Hardware integration

The hardware examples connect Intan acquisition workflows to optional external devices. They are reference integrations, not turnkey applications: no trained models, hardware drivers, or device-specific credentials are bundled.

3D-printed arm control

examples/3D_printed_arm_control contains CircuitPython firmware for a Raspberry Pi Pico controlling a PCA9685 servo driver. Typical hardware includes a Pico or Pico 2, five or six servos, a suitable 5 V servo supply, and an InMoov or comparable printed hand.

Use the supported PyTorch workflow in examples/gesture_classifier to build and run a gesture classifier. The application consuming its predictions should map labels such as rest, grip, and open to the newline-terminated commands accepted by the Pico firmware. Keep servo power separate from USB power and test motion limits before connecting the printed mechanism.

Pico setup

  1. Install a compatible CircuitPython release on the Pico.

  2. Install the PCA9685 CircuitPython library on the device.

  3. Copy examples/3D_printed_arm_control/code.py to the Pico as code.py.

  4. Confirm the serial port and servo channel mapping before sending commands.

The pinned firmware image stored in the repository is retained for hardware reproducibility but is excluded from Python release archives.

RHX TCP examples

examples/RHXDevice and examples/interface demonstrate acquisition from an RHX TCP server. Start RHX, enable its TCP server, and confirm the configured command and waveform ports before running these scripts. Use --help for scripts that expose command-line options.

Pico IMU example

examples/interface/pico_imu_client.py receives optional IMU data from the matching CircuitPython firmware in examples/interface/pico/code.py. This is a separate serial integration and is not required for normal RHD file loading.

Safety and limitations

  • Test hardware motion without a person attached.

  • Use a current-limited supply sized for the servos.

  • Treat serial port names, channel counts, and sampling rates as deployment configuration rather than library defaults.

  • Hardware examples require their physical devices and were not exercised by the package’s headless test suite.