Loading / Saving & Storing / Restoring configurations
Drives have two different types of memory: volatile and persistent.
Configurations that are placed in the volatile memory will be lost when the drive is turned off (power cycle).
We want to be able to interact with both memory systems of the drive itself, as well as save and load configurations from and to files that are on the file system of the computer we are using to interact with the drive (the “host”).
In order to cover all these cases, MotionLab3 distinguishes between “Load / Save” (operations involving the host computer) and “Store / Restore” (operations involving the drives own persistent memory):
Load all - Select a configuration file from the host and load its contents onto the drive’s volatile memory.
Save all - Save the current configuration from the drive’s volatile memory to a file on the host.
Restore all - Restore the drive its default configuration and place it in its persistent memory.
Store all - Store the configuration placed in the drive’s volatile memory in its persistent memory.
For example:
Bold indicates the currently active configuration.
Action | Volatile memory of the drive | Persistent memory of the drive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | We configure the drive using the Wizard | Configuration 1 | Default |
| 2 | We use the “Store all” operation to commit the configuration to the persistent memory of the drive | Configuration 1 | Configuration 1 |
| 3 | We use “Save all” to save the configuration to a file on the host system. | Configuration 1 | Configuration 1 |
| 4 | We power cycle the drive. | None | Configuration 1 |
| 5 | We change the drive configuration | Configuration 2 | Configuration 1 |
| 6 | We use “Store all” to commit these changes | Configuration 2 | Configuration 2 |
| 7 | We load the previous configuration 1 from the file using “Load all” | Configuration 1 | Configuration 2 |
| 8 | We restore the default configuration using “Restore all” | None | Default |
The options can be accessed in various ways in the MotionLab3 interface while a drive is connected:
Using the top bar menu, clicking on File → Drive x:
Opening the Inspector in “General” mode by selecting the drive in the Drive Explorer:
Opening the Inspector in “General” mode by navigating to the Summary page of the Wizard:
The importance of storing the configurations
Any register that you write within the MotionLab3 interface is only saved to the volatile memory of the drive by default. If you want to make sure that these changes will not be lost after a power cycle, you need to use the "Store all" operation to commit them to the persistent memory of the drive.