Manual

Introduction 1-1
1 Introduction
ACL and This Manual
The Automove

Control Language (ACL) is a simple language for controlling Asymtek
Automove Series of X-Y tables and motor controllers. A host computer is connected to the
Automove hardware via an RS-232C cable. The host sends ACL commands, in ASCII
(American Standard Code for Information Interchange), to the Automove hardware. Each
command causes the Automove System to perform some simple action such as moving the
carriage or actuating the Digital Outputs.
This manual is intended to serve as a reference for the person writing a host computer
program to control the Automove System via ACL. Unless specifically noted, all
information in this manual applies equally to all models of the Asymtek Automove System.
For further information about system installation and operation, please see the Automove
Operations Manual.
A good way to experiment with ACL and get a feel for how the commands work is to
connect the Automove System to a terminal or a computer emulating a terminal. As you
type the commands they are executed immediately. When the Automove System detects an
error in a command it sends a "?" back; you can type OE or
ESC.E to find out what went
wrong.
There is a simple example program in Appendix G which shows how to use the BASIC
language to control an Automove System. Appendix H gives a few suggestions for
debugging the system when something doesn't work right.
Manual Conventions
• ACL commands are shown in Arial font, i.e. MR, OA, SO.
• Terms described enclosed in a < > in Arial font are variables to be entered into the
command. For example: SR[<rate>] means that SR is the ACL command and <rate> is
the variable entered for command execution, such as SR[65535].
In the examples the command parameters are shown separated by spaces. These spaces may
be sent and will not change the effect of the commands, except possibly to slow things down
a bit due to the transmission of the extra characters over the RS-232C interface.