TRIO MPC-145 SERIES MICROMANIPULATOR SYSTEM OPERATION MANUAL – REV. 2.62C (20191001) (FW V2.62)
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4.
EXTERNAL CONTROL
4.1
General
Controlling the TRIO MPC-100 externally via computer is accomplished by sending
commands over the USB interface between the computer and the USB connector on the rear
panel of the TRIO MPC-100 controller/ROE. The USB device driver for Windows is
downloadable from Sutter Instrument’s web site (
). The TRIO MPC-100
requires Sutter Instrument’s USB CDM (Combined Driver Model) Version 2.10.00 or higher.
The CDM device driver consists of two device drivers: 1) USB device driver, and 2) VCP
(Virtual COM Port) device driver. Install the USB device driver first, followed by the VCP
device driver. The VCP device driver provides a serial RS-232 I/O interface between a
Windows application and the TRIO MPC-100. Although the VCP device driver is optional, its
installation is recommended even if it is not going to be used. Once installed, the VCP can be
enabled or disabled.
The CDM device driver package provides two I/O methodologies over which communications
with the controller over USB can be conducted: 1) USB Direct (D2XX mode), or 2) Serial RS-
232 asynchronous via the VCP device driver (VCP mode). The first method requires that the
VCP device driver not be installed, or if installed, that it be disabled. The second method
requires that the VCP be installed and enabled.
Virtual COM Port (VCP) Serial Port Settings: The following table lists the required RS-232
serial settings for the COM port (COM3, COM5, etc.) generated by the installation or
enabling of the VCP device driver.
Table 4-1. USB-VCP interface serial port settings.
Property
Setting
Data (“Baud”) Rate (bits per second (bps))
57600
Data Bits
8
Stop Bits
1
Parity
None
Flow Control
None
The settings shown in the above table can be set in the device driver’s properties (via the
Device Manager if in Windows) and/or programmatically in your application.
4.2
Protocol and Handshaking
Command sequences do not have terminators. All commands return an ASCII CR (Carriage
Return; 13 decimal, 0D hexadecimal) to indicate that the task associated with the command
has completed. When the controller completes the task associated with a command, it sends
ASCII CR back to the host computer indicating that it is ready to receive a new command. If
a command returns data, the last byte returned is the task-completed indicator.
4.3
Command Sequence Formatting
Each command sequence consists of at least one byte, the first of which is the “command
byte”. Those commands that have parameters or arguments require a sequence of bytes that