Serial Protocol Command: Set Program Information

Command: Set Program Information

The Set Program Information command allows you to control the different parameters that are used during the running of a program.  This is essentially how a time-lapse or similar program is created.  You set the different parameters controlling how your program will operate, and then start the execution of the program.  Every value is read immediately before it is used by the engine, so you are able to modify parameters on the fly, and have them take effect the next time that value would be used.

Each Program Information command will use the command byte value of 2.

The set program information provides a number of sub-commands, grouping parameters by type.  The following table lists each sub-command:

When specifying a sub-command, you must also specify which parameter you want to modify as a next byte, the sections below detail each sub-command, and the available parameters.

No Set Program Information command returns any data, only a positive response with zero data bytes will be returned for any set program info command.

Sub-command: Camera

The Camera sub-command allows you to control all camera parameters.  The following parameters are supported:

For more information on the camera repeat cycle functions, see the Cycle Repeat documentation.

Example:

Set intervalometer:

Sub-command: Motor

The Motor sub-command allows you to control all motor parameters.

Each parameter requires a motor number to apply the parameter to.  Valid motor numbers are 0-3.  You may change any parameter while a program is running, e.g. you could set up each axis initially, and only turn them on as needed during the course of executing your program.

The following parameters are supported:

Example:

Set ramp rate for motor #0:

Sub-command: Action

The Action sub-command allows you to create and remove actions for use by keyframes or in a repeat shot cycle. Up to sixteen total actions may be stored, each specified by an index value (0-15).  You may, at any time, over-write any existing action, or remove it to prevent it from being called again in the future.  

Actions can change parameters, or control program execution. There are four basic action controls:

Each action control will be followed by a single byte, specifying the action index to write to/delete.  The legal values for an action index are 0-15.

Each action request should begin with the following 5-byte sequence:

length, control, and index will vary with each action command.

Camera Control Action

When creating a camera control action, you can choose which camera setting you want to change.  The setting to change is defined by the 'type' parameter, that is specified in the 4th data byte. The following table details which controls are available, and the data to send from the data length byte:

Example:

Set Action Index #0 to set exposure time for camera

Motor Control Action

Motor control actions all require a motor number, enable/disable flag, direction, and command.  This means that you may, in a single action, enable a motor, set direction, and change an operating parameter for a motor. The following table lists each command and its arguments:

note: DB1-DB3 (sub-com through index) are omitted for brevity

The Enable Flag allows you to specify how to modify the Enable parameter for the given motor via this action:

The Direction Flag allows you to specify how to modify the Direction of the given motor via this action:

Program Control Action

Program control actions control execution of the currently running program.  Start is included for completeness, but as keyframes cannot run when the program is not running, it would be difficult to call.  The following table lists each available command for this action type, from the Data Length Byte:

Delete Action

The Delete Action control allows you to remove an action that you had previously stored.

Sub-Command: Keyframe

The Keyframe sub-command allows you to place a keyframe at a specified point in the program.  Each keyframe can trigger an action you have defined with the Action sub-command.  Keyframes can be set for motor positions, exposures, or points in time.  That is, if you created an action that modified the time interval between exposures, you could call it when a motor has moved 10,000 steps, or when you've taken 50 exposures, or even when the program has been running for two hours. 

There are three primary types of keyframes: motor, camera, and time.  Each type can hold up to sixteen keyframes, and are identified by a keyframe index ranging from 0-15.  Once a keyframe has been activated, it is removed from memory so that you may re-use its position if needed, and so that it does not trigger again.  All keyframes require an action index for the action to call, and motor keyframes require you to specify the motor # for the distance measurement.

The following table lists each type of keyframe: