VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Fri Jun 19 2015 - 08:45:38 CDT

Hi,
  To get VMD to talk to your VRPN server, you're going to need a VMD that
has been compiled and linked against VRPN 7.30. Unfortunately, different
versions of VRPN use incompatible network protocol, and the previous VMD
builds up to now were compiled against an older rev of VRPN. I should be
able to get a new Windows build compiled against VRPN 7.30 in the next
few days, and this should resolve your problem. Once we get this issue
solved, the file name problem you're having can be overcome several ways.

Cheers,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 02:48:48PM -0700, Sean Seyler wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have successfully set up a 3D Systems Geomagic Touch (used to be Sensable
> Phantom Omni) haptic device on 64-bit Windows 7 using the latest
> OpenHaptics 3.2.2 Toolkit and Geomagic Touch Device Drivers. After much
> struggle and some tweaks, I have built a VRPN server (version 7.30) that
> seems to play nicely with the Touch device. The Touch device is connected
> to the same machine running the server. This was tested by running the
> server using an appropriately modified vrpn.cfg file:
>
>
> vrpn_server.exe -f <path to .cfg file>
>
>
> The client-side connection was tested using:
>
> vrpn_print_devices.exe Touch_at_localhost
>
>
> where "Touch" is the device name specified in vrpn.cfg. The output reflects
> the correct six DOFs and two buttons present on the Touch device. From
> the *Troubleshooting
> VRPN* page on the VRPN Github repo: "If the vrpn_print_devices program is
> able to connect to your server and run properly, then VRPN is 5 out of 5
> for being okay." I take this to mean that the VRPN server works correctly.
>
> The last step is getting VRPN to talk to VMD1.9.2 using a .vmdsensors file;
> Windows does not allow file names beginning with ".", and couldn't find if
> the naming convention matched that of the .vmdrc/vmd.rc Unix/Windows
> convention. I have tried naming this file to both "vmd.sensors" and "
> vmdsensors" and placing it in the same location as the vmd.rc file in my
> home directory. Here is the file:
>
> ### Based on the .vmdsensors file for the Sensable PHANTOM via VRPN
> ### 3D Systems Geomagic Touch
> ### The Touch haptic device connected locally to the computer
>
> device phantomtracker vrpntracker://localhost/Touch
> scale 10
> rot left 0 0 -1 0 1 0 1 0 0
> device phantombuttons vrpnbuttons://localhost/Touch
> device phantomfeedback vrpnfeedback://localhost/Touch
>
>
> However, I cannot get VMD's Tools... dialog to populate with the Touch
> device names. (Note that I also tried placing these files directly in the
> VMD install location in Program Files to no avail.) From reading previous
> threads on the mailing list, I see two potential problems:
>
> 1. VMD isn't reading my vmd.sensors or vmdsensors file due to naming
> issues.
> 2. VMD is not talking to the VRPN server because the VRPN libs for VMD
> are too old. Two possible solutions:
> - Compile a working version of VMD from source, or
> - Find an older version of VRPN that works with VMD1.9.2's
> client-side VRPN libs
>
> I would greatly appreciate if anyone could shed light on these and/or other
> possible issues, and if there are any straightforward ways I can test what
> the problem may be.
>
> Many thanks,
> Sean
>
> --
>
> Sean L Seyler
> Alternate E-mail: sls374_at_cornell.edu
> Cell phone: (607) 227-3374 

-- 
NIH Center for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/           Phone: 217-244-3349
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/