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Core Serial Library in C
1.0
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The Zaber Core Serial Library is intended to provide a simple set of commands for interacting with Zaber devices over a serial port. It is recommended that before using this library, you first read the protocol manual corresponding to the protocol of your device.
The ASCII Protocol Manual is a complete reference for communicating with Zaber devices in ASCII. Note that many A-Series devices default to the binary protocol, and may need to be switched to ASCII before use. Appendix C of the ASCII Protocol Manual is a short guide to doing this switch.
The Binary Protocol Manual is a complete reference for communicating with Zaber devices in binary. Note that devices using the binary protocol will only reply once a command has completed, so more work must be done to properly receive responses. See the "Move Absolute" command reference and zb_set_timeout() for more info on this.
The API is divided into two major parts:
There is also a third header, z_common.h. It defines a few things that both of the other headers have in common. It should not be explicitly included in your source files: it is already included by za_serial.h and zb_serial.h.
Regardless of which protocol you are using, z_common.h defines a "z_port" type, which is used to represent a connected port. A variable of this type should be populated using za_connect() or zb_connect(). These functions will not only set your z_port to a valid file descriptor/handle, but will also configure it to the proper settings for a Zaber device using your protocol of choice.
After opening your z_port, it will be the first parameter to nearly every other function exposed by this API, except for functions which do not interact directly with your device (eg. zb_decode()). Note that with the exception of za_connect() and zb_connect(), a z_port is passed by value, not by reference.
1.8.8
