Aleratec Auto Publisher LS

Aleratec Auto Publisher LS

General Info
Release Year	2007
Manufacturer	Aleratec
Device Category	Storage
Condition	Working
Technical Specifications
Software Environment	Windows XP
Storage Interface	USB Type-B
Power Requirements
Power Connector	IEC C13/C14 Socket
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A three drive 200 disc capacity CD drive robot. Intended for disc duplication for medium volume publishing on CDs or DVDs. Uses a single USB type B connector with an internal hub to connect to a serial adapter and three IDE adapters.

The device was only ever intended to be use with Droppix Recorder XE, specifically a copy provided with the machine that comes with a custom driver for interfacing with the disc robot. The communication interface cannot be configured through the software as it auto detects the robot serial interface and the Lite-On brand drives through the USB adapters.

Internally the device uses a standard ATX PSU.

Examples

Example Info

Serial Commands

The serial interface operated at 9600 baud, 8 bits, even parity, 1 stop bit. The DTR line must be held low during the entire operation.

Commands use a prefix+config setup to send data with the commands. The end with a linefeed.

Drive and Hopper IDs start from 1.

Drives are numbered 1,2,3 starting from the top to the bottom.

Bins are numbered 1,2,3,5 starting from the front to the rear. The post under the drive trays is bin 5.

Samples

Initialization - Post Calibration

This command sequence is run by the original software when initializing the robot after it has been setup.

C08D9n1
C08D9n2
C02D01

Robot Test

This is the post-calibration test that the robot does to ensure the positioning is correct for all bins and drives.

C10D01N0005
C01D01
C02D02
C01D01
C01D02
C03D01N0001
C02D02
C04D01N0003
C02D01

Set Calibration Value - C09

The original software sets all possible configuration values on first boot. It afterwards re-sends the properly calibrated configuration values which overrides the defaults.

You can find a list of all config commands here: https://github.com/AkBKukU/pyDiscRip/blob/web/handler/controller/AutoPublisherLS.py#L75

C09D10N### - Drive Angle

Position the arm can drop the disc into the drive trays

Provided as offset from rotation home

My value: -125

C09D11N### - Bin 1 Angle

Provided as offset from rotation home

My value: 637

C09D12N### - Bin 2 Angle

Provided as offset from rotation home

My value: 1356

C09D13N### - Bin 3 Angle

Provided as offset from rotation home

My value: 2106

C09D15N### - Bin 5 Angle

Provided as offset from rotation home

My value: -140

C09D20N### - Lowest position

Provided as offset from top

My value: 1832

C09D21N### - Drive 1 Height

Provided as offset from top

My value: 575

C09D22N### - Drive 2 Height

Provided as offset from top

C09D23N### - Drive 3 Height

Provided as offset from top

C09D67N### - "Short Tray" Tray Slide

An amount to slowly move disc in from the side to avoid running into the lip of a drive that extends over the tray.

Provided as offset from top

Default: 50

Move Arm - C07

Moves are started and then stopped. You do not "step" motion is controlled by time.

Move Stop - C07D0

Must be issued after any other move command before running into the end of range of motion

Response

Test	Sent	Received
C07D2 Without Disc	C07D2	S05C07E00I00010111O11111111
C07D2 With Disc	C07D2	S05C07E00I01010111O11111111

Clear Drive - C10

Checks if there is a disc in the drive and if there is moves it to specified hopper. Used as an initializing step to ensure all drives are in a known, empty, state. Example use case shows putting unexpected discs on the 5th bin spindle.

C10 differs from the C4 unload by pausing when holding the disc away from the drives to give time for the tray to close.

Clear Load? - C11

This command exists as a mirror to C10 presumably but does not appear to have a functional different from the C3 load. It will load a disc as expected though.

Command	Drive Delimiter	Drive ID	Hopper Delimiter	Hopper
C10	D	01	N	0005

Response

Test	Sent	Received
C10 Without Disc	C10D02N0005	S08C10E13I00010111O11111111
C10 With Disc	C10D02N0005	S04C10E00I00110111O11111111

Load - C3

This will take a disc from a provided bin and put it in the provided drive

Command	Drive Delimiter	Drive ID	Hopper Delimiter	Hopper
C3	D	01	N	0001

Test	Sent	Received	Note
C3 Without Disc	C03D02N0001	S08C03E12I00000111O11111111	Detect error/empty-bin by looking for E12 in the output.
C3 With Disc	C03D02N0001	S04C03E00I00010111O11111111

Unload - C4

This will take a disc from a provided drive and put it in the provided bin

Command	Drive Delimiter	Drive ID	Hopper Delimiter	Hopper
C4	D	01	N	0001

Motor Control - C05

Disable Arm Steppers - C05D00

Turns off stepper motors which allows manually moving the arm.

Enable Arm Steppers - C05D01

Turns on stepper motors which prevents manually moving the arm.

Enable Multi-step Commands - C05D02

Allows multi-step commands to work. These include C3, C4, C10, C11.

Disc Clamp Control - C06

Release Disc - C06D00

Releases the solenoid holding the disc clamp

Grab Disc - C06D01

Activates the solenoid to engage the disc clamp

NOTE: It seems that any command starting with C06 that doesn't end with D00 is treated the same and will release the disc.

Clear Calibration - C01D00

Wipes all calibration data. Sent before calibration data by original software. Also prevents responding to other commands.

Clear Alarm - C01D01

If a previous command ended with an error or alert this will clear the status and allow more commands. Failing to send this command after an alarm will prevent the robot from responding to other commands.

Emergency Stop - C01D02

Cancels current command and stops arm. Appears to also need home position recalibrated after.

Longer commands like C3, C4, & C10 will send updates about the movement status as responses like T10D1. These can be used to interrupt a longer command at a specific point.

End Calibration - C01D03

It's unclear what this does, but it is sent after sending calibration data.

It seems like it re-enables thee ability to send more commands but only if cal data was sent. All commands will error after sending this without cal data even if you send the clear alarm. It also activates the disc clamp if no cal data was sent.

Home X & Y - C02D01

Moves arm over drive trays to home position without checking sensor for end stop

Home Y - C02D02

Home arm height

Home X - C02D03

Home arm rotation

Move Arm To Drive Angle - C02D04

Moves arm rotation to the calibrated position of the drive angle

Move Arm Clear of Drives - C02D05

Moves arm rotation clear of the drives to a fixed position away from the drive tray. This is likely the position the end-stop sensor for rotation stops detecting the arm.

Possible aliases: C02D14, C02D30

Move to Drive 1 Height Calibration Position - C02D31

Position of first drive tray

Possible aliases: C02D38

Move to Drive 2 Position - C02D32

Position of second drive tray

Move to Drive 3 Position - C02D33

Position of third drive tray

Possible aliases: C02D34, C02D35

Responses

Initialization

PARAM01D4 - No clue

PARAM02D1 - Probably means ready for calibration

PARAM02D3 - Could mean already has calibration

Status Codes

S01C01E00I11111000O11111111 - Probably something is bad wrong

I######## Section Universal Values

Binary values in I######## response

?	Disc Touch Sensor	Vertical Home Sensor	Rotation Home Sensor	?	?	?	?
	0 = No Disc 1 = Disc Found	0 = Not Home 1 = Above Home	0 = Not Home 1 = Home-ish
			Likely offset AngleRoboticArm calibration data