Galil's gclib has been ported to Raspbian Jessie, an opertating system for Raspberry Pi. gclib is Galil's C-compatible application programming interface (API) for communicating with Galil motion controllers and PLCs. The Raspberry Pi is a low cost, small form factor single board computer. Raspbian Jessie is the latest operating system for Raspberry Pi hardware. The Raspberry Pi 2 Model B is the hardware supported in this release.

There are many ways a user can use a Raspberry Pi with a Galil controller. Here are just a few examples:

Data Logging
Being able to communicate with Galil hardware allows the Raspberry Pi to record massive amounts of data from the controller. Digital inputs, motor position, and analog sensor readings are just a few examples of what could be recorded on the Raspberry Pi. This is accomplished by using just one simple function (GRecord()). An external USB hard drive can also be mounted to the Raspberry Pi enabling the user to record Terabytes of data with almost no effort.

Internet Gateway
The Raspberry Pi, just like any desktop computer, has the ability to connect to the internet. This allows the user to communicate with the Raspberry Pi, and therefore a Galil Controller, from anywhere in the world. The user could even connect a cellular modem to the Raspberry Pi enabling them to communicate to their control system from their cellphone.

HMI
The Raspberry Pi can be used as an alternative to an HMI. With the Raspberry Pi the user has the opportunity to customize their user interface for any application. With a low cost touch screen, a machine interface can easily be created using a Raspberry Pi to communicate with Galil hardware.

Programmable Host
Now that the Raspberry Pi has the ability to communicate with Galil hardware, it can be used as a host PC for a motion control system. The Raspberry Pi can be programmed in many different languages including C/C++, Python, and Java, just to name a few.

Support for Raspbian Jessie for the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B will be included in the next update of gclib (free of charge). If you would like to speak to an Applications Engineer about Raspberry Pi support or for other questions please call (916) 626-0101 or (800) 377-6329 (US Only) or email support@galil.com.