7.2.1. Introduction

Each set of physical mechanical arm and controller is identified by two numbers.

First, each arm that comes from Intuitive should be identified by its serial number. In most cases, the serial number can be found on a label sticked to the arm. This serial number is used to make sure all the configuration files with arm specific informations (e.g. potentiometer parameters) can be easily found.

Second, the FPGA (logic) boards in the dVRK controllers are identified by their Id (i.e. board Id). This board Id is used to find a board on the communication bus used to communicate between the PC and all the controllers (FireWire or Ethernet). Older controllers use two board Ids, recent controllers only use one.