The C9 Network connects the PC that runs the NorthIDE to the C9 Controller(s) that drives the N9 Platform. Commands and other communications are sent from the PC via the IDE to a C9 Controller (or other controller) which subsequently controls the hardware on the platform. A single PC may communicate with up to a maximum of 254 controllers. However, most systems use fewer than five controllers and many use just one.

The north package depends on an up-to-date installation of the D2XX drivers from FTDI. Downloading the setup executable from the FTDI site for ease of install is recommended.

Each C9 Controller has its own address which uniquely identifies it on the network. This address is one byte in length and is typically represented by ASCII characters starting with ‘A’ (65, as an integer). On the second line in the example above, c9 = NorthC9('A') demonstrates the initialization of a controller given the address 'A'. Subsequent C9 addresses should continue alphabetically as ‘B,’ ‘C,’ and so forth. 

The C9 network address can also be represented as integers from 1 to 255, inclusive. The address 0 is a broadcast address. Any commands sent to this address will be processed by all controllers on the network regardless of their address. Broadcast messages do not generate a reply.

The Connection Manager allows users to specify default C9 and network serial addresses. These addresses are used to run Quick Scripts and for other programmatic connections to the robot such as capturing positions in the Locator.

To display the Connection Manager, select View > Connection Manager. To set default addresses, enter the desired controller’s C9 address and the network serial address into the appropriate text fields. 

Do not include quotation marks around the addresses. The addresses in the Connection Manager need to be updated if the C9 network address is changed or upon replacing the serial cable connecting the C9 to the PC.