Introduction

These instructions are for loading and running the thorlabs linear stage in ROS. This is not yet finished

Instructions

1. In the host virtualbox settings, add a filter for the thorlabs usb device.

2. open virtualbox

3. clone thorlabs linear stage code

   cd ~/code
   git clone https://github.com/idealabasu/code_devices_thorlabs_linear_stage.git
   

4. add rules to linux system. These are located

   SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0403", ATTR{idProduct}=="faf0", MODE="666"
   

   cd ~/code/code_devices_thorlabs_linear_stage
   sudo cp 99-thorlabs.rules /etc/udev/rules.d
   sudo chmod 644 /etc/udev/rules.d/99-thorlabs.rules
   sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && udevadm trigger
   

5. clone idealab tools (if not already done)

   git clone https://github.com/idealabasu/code_idealab_tools.git
   

6. add git-based packages to python path

   echo "export PYTHONPATH=\$PYTHONPATH:~/code/code_idealab_tools/python" >> ~/.bashrc
   source ~/.bashrc
   

7. add git-based packages to python path

   echo "export PYTHONPATH=\$PYTHONPATH:~/code/code_devices_thorlabs_linear_stage/python" >> ~/.bashrc
   source ~/.bashrc
   

Old steps

This is not necessary to do in Linux, as the above works with the pySerial package. You can use the ftd2xx package in windows though.

1. install ftd2xx (windows-only)

#sudo apt update
#sudo apt install
pip3 install ftd2xx

1. (old) download ftd2xx drivers(see downloads below)

mkdir ~/drivers
cd ~/drivers
mkdir libftd2xx-x86_64-1.4.8
cd libftd2xx-x86_64-1.4.8
wget https://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/D2XX/Linux/libftd2xx-x86_64-1.4.8.gz
tar -xvzf libftd2xx-x86_64-1.4.8.gz
cd release
cd build
sudo cp libftd2xx.* /usr/local/lib
sudo chmod 0755 /usr/local/lib/libftd2xx.so.1.4.8
sudo ln -sf /usr/local/lib/libftd2xx.so.1.4.8 /usr/local/lib/libftd2xx.so
echo "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/lib:/usr/lib:/usr/local/lib" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Old Downloads