Monitoring and troubleshooting real time motion control systems can be tricky in high performance applications where the majority of PC and controller resources are dedicated to running the application. Adding on an extra layer of monitoring software can have a non negligible effect on the overall system performance and can in some instances eliminate or worsen the behavior you're looking to monitor. The ability to remotely monitor communications and status in real time from a separate PC is invaluable in these situations. Enter gcaps Remote Connect!

     First introduced in 2017, the gcaps server allows for a virtually unlimited number of host applications to connect to and receive data from a single Galil Motion Controller and has become an integral part of the Galil communications architecture. The latest release(s) of the gcaps server, gclib API and GDK Software now include the ability for applications hosted on remote PCs to connect to the gcaps server over a Local Area Network. This allows for non intrusive monitoring of applications that are built using Galil Motion Controllers and Galil Software. The user on the remote host PC can now listen to whatever data the controller is sending to the local host PC and can even directly query the Galil Controller itself.

Figure 1: Communications Architecture

How do I use the remote gcaps server?

     GDK makes connecting to a remote server (motion or I/O controller) quick and easy. Click on the 'Server' pop up menu in the bottom right corner of the main GDK Window, as shown in Figure 2. A list of available remote servers will be displayed. Click on the server to which you wish to connect. That's it! You can make your own Local server available to other remote hosts via the 'Discoverable' menu right next to the 'Server' menu. The new gclib API provides a hand full of new functions that allow your host application to set local server properties and connect to remote servers as well.

Figure 2: GDK Remote Server Connect and Discover Functions

This new remote server capability is available on 64 bit versions of the following Operating Systems:

• Windows 10

• Ubuntu 18.04 / 20.04

• Fedora 30 / 31 / 32

• CentOS 7 / 8

• RedHat 7 / 8