Driver setup and first run¶

A gripper from the shop arrives with its driver configured: the motor calibrated, gripper mode on, the thermistor on, everything saved. A gripper you build has a bare Spectral Micro driver that is brought to the same state once, over its UART port, during the assembly: after the motor and the driver are in the body, the wires soldered and the thermistor in the windings, and before the linear guide with the jaws goes on (page 22 of the assembly manual). The motor calibration turns the motor several revolutions in both directions, which the racks could not follow. This page is that procedure; the commands are the driver's, and the Spectral Micro documentation explains each in depth.

What you need¶

The gripper assembled up to that point, with the encoder magnet on the motor shaft and the driver mounted.
The 100K NTC thermistor in the motor windings, held by thermal cement, its leads on the driver's TERM and 3V3 pads. Both parts are in the Bill of materials; Thermistor on the Spectral Micro site shows how it is fitted. #Term 1 below needs it: without it the driver reads below −20 °C and stops with a temperature error.
A 3.3 V USB-to-serial adapter on the driver's UART connector, a terminal at 256000 baud with CR+LF line endings, and 24 V on the driver's power connector. The serial terminal on the Spectral Micro site shows the terminal setup; Motor GUI over UART does the same job in the browser.

1. The motor calibration¶

Restore the defaults first, so that nothing from another motor or junk in the EEPROM goes into the calibration, then calibrate. The Spectral Micro measures the motor's resistance and inductance and finds its pole pairs by itself; nothing is entered:

#Default
#Cal

The motor clicks, then turns, the driver prints each step and ends with Calibration success!. The whole routine and its messages are in Calibration on the Spectral Micro site. #Default also resets the serial number the driver reports; note what #SERNUM prints before you start if you need it.

Check

The driver ends with Calibration success!. If it stops with an error, check the motor's three wires and the encoder magnet, and see Calibration.

2. The gripper settings¶

#Gripper 1
#Term 1
#Tlim 75
#CANID 0
#Save

Command	What it does
`#Gripper 1`	gripper mode: the driver runs the gripper state machine and answers the gripper messages
`#Term 1`, `#Tlim 75`	the thermistor on, the temperature limit at 75 °C. Without it the motor can burn out under a long grip
`#CANID 0`	the node ID on the robot's bus; 0 to 13, see Over CAN
`#Save`	nothing above survives a power cycle until it is saved

The current loop gains the calibration computes for the motor are what the shipped grippers use. Motor GUI's SSG-48 preset, on its setup page over UART, writes this step for you: the gains of a calibrated shop gripper (#Kpiq 7.0381, #Kiiq 4.2557), gripper mode, the thermistor and the CAN ID (6, the PAR6 gripper's; change it before applying for another robot), then saves.

Check

After a power cycle, #Gripper and #Term print 1, #Tlim 75 and #CANID the node ID; #Temp prints the room temperature, not Temp Off. A temperature error at once means the thermistor is not connected (The thermistor).

3. Finish the assembly and calibrate the gripper¶

Fit the linear guide with the jaws, the lid and the coupler connector, power the gripper up through its cable, and run the gripper calibration (#Gripcal, or Motor GUI's Calibrate): the jaws open fully and close fully. Then a first move at a low current, as in Calibrate, activate, move. #Gripinfo prints the gripper's state, including the end stops the calibration found.

Check

The jaws open fully and close fully, the gripper reports Calibrated, and the first moves reach their positions. If the calibration gives up after 30 s: Calibration.

Current limit¶

The gripper's moves use the current limit of each command, not the driver's #Ilim. The firmware does not clamp it; Force and speed says what is safe for the motor.

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