Quanser Hexapod2-USB

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB is a six degrees of freedom parallel link robotic motion platform capable of moving heavy loads (up to 100 kg) at high acceleration, within a small workspace. The QUARC driver name for this card is hexapod2_usb.

• 8 single-ended analog input channels, 16-bit (all channels user customizable)
• 8 single-ended analog outputs channels, 16-bit (all channels user customizable)
• 8 single-ended encoder input channels, 24-bit (2 channels user customizable)
• 7 digital inputs
• 8 digital outputs
• 6 PWM outputs
• Integrated with MATLAB/Simulink/Simulink Coder via Quanser QUARC

To select the Quanser Hexapod2-USB HIL board, pass hexapod2_usb as the card type argument to the hil_open function.

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB I/O channels are described below.

Clocks

There are currently no configuration options for the Quanser Hexapod2-USB clocks.

Analog Inputs

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB supports eight analog inputs. The analog inputs are user configurable to interface with various sensors etc.

The range of the analog inputs may be configured as ±5V or ±10V via the hil_set_analog_input_ranges function.

Analog Outputs

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB supports eight analog outputs. The analog outputs are user configurable to interface with various actuators etc.

Use the hil_set_analog_output_ranges function to set the desired analog output ranges. Valid ranges are 0-5V, 0-10V, 0-10.8V, ±5V, ±10V and ±10.8V .

Digital Inputs

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB supports seven digital inputs, which are used for diagnostics. The digital inputs are enumerated in the table below.

Digital Outputs

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB supports nine digital outputs. The digital outputs are enumerated in the table below.

Encoder Inputs

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB supports eight encoder inputs (six are used by system and two are user configurable). Each channels provide a 24-bit count value. All channels only support 4X quadrature mode.

In order to set the encoder counters to a particular count value, use the hil_set_encoder_counts function.

The encoder inputs are sampled simultaneously when measured using a single hil_read or hil_read_encoder call.

PWM Outputs

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB supports six PWM output channels. They are used to drive the motors.

Each output channel can be programmed with a duty cycle ranging from 0 to 100% inclusive.

The PWM outputs are updated simultaneously when written using a single HIL Write block. All eight PWM outputs may be updated simultaneously by writing all six channels with a single HIL Write block.

Other Inputs

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB supports 6 other input channels.

Other input channels 14000 through 14005 are hardware velocity measurements for encoder inputs 0 through 5 respectively, in counts per second. These measurements are independent of the sample rate of the model and are unaffected by sample rate jitter. They reflect the instantaneous velocity of the encoder channel.

The fastest resolvable velocity is almost 100 million counts per second (without filtering). The slowest measurable velocity (besides zero) is approximately 6 counts per second.

The channels related to the encoders are all sampled simultaneously when measured using a single HIL Read block.

Other Outputs

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB card does not support other outputs.

Interrupts

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB card, or its driver, does not support any interrupt sources.

Watchdog

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB supports a watchdog timer for resetting the outputs on watchdog expiry. Namely, the analog, digital and PWM output channels will be reset to the user-defined values on watchdog expiry. Resetting of the outputs occurs without software intervention, and therefore may be used as a safety mechanism in the event of software failure.

To enable the watchdog, use the hil_watchdog_start function. Be sure to reload the watchdog periodically using the hil_watchdog_reload function to prevent the watchdog from expiring.

To configure the values to which the output channels are reset on watchdog expiry, use the hil_watchdog_set_analog_expiration_state, hil_watchdog_set_digital_expiration_state and hil_watchdog_set_pwm_expiration_state functions to set the analog, digital and PWM output values on watchdog expiration respectively.

Once the watchdog has expired, further I/O on the outputs is disabled until the watchdog state is cleared.

Use the hil_watchdog_clear function to clear the watchdog state. Note that stopping the watchdog does not clear the watchdog state. The watchdog state must be cleared explicitly.

Board-Specific Options

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB card does not support any board-specific options.

Properties

The Quanser Hexapod2-USB driver currently supports the following read-only properties:

Targets

See Also

• Supported Quanser Cards

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