Hi, I've got a rather specific request for help with the Linux commands fo the Arcom Aim104 PC104 relay board.
My situation is that I am a research scientist with essentially no Linu experience. Luckily I have a couple of colleagues who do know about Linux Between us, we are setting out on an embedded computing project to try an automate some lab equipment. I badly wanted to move away from Window because I have been automating lab equipment in Windows for far longe than I care to remember and I think the drivers are often very poor.
A PC104 format has been suggested as a route to be compatible with collaborator's project in the States. They use rugged Windows and Linu PC104 platforms for remote site installations. I'd really like to hoo into this sometime so I started looking at Linux PC104 solutions. I prett rapidly honed in on the Arcom range, for instance the Pegasus, since Arco is a preferred supplier where I work.
So, to start off with, we are thinking of purchasing the Pegasus alon with a relay board; that would give us 8 relays and 8 opto-isolate inputs. For the initial stages of our project this would suffice. Once w have cracked how to run this board we could of course add other rela boards, stepper motor boards etc. etc. in the PC104 stack.
A lot of the Pegasus manual went over my head, although the Linux peopl seemed fairly confident they would be able to install the Linu environment from it OK. The embedded Linux environment on the Pegasu provides Linux commands to call board components, such as the relays which is great - I don't have to call some anonymous memory address o suchlike, like in a DOS environment perhaps.
So far so good, but it would be really great if somebody out there wit the same board could show us some sample code. If we can see how it' done, we'd feel much more confident about parting with the cash to buy th board.
For instance, a comand like int aim104_relay8_set_masked(int fd, unsigned char mask, unsigned cha set) seems to have rather more attributes than I can handle. Is fd the board ID? Is char mask something like 00100000 to specify whic relay to turn on (i.e, number 3)? But then what is the char set attribute And so on. The manual didn't say.
If this is all screamingly obvious to you then try to be patient with me Remember, I can pass your feedback back to somebody who knows Linux muc better than me. Ultimately it's my project though so I am trying to lear as much as I can on the fly. Ideally I would learn Linux first, the embedded Linux, and so on but as with so many things it hasn't turned ou that way. Incidentally, if you think I could learn Linux rapidly then I'm up to th challenge, if you could point me in the direction of a suitable book o online resource. I'd still love to have some help from a fellow Aim10 relay board user though...
Thanks in advance
Sarpeyer