.com/protocolmanualprotocol=Binary*topic_message_format__;Iw!!G_uCfscf7eWS!dadZaK5brjB9nwbtTkvSDmBWogtbpw6yKX6L8F5SuZs0656u0MRza4C8WUevzqtfUO2jpg2zzan-3cQmmWo$ >
  <https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://www.zaber.com/articles/simplifying-control-protocols__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!dadZaK5brjB9nwbtTkvSDmBWogtbpw6yKX6L8F5SuZs0656u0MRza4C8WUevzqtfUO2jpg2zzan-fFZS09w$ >
  <https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://www.zaber.com/protocol-manual__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!dadZaK5brjB9nwbtTkvSDmBWogtbpw6yKX6L8F5SuZs0656u0MRza4C8WUevzqtfUO2jpg2zzan-HmJbG20$ >

So, what do you really need ?
(Send my a device, and I will implement a driverfor it ;-)
BR
/Torsten



On 2025-11-07 11:55, Ralph Lange via Tech-talk wrote:
> On Thu, 6 Nov 2025 at 15:25, Pearson, Matthew <pearsonmr@ornl.gov 
> <mailto:pearsonmr@ornl.gov>> wrote:
>     I see they do include a compiled library that you need to link to.
>     Although they also have the source code available here: https://
>     gitlab.com/ZaberTech/zaber-motion-lib <https://urldefense.us/v3/
>     __https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://gitlab.com/ZaberTech/zaber-motion-lib__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!dadZaK5brjB9nwbtTkvSDmBWogtbpw6yKX6L8F5SuZs0656u0MRza4C8WUevzqtfUO2jpg2zzan-YLa7eP8$ 
>     YREVS1d0WxVjvkgCuCnFVehQKul2QXWHTfQQw8mmhdkovyRmoMJgKCWU4a44kOhw5sPD2CPVOVRzV58QijjcDioQWTA$>
>
> That is the library written in Go with wrappers for different languages 
> that I was referring to.
> (Needs a recent version of Golang - way newer than what's available on 
> our systems, of course.)
> I'm hesitating because introducing a new programming language into the 
> ITER controls design is a major effort, and I wouldn't want to start 
> that for a single motor in a single one of our ~170 systems...
> Cheers,
> ~Ralph