UART interface

The UART interface is more interactive and user-friendly compared to CAN. With just a serial monitor and a USB-to-serial device, you can communicate with your motor and receive interactive, human-readable responses.

Disadvantages:

• Passing human-readable data is slow and limiting if you aim for high-performance control.
• Only one device per UART channel, so no daisy chaining.
• Susceptible to noise.

Default baud rate is: 256000 (Max tested baudrate is 1000 0000)

How to connect

• TODO how to connect to serial adapter

Voltage warrning

Spectral micro UART port uses 3.3 volts. Using 5V will destroy your board!

UART pins

Take note that UART is connected TX to RX and RX to TX

Using serial monitor

PuttyVScodeArduino

Download Putty from this link: Modified Putty

Note

You need to have Putty from above link to add CR LF option. Stock Putty cant do that!

Step 1	Step 2
Go to keyboard tab and Select CR LF option	Enter serial port of your adapter and enter speed; Click Open

Download VScode from this link: VS code Open Spectral firmware in VS code (You will need to install Platformio extension)

Step 1	Step 2
Made sure your platformio.ini file looks like this (usually platformio will auto detect the COM port)	Click the icon marked in red and that will open a serial terminal

Download Arduino from this link: Arduino

Select matching COM port of your serial adapter

For boards we usually select "Adafruit Circuit Playground"

In tools tab press Serial monitor

UART protocol

All commands need to start with # and end with CR + LF (carriage return \r + Newline (Line Feed) \n).

CR + LF

Usually CR + LF is inserted by the terminal you use when you press enter.

All commands are response-only; that means the motor driver will never send data over UART unless it receives a request from the host.

Cyclic commands

Only exceptions are cyclic commands that allow you to set up motor driver to periodically send some data.

Aftter # You can enter your command. For example: #Error
Commands that are type set/get can have a number argument after command name. Number argument for command can be one of following types as described in table column "Input Data type"

• int - positive and negative integer values
• float - positive and negative float values
• bool - 0 or 1

Commands and numbers need to be seperated by a single space! Example: #LED 1

Commands are case sensitive!

Command names are case sensitive and need to be same as in the table to be registred.

Template of command:
#Name number

Here are few examples:

• Calling #P 100 will set our motor to positon mode with setpoint of 100 and return its current position, but calling #P will only return current positon of the motor.
• Calling #V 1000 will set motor to velocity mode with setpoint of 100 and return its current velocity, but calling #V will only return current velocity of the motor.
• Calling #LED 1 will enable led indication on the motor and #LED 0 will disable it; also both examples wilL return its current status. Calling only #LED will tell us the current status.
  

As you can see Responses of Set/Get commands do not change if they have number command after command name. So calling #P and #P 100 will have same response; defined in Response tab of the table.

Action commands

Commands of type action do not take any second arguments.

Cyclic commands:
There are few cyclic commands available. they initiate a motor to send data every timeinterval we set.

1. Cyc
2. Cyca

List of commands

Motion commands

Name	Type	Input Data type	Desciption	Response
Iq	Set/Get	float	Switches actuator to current control mode and sets current setpoint to Iq value.	Iq value [mA]
V	Set/Get	int	Switches actuator to velocity control mode and sets velocity to setpoint V	Velocity value [Encoder ticks/s]
P	Set/Get	int	Switches actuator to position mode and sets positon setopint to P value	Position [Encoder ticks]
PD	Set/Get	int	Switches actuator to Impedance PD control mode and sets position setpoint to PD value	Current position [Encoder ticks]
PDV	Set/Get	int	Set/Get velocity setpoint when in Impedance PD mode.	Current velocity setpoint when in PD mode
PDI	Set/Get	int	Set/Get current setpoint when in Impedance PD mode	Current current setpoint when in PD mode
Openloop	Set/Get	int	Enter open loop mode and spin with speed; Example #Openloop 1000; Motor will use voltage preset given by #Openv command	Value of open-loop speed

PID tuning commands

Name	Type	Input Data type	Desciption	Response
Kpp	Set/Get	float	Set/Get position loop Kp gain	Current value of Kpp
Kpv	Set/Get	float	Set/Get velocity loop Kp gain	Current value of Kpv
Kiv	Set/Get	float	Set/Get velocity loop Ki gain	Current value of Kiv
Kpiq	Set/Get	float	Set/Get current loop Kp gain (Iq and Id loop)	Current value of Kpiq
Kiiq	Set/Get	float	Set/Get current loop Ki gain (Iq and Id loop)	Current value of Kiiq
Kpid	Set/Get	float	Set/Get Id current loop Kp gain.	Current value of Kpid
Kiid	Set/Get	float	Set/Get Id current loop Ki gain.	Current value of Kiid
Vlimit	Set/Get	int	Clamp velocity integrator to the value of Vlimit	Current value of Vlimit [Encoder ticks/s]
Ilim	Set/Get	int	Set/Get Iq current limit	Current value of Ilim [mA]
Id	Set/Get	float	Set/Get the value of Id setpoint. Usually we do not touch this and should stay at 0	Id value [mA]
KP	Set/Get	float	Set/Get KP of impedance PD loop	Current value of KP
KD	Set/Get	float	Set/Get KD of impedance PD loop	Current value of KD
Rstint	Set/Get	bool	Set/Get do we want to reset integral accumulators after receiving new setopint, default is 0.	0 if disabled 1 if enabled

