EPOS Interface For Identification and Opening Devices

[jc-luna]

• Closes Wrappers Around EPOS Command Library Methods #9
• Wrap about common routines
  • Searching for the controllers
  • Grabbing controllers infos
  • Opening communication with the controllers
  • Closing communication with the controllers
  • Emergency stoppage and error handling
• Signal responses (to SIGINT and the sort and Whatever Windows uses)
• Manual unit tests that will not be run on CI

Testing coming soon. This is also an exercise in following the documentation.

Notes

• Running nm on the binaries shows name mangling on the Linux binaries, but I did a test compile, and Maxon did in fact compile their libraries on Windows and Linux by using a C compiler. This library can remain in C.
• These are written with the assumption that this will run on the master controller connected to one CAN port, with the others being connected to each other through their CAN ports. (gateway topology)

[jc-luna]

Some notes about initial testing:

• There are multiple ports and protocols per one controller, I assume the name gets filled in for the node 1 CAN controller when a controller is connected there?
• It's identified itself as an EPOS4?

[jc-luna]

Closing devices options for safety

Irrespective of any of these options, I am going to wrap device handles in some sort of struct, so I can carry identification information (sub device or no) with the actual pointer to a handle.

• Simple array
  • Easy iteration to close devices
  • Fixed size
• Linked list
  • Variably sized
  • More complicated to implement, but this is a solved problem

I'm still not sure how to go about the device handles due to how multiple interfaces are listed per controller. Surely it is one handle per controller? The controllers are faulted until we connect encoders and motors to them, it seems like, so I can't test this rigorously.