mintar
commented
6 years ago TL;DR: You don't need the hardware sync in order to run the sick_tim driver.
Long version:
No, the sick_tim driver does not yet support hardware sync. The reason is that the driver currently only reads from USB or Ethernet, and the hardware sync is a digital output (i.e. a line that has to be connected directly to the processing computer).
The advantage of doing this would be that you would get more precise time stamps for when a laser scan was recorded. Without the hardware sync, there is always a tiny imprecision because of the Ethernet / USB latency and jitter.
How to do it?
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Wire the hardware sync cable to a digital I/O module that's connected to the PC. You should probably not use a USB module (because of USB latency), but rather something like RS232 (but your PC needs a RS232 port of course).
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Write the software to detect the sync signal from the digital I/O board.
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Use the time stamp from the hardware sync in the published laser scans from sick_tim.
This seems a lot of hassle, and I've never bothered to do this because the tiny imprecisions caused by USB / Ethernet latency were never a problem for my use cases.
maxvalor
The title was copied from Operating_instructions_TiM55x_TiM56x_TiM57x_en_IM0053143.PDF in the table "Function of the synchronization output (SYNC/De- vice Ready)". And the question which makes me confused is that if it is correct for the Tim561?Can it be configured?