Re: On beamline motor control

[mooney@aps.anl.gov (Tim Mooney)]

Mike Hoffberg writes...

> Why is this being discussed in Beamline Controls?

This is a beamline-controls issue.

> Anyway,
> 
> Crystal Semiconductor makes the IR reciever chip, CS8130, that detects
> all of the codes and ouputs its data in a serial format.
> 
> In other words, what you want to make is an IR serial port.  You get
> an IR receiver, hook it up to this chip.  The circuit is then
> connected to a regular serial port using something like a MAX-232 that
> converts RS-232 levels to TTL (5 volt).
> 
> Now you have the IR interface to a serial port.  This can be connected
> to anything, a PC, IOC, PLC.  The controller can be something like a
> Newton or HP that has a built in IR serial port, and a nice interface,
> or it can be a regular remote control.
> 
> I would think that you would rather not use a standard TV remote,
> because it does not offer the error correction/security that an
> encoded word or stream of words that can be sent out using a smart
> hand held terminal.

Whatever.  I'd guess pilot error is much more likely than transmission
error to cause an unintended move, and pilot error is tolerated pretty
well in a research environment.

> Now all you need on the 'base' computer is some sort of program that
> initializes the Crystal chip, and then monitors the serial port.  It
> can also be used to continually send out information to the hand held
> terminal so that the current status can be displayed on it.

That's the idea.  I'm thinking a HiDEOS task would do nicely.

Tim