QUARC 2.5
These release notes describe the new features and changes introduced in QUARC 2.5. They are divided into the sections enumerated below.
New Software Compatibility
QUARC 2.5 has introduced compatibility with the following third-party software.
Compatibility with MATLAB, Simulink, and Simulink Coder R2014b has been added.
Compatibility with MATLAB, Simulink, and Simulink Coder R2015a has been added.
Compatibility with MATLAB, Simulink, and Simulink Coder R2015b has been added.
Compatibility with Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Professional Edition has been added.
Compatibility with Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Professional Edition has been added.
New Targets
QUARC 2.5 now supports the following new targets.
Compatibility with the Microsoft 32-bit Windows 10 operating system has been added. Refer to QUARC Windows Target for details.
Compatibility with the Microsoft 32-bit Windows 8.1 operating system has been added. Refer to QUARC Windows Target for details.
Compatibility with the Microsoft 64-bit Windows 10 operating system has been added. Refer to QUARC Win64 Target for details.
Compatibility with the Microsoft 64-bit Windows 8.1 operating system has been added. Refer to QUARC Win64 Target for details.
New Hosts
QUARC 2.5 now supports the following new hosts.
Compatibility with the Microsoft 32-bit Windows 10 operating system has been added.
Compatibility with the Microsoft 32-bit Windows 8.1 operating system has been added.
Compatibility with the Microsoft 64-bit Windows 10 operating system has been added.
Compatibility with the Microsoft 64-bit Windows 8.1 operating system has been added.
Improved Features
Some of the features improved in QUARC 2.5 are enumerated below. There are a great many miscellaneous improvements that have not been listed. Only some of the highlights are listed below.
The To Host File block now stops the model with an error in the event that the limits of the MAT-file v.4 and MAT-file v.5 file formats are exceeded. In this case, it still writes a valid MAT-file to disk so that no data is lost.
Colour highlighting of informational messages has been added to the QUARC Console. In particular, notification messages about a model being downloaded, loaded or terminating are now in yellow. If a model terminates with an error then the notification is printed in red.
The Video Capture block now supports image formats used by the The MathWorks' Computer Vision System Toolbox. It has also been moved into the QUARC Targets library under the Multimedia category.
New Cards Supported
The full list of all the data acquisition cards supported by QUARC 2.5 is given by the following link. QUARC 2.5 may now also interface to the cards listed below.
Added support for the Quanser QPID and QPIDe cards to the QUARC QNX targets.
Added support for the Quanser QBall-2 aerial vehicle.
Added support for the Quanser QBot-2 ground vehicle.
Added support for the Quanser AERO aerospace challenge.
Added support for the QUBE-Servo 2 control challenge.
New Devices Supported
QUARC 2.5 may now interface to the devices listed below.
The Kinova 4-DOF MICO robot is now supported as an open-architecture robot. The Kinova 4-DOF MICO Read block reads the Kinova 4-DOF MICO joint angular positions, speeds, currents, torques and states. Conversely, the Kinova 4-DOF MICO Write block sends joint and finger position commands to the Kinova 4-DOF MICO robot.
The Kinova 4-DOF MICO blocks may be found under the QUARC Targets/Devices/Third-Party/Kinova/Robots/4-DOF MICO library.
New Demonstrations
The QUARC demonstrations added in QUARC 2.5 are listed below.
I2C Demonstrations
The QUARC I2C Temperature Sensor Demo example reads from a simple I2C temperature sensor. It performs writes and reads from the device using separate I2C bus transactions.
The QUARC I2C Gyroscope Demo example reads from a three-axis gyroscope using I2C. It illustrates the use of the new Stream Write-Read block to combine a write and read operation into a single I2C bus transaction.
The QUARC I2C Gyroscope Mixed Types Demo example reads from a three-axis gyroscope using I2C. It illustrates the use of the new Stream Write-Read block to combine a write and read operation into a single I2C bus transaction, as well as the use of bus objects so handle mixed data types received from the I2C device.
