QUARC 2026
These release notes describe the new features and changes introduced in QUARC 2026. They are divided into the sections enumerated below.
New Software Compatibility
QUARC 2026 has introduced compatibility with the following third-party software.
Compatibility with MATLAB, Simulink, and Simulink Coder R2026a has been added.
New Features
The new features introduced in QUARC 2026 are mentioned below.
For python users that have pre-existing code using the Rpi.GPIO or PyPi gpio library, Quanser now provides a quanser.hardware.gpio wrapper around the Quanser HIL API to make porting this code easier to Quanser products. The Quanser GPIO library works on all Quanser targets, including both Windows and Linux targets.
A new integer property has been added for the I2C protocol (STREAM_PROPERTY_ADDRESS = 5) that allows the slave address for I2C to be changed after opening the URI. This new property allows a single I2C stream to be used to control multiple I2C devices on the bus.
For python users that have pre-existing code using the PyPi i2cpy library, Quanser now provides a quanser.communications.i2cpy wrapper around the Quanser Stream API to make porting this code easier to Quanser products. The Quanser i2cpy library works on all Quanser targets, including both Windows and Linux targets.
Quanser has introduced a new file format called the Quanser Binary Format for storing binary data. It is currently used by the Quanser Mechatronic Sensors Trainer USB devices when storing sensor data on an SD card. A file in the Quanser Binary Format has a *.qbin extension. It is able to store multiple variables, collected at different sample rates or asynchronously. Variables are interleaved in time so it is possible to read the file sequentially instead of using random access, making it suitable for streaming and minimizing memory requirements.
There is a corresponding archiver called quanser_binary for reading Quanser Binary Format
(QBIN) files, including both listing the signals contained in the QBIN file and extracting signals
from it. In Windows, right-clicking on a QBIN file will display a context menu with various options,
or the quanser_binary command-line tool may be used.
Most SPI drivers were enhanced to allow the baud rate and word length to be changed using stream properties to make it easier to control multiple devices using a single stream.
For python users that have pre-existing code using the PyPi SpiDev library, Quanser now provides a quanser.communications.spidev wrapper around the Quanser Stream API to make porting this code easier to Quanser products. The Quanser SpiDev library works on all Quanser targets, including both Windows and Linux targets.
New Cards Supported
The full list of all the data acquisition cards supported by QUARC 2026 is given by the following link. QUARC 2026 may now also interface to the cards listed below.
Added support for the CubeSat CPP card for testing miniature satellites.
Added support for the Quanser Mechatronic Sensors Trainer card for experimenting with sensors useful in mechatronic applications.
Miscellaneous
The following shows the miscellaneous changes in QUARC 2026.
Dialogs
We have updated majority of QUARC dialogs to use the new MATLAB graphical system. The dialogs should now render properly regardless of display resolution/scaling.
Improved Features
Some of the features improved in QUARC 2026 are enumerated below. There are a great many miscellaneous improvements that have not been listed. Only some of the highlights are listed below.
In addition to proper rendering, the HIL Initialize block now supports searching for the Board Type. This allows you to type parts of the board that you want to use and the Board Type list will display the boards that match your seach.
All the HIL immediate I/O, buffered I/O and timebase blocks now support the ability to change the port labels. Port labels may now be displayed as channel numbers (as is done currently), full signal names, shortened signal names or abbreviated signal names.
Some of the HIL blocks now also support three options for the output ports: scalar outputs, vector outputs or grouped outputs. When the grouped option is selected then outputs are coalesced into a single vector output whenever the channel numbers are consecutive. This scheme works particularly well for other input channels, where consecutive channels naturally group related signals together.
The HIL Read/Write blocks, GPS NMEA block and Ranging Sensor block now support Simulink units MATLAB Command Line Click to copy the following command line to the clipboard. Then paste it in the MATLAB Command Window: qc_open_matlab_help('units'). Unit support makes it much easier to know the units of a particular signal as well as making it easier to convert between units.
The GPS NMEA block has been significantly enhanced, with many more outputs. Some bug fixes have also been applied so that more data is extracted from the GPS device.
ESCs may be configured to be able to driven forwards or backwards. For example, DSHOT 3D mode allows an ESC to be driven in forward or reverse without reconfiguration. To accommodate such scenarios, the ESC Output and hil_esc_output function have been enhanced so that a bipolar throttle input may optionally be used when driving an ESC configured in such a way. See the documentation for details.
Deprecated Features
| Some of the previous QUARC features have been deprecated in QUARC 2026, as mentioned below. Many of the deprecated features may continue to work, but are no longer supported and should be avoided. |
MATLAB Versions No Longer Supported
MATLAB R2024a is no longer supported.
MATLAB R2024b is no longer supported.
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