Calibration and motor parameter commands

Name	Type	Input Data type	Desciption	Response
Cal	Action		Start motor calibration procedure
R	Set/Get	float	Set/Get phase Resistance	Phase Resistance [Ohm]
L	Set/Get	float	Set/Get phase Inductance	Phase Inductance [Ohm]
PP	Set/Get	int	Set/get Number of POLE PAIRS!	Current nomber of pole pairs
Kt	Set/Get	float	Set/Get Kt (Torque constant)	Current value of Kt
KV	Set/Get	float	Set/Get KV (motor velocity constant)	Current value of KV
Flux	Set/Get	float	Set/Get flux linkage	Current flux linkage value
Magnet	Action		Gets magnet status	Good or Bad
Dir	Set/Get	bool	Set/Get Dir	Current value of Dir
Phase	Set/Get	int	Set/Get Phase order	Current value of Phase order
Cbw	Set/Get	int	Set/Get current loop bandwidth [Hz]	Current current loop bandwidth
Resv	Set/Get	int	Set/Get voltage used when looking for resistance value (Used in #Cal function)	Current voltage used when looking for resistance
Calpwr	Set/Get	int	Set/Get max power that can be used during Inductance and resistance search (Used in #Cal function)	Current calibration power
Openv	Set/Get	int	Set/Get voltage used during open loop operation (Used in #Cal function and when using #Openloop)	Current open loop voltage
Opens	Set/Get	int	Set/Get open loop calibration speed (Used in #Cal function)	Current open loop calibration speed
Vp	Set/Get	int	Set/Get phase order search voltage (Used in #Cal function)

Utility commands

Name	Type	Input Data type	Desciption	Response
Idle	Action		Set motor to idle state
Save	Action		Save current config to EEPROM
LED	Set/Get	bool	Enable disable LED status	Current status of LED indication; 0 is off, 1 is on
Reset	Action		Reset the MCU
Default	Action		Load default config to EEPROM	**Note this will rewrite all data saved in eeprom (including serial number, hardware version, batch date...) Before using it make sure to manually backup any important data.
Temp	Action		Get termistor temperature in degrees	Temperature in degrees
Term	Set/Get	bool	Enable/disable termistor mesurment	0 disabled 1 enabled
Tlim	Set/Get	int	Set/Get the temperature at which thermal error will trigger	Be careful here value of 75 is default and it is not recommended to go higher than that unless you know you motor is rated for more
Mode	Action		Get current operating mode	Operating mode (Open loop, Idle, Positon control...)
Vbus	Action		Get current value of Vbus	current value of Vbus [mV]
Error	Action		Get current state of all errors	List of errors
Clear	Action		Clear all errors and go to idle; *NOTE: this will not clear calibration error if drive is not calibrated.
Iabs	Action		Get value of motor phase currents	value of phase currents [mA]
Close	Action		Enter closed loop mode
PWM	Action		Get value of PWM values	Current PWM values
Info	Action		Get Information about motor driver and motor	Motor information
Param	Action		Get all currently set PID parameters for every control mode	PID parameters
Cyc	Set/Get	int	Periodically send messages
Cyca	Set/Get	int	Periodically send messages arduino format
CANID	Set/Get	int	Set/Get CAN ID (can be from 0 - 15)	Current CAN node ID
SERNUM	Set/Get	int	Set/Get motor controller serial number	Current serial number of motor controller
Calibrated	Set/Get	bool	Set/Get motor calibration status. *NOTE: calling #Calibrated 1 will set controllers calibration status to 1 but motor controller might not be properly calibrated. To run auto calibration run #Cal command	Calibrated or not calibrated
Activate	Set/Get	bool	Activate the motor (Not used in this version of code)
Pullconfig	Action		Prints all motor data over serial; used for updating the Spectral motor GUI	Motor data seperated by single space char

Gripper commands

Commands used when in gripper mode. Procedure:

• Gripper 1 (Tells our motor controller we are using it as gripper)
• Gripcal (this will calibrate the gripper)
• Gripvel x (x is value from 0 - 255; 0 being min speed 255 max speed)
• Gripcur x (x is value from 0 - 1000 [mA])
• Grippos x (x is vale from 0 - 255; 0 being fully open 255 fully closed)

Name	Type	Input Data type	Desciption	Response
Gripper	Set/Get	bool	Set/get Am I a gripper	Is this device gripper or not
Gripcal	Action		Start gripper calibration	None
Grippos	Set/Get	uint8_t	Set/get desired gripper setpoint position (from 0 to 255). Also will set gripper into GOTO mode and execute the command	Gripper positon value
Gripvel	Set/Get	uint8_t	Set/get desired gripper velocity setpoint (from 0 to 255)	Gripper velocity value setpoint
Gripcur	Set/Get	int	Set/get desired gripper current in mA from 0 - 1000 (Note value below 150 are unstable)	Gripper current value setpoint; to get current current value use #Iq
Gripact	Set/Get	bool	Set/get gripper activation bit	Is gripper activated or not
Gripstop	Set/Get	bool	Set/get gripper Estop bit	Gripper estop bit status
Gripinfo	Action		Print information about this gripper	All information about gripper like: is it calibrated, status, endstop values...

Cyclic commands

TODO