Preprocessor options

This library has a bunch of preprocessor options that can be changed to tweak the speed, performance and memory usage of the library. The default values should be good enough in most cases, but can be overwritten if necessary. PlatformIO users can add the following snippet to the platformio.ini file to override the default options:

build_flags =
  -D HERKULEX_OPTION_1=123
  -D HERKULEX_OPTION_2=456

Unfortunately, Arduino users will have to manually edit the values in the HerkulexServo.h file. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has a better solution for this issue.

List of options

HERKULEX_PACKET_RX_TIMEOUT

Value in microseconds. If no serial data is received during this time, the packet is assumed to be transferred completely and serial buffer processing is started.

HERKULEX_PACKET_RETRIES

The number of times the library will resend a command in order to receive a valid packet. Software serial is fairly unreliable at 115200 baud, so this value is quite high. In my testing, about 95% of the command responses are successfully read on the first try. The other 5% take up to 6 retries.

HERKULEX_PACKET_RESEND_DELAY

Value in microseconds. The delay between each packet retry.

HERKULEX_PACKET_RX_MAX_DATA

The maximum number of data bytes in incoming packets.

HERKULEX_SERIAL_RX_BUFFER

The size of the serial receive data ring buffer, in bytes.

HERKULEX_MAX_SCHEDULED_SERVOS

The maximum number of moves that can be scheduled in a single data packet. Affects prepareIndividualMove(), prepareSynchronizedMove() and executeMove() functionality. Increasing this number will let you schedule more moves in a single command at the cost of increased memory usage.

HERKULEX_SERIAL_TX_BUFFER

The size, in bytes, of the serial transmit buffer. By default, this value is calculated based on HERKULEX_MAX_SCHEDULED_SERVOS.

HERKULEX_DEBUG

If enabled, this preprocessor option adds methods to the HerkulexBus class to track data transfer statistics. The snippet below shows basic usage:

HerkulexPacket resp;
uint8_t id = 10;
int attempts = 0;

Serial.println("Starting test...");
herkulex_bus.resetRxStatistics();
delay(10);

for (attempts = 0; attempts < 1000; attempts++) {
  herkulex_bus.sendPacketAndReadResponse(resp, id, HerkulexCommand::Stat);

  // send packets to IDs 10, 11, and 12
  id++;
  if (id > 12) {
    id = 10;
  }

  delay(5);
}

herkulex_bus.printRxStatistics(Serial);