Manual Control#
The front panel of the commutator has four buttons for manual control. They are useful in the following situations:
Quickly halting motor operation
Screwing or unscrewing the tether’s SMA connector by turning the motor
Untwisting the tether to correct the starting tether orientation
Important
Manual controls override any ongoing remote controls. In other words, remote commands sent when a button is being pressed are ignored and cleared.
- 1. Enable/Disable:
Press to toggle commutator enable/disable.
Disabled (LED solid red): All motor output halts instantly, and motor driver is powered down. Pressing directional buttons will not work. Remote remote commands are ignored and previous target positions will be cleared. In this state, pressing the Enable/Disable button or sending the appropriate remote command enables the device.
Enabled (LED solid green): The motor can be turned with button presses or remote procedure commands. In this state, pressing the Stop/Go button disables the device.
- 2. CW/CCW Turn:
Manually control the motor rotation in the direction indicated on each button when the commutator is Enabled. These inputs take precedence, and ongoing remote motor control are ignored. When pressed, all target turns provided via remote control are cleared, such that releasing them will not result in the commutator re-engaging an old target position. Remote commands sent when a button is being pressed are ignored.
- 3. LED:
Pressing the LED turns toggles it on and off (e.g for cases where it presents an unwanted visual stimulus).
Your commutator controller front panel might not be identical to the one pictured, but the manual control functions equivalently.#
Note
The buttons on the front panel are capacitive sensor buttons. They are not mechanical so they do not provide tactile or auditory feedback.
Older commutators with the Micro-USB require a 0.5s hold when toggling on the LED or enabling the commutator.
There might be some visual and labelling differences between the pictured commutator and the one you have, but all manual controls are the same.
Reset Button#
On the side of the device, there is a hard Reset Button. Pressing this button will power cycle the commutator.
