MATLAB GUI for Controlling a Zaber Device

This example implements a simple MATLAB desktop app for controlling a single axis of a Zaber device. The UI is built with MATLAB's uifigure API.

Hardware Requirements

Any Zaber linear motion device connected to the computer by serial port or USB.

Dependencies

The app requires the Zaber Motion Library toolbox (version >=8.4.0). Additionally, building the app as a Windows desktop application requires access to MATLAB Compiler.

This code example has been tested with MATLAB R2026a.

Configuration

The serial port can be entered into the input box after startup. Optionally, you can edit the following constants at the top of src/desktop_app.m:

• DEVICE_ADDRESS: The device address of the device you'd like to connect to
• AXIS_NUMBER: The axis number of the axis you'd like to control on the device (1 for most integrated devices)

Running the App

In MATLAB, navigate to this example's src directory and run desktop_app. The app runs on any platform.

About the Code

This is an example of a programmatic app. If you are building a GUI with the App Designer tool, the generated code will be structured differently but the same concepts apply.

All motion commands are sent with waitUntilIdle set to false so the UI stays responsive while the axis moves. A timer is set up to poll the axis position and call zaber.motion.Helper.pollEvents, which is necessary for propagating the alert events used by the lamp component. The lamp indicates the busy status of the device, lighting up green while the axis is moving: it is switched on after each motion command is sent and switched off when the program receives an alert callback whose status is NOT 'BUSY'. If the program receives any kind of error, it is displayed at the bottom of the window.

Building the App as a Windows Desktop Application

MATLAB Compiler can package a MATLAB program as a Windows desktop application using the compiler.build.standaloneWindowsApplication function. Unlike a standalone console application, a desktop application does not open a console window when launched, which makes it a better fit for GUI programs. Note that this build function is only supported on Windows.

The build_windows_desktop_app.m script configures the build, most importantly assigning zaber.motion.Helper.getCompilerDependencies() to the AdditionalFiles option so that the Zaber Motion Library's binary dependencies are packaged with the app. This is explained in more detail in the Packaging Zaber Motion Library with MATLAB Compiler example. The script also sets the ExecutableSplashScreen option so that a splash image is displayed while the MATLAB Runtime loads, which can take several seconds.

Note: The build entry point can also be an App Designer file (*.mlapp) instead of a *.m script.

To build the desktop application, either:

• Open the gui_matlab_uifigure directory in your MATLAB IDE and run build_windows_desktop_app.
• In the command line, navigate to the gui_matlab_uifigure directory and run matlab -batch build_windows_desktop_app.

The script places the packaged application in the ZaberDesktopApp/output/build folder.

After building, the script also creates an installer for the app using compiler.package.installer and places it in the ZaberDesktopApp/output/installer folder. Running the installer on a target machine installs the app along with the MATLAB Runtime, so end users don't need a MATLAB license. The RuntimeDelivery option controls whether the installer downloads the runtime during installation ("web", the default, which keeps the installer small) or embeds it ("installer", which makes the installer several gigabytes but works offline).

To run the application, either run ZaberDesktopApp.exe directly from the ZaberDesktopApp/output/build folder, or run the installer and then launch the app like any other Windows application.