Agile Filterwheel Controller Manual

The Agile filter wheel controller can be accessed via telnet to agile-rotator on port 4100. Close the socket when you are finished (there is no disconnect command).

Warning: this is also the rotator controller and so it accepts all rotator commands. Always prefix filterwheel commands with "fw ".

Commands

Note:

• commands are not case-sensitive.
• If you mistype a command that has a valid "fw " prefix you will get following (where cmd_text is the command text without the "fw " prefix):

  ?Unrecognized command "cmd_text"; try "fw help"
      

• If you mistype a command that does not have an "fw " prefix then you'll get whatever the rotator controller outputs.

fw help

Print detailed help.

fw home

Home the filterwheel. Returns status.

fw move n

Move filterwheel slot n, where 1 ≤ n ≤ 6. Returns status.

Check the returned status to be sure the slot was in range and the filterwheel is capable of moving (e.g. it does not need to be homed).

fw status

Print status.

Status Format

A space-separated list of values:

• Current slot; -1 if unknown.
• Target slot; -1 if unknown.
• status word as a hexidecimal integer (without a leading 0x)
• Estimated time remaining for current command (in seconds); 0 if no command executing.

Sample output:

4 4 0000 0.000 OK

Status Word Bits

Value	Description
low-level stepper motor controller status
0x0001	motor needs home
0x0002	motor moving
0x0004	motor disabled
0x0008	motor controller error
high-level filter wheel controller status
0x0100	invalid filter wheel slot requested
0x0200	needs home, stopped between slots
0x0400	is homing
0x0800	filter slide in
0x1000	filterwheel is moving

The Agile filter wheel controller was written by Fritz Stauffer. The manual was written by Russell Owen.