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We have implemented control of Newport Picomotor actuator. The implementation is similar to the main hwserver, we wrote another server - pmserver - the connects to the Newport 8742 controller via Ethernet and allows for getting controller's ID, setting actuator velocity and acceleration and moving the actuator. Open the test_client.c example to see how to communicate with the pmserver.
The implementation was done using Picomotor device class provided by the PyLabLib Python package for device control and experiment automation and Python to C interface. Several packages had to be installed onto the Red Pitaya. First of all it is necessary to upgrade pip:
pip install --trusted-host pypi.org --trusted-host pypi.python.org --trusted-host files.pythonhosted.org --upgrade pip
This upgrades pip from the installed 9.0.1 version to 20.3.4 which is the latest version that supports Python 3.5 that is part of RP's OS. Note that --trusted-host switch was necessary due to CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED error message. Now we can install PyLabLib package:
pip install -U pylablib-lightweight[devio-full]
This will ensure that the basic dependencies (numpy, scipy, and pandas) are installed and adds also other packages that are useful for communication to other devices (pyusb, pyserial, websocket-client, pyvisa, pylablib-lightweight, pyft232, nidaqmx).