The QUARC I2C Multiple Devices Demo example reads from a temperature sensor as well as a three-axis gyroscope using I2C. It illustrates how to interface to multiple I2C devices on the same I2C bus.
SPI Demonstrations
The QUARC SPI Gyroscope Demo example reads from a three-axis gyroscope using SPI.
The QUARC SPI Gyroscope Mixed Types Demo example reads from a three-axis gyroscope using SPI. It illustrates the use of the new Stream Write-Read block to perform a write and read operation using a single block, as well as the use of bus objects so handle mixed data types received from the SPI device.
The QUARC SPI I/O Expander Demo example performs a digital loopback using a 16-bit SPI digital I/O expander. It is a more sophisticated example of using an SPI device. This example uses separate Stream Write and Stream Read blocks for illustrative purposes. Refer to the QUARC SPI Multiple Devices Demo for an example of how to combine these operations into a single Stream Write-Read block.
The QUARC SPI Multiple Devices Demo example reads from a three-axis gyroscope while performing a digital loopback via a 16-bit digital I/O expander. It illustrates how to interface to multiple SPI devices on the same SPI bus. It illustrates the use of the new Stream Write-Read block to perform a write and read operation using a single block, as well as the use of bus objects so handle mixed data types received from the SPI device.
The QUARC SPI Multiple I/O Expander Demo example performs a digital loopback using two 16-bit SPI digital I/O expanders. It is a specialized example illustrating the use of SPI devices which support the specialized capability of sharing a chip select by using hardware addressing.
LabVIEW User Interface Demonstrations
The QUARC LabVIEW Interfacing Demo is an example using LabVIEW GUI to adjust parameters for a Simulink model via TCP/IP protocol.
The QUARC LabVIEW Interfacing SRV02-ET Demo is an example using LabVIEW GUI to adjust parameters for a QUARC model via TCP/IP protocol. The QUARC model emulates the dynamics of a Quanser SRV02-ET servo.
New Blocks
New blocks have been added to the QUARC Targets library in QUARC 2.5. The new blocks are listed below. Some exciting new features have been added, such as support for the Microsoft Kinect sensor on the new QUARC Linux DuoVero target.
HIL Blocks
The HIL Get Property block gets numeric or string properties of a hardware-in-the-loop card.
Multimedia Blocks
The Kinect Get Camera Angle block gets the elevation angle of the Kinect sensor.
The Kinect Get Depth block gets a depth image and player information from a Kinect sensor.
The Kinect Get Image block gets a colour or infrared image from a Kinect sensor.
The Kinect Initialize block initializes a Microsoft Kinect sensor and associates a name with the sensor.
The Kinect Set Camera Angle block sets the elevation angle of the Kinect sensor.
QBot 2 Blocks
The QBot 2 Chassis Velocities to World Velocities converts the translational and angular velocities of the QBot 2 chassis to world Cartesian coordinates.
The QBot 2 Encoder Counts to Distance converts encoder counts of a wheel to distance travelled in metres.
The QBot 2 Joint Velocities to Chassis Velocities converts the joint (wheel) velocities to translational and angular velocities of the QBot 2 chassis.
Source Blocks
The Color Constant outputs a 3-vector of RGB color values. It allows colors to be selected using a color picker dialog.
Bug Fixes
Some of the bug fixes in QUARC 2.5 are enumerated below. This list is not complete. Only some of the highlights are listed below.
Fixed the rotation angle output (rot) order of the OptiTrack Trackables block. Previously, the group of three (3) elements in the rot output of the trackable (rigid body) object was the rotation angles about the (Z, Y, X) axes in that order. This was inconsistent with what was stated in the help page, which was (X, Y, Z) order. With this fix, the rotation angle outputs within each of the group of three (3) elements are now in the (X, Y, Z) axes order, same as indicated in the help page.
Implemented a workaround for a MATLAB bug in R2014a and above which prevents Simulink block parameters from being tuned while the model is running. The bug only affected blocks based on S-functions.
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