System and method for providing increased number of time synchronized outputs by using communicating primary and secondary devices

Abstract

A system includes primary and secondary devices (e.g., camera controllers that drive voice coil motors) each having respective outputs and a communication link. The primary device includes first and second hardware timers, each of which expires at a time derived from a periodic control loop trigger. At first timer expiration, the primary transmits first updated values to the secondary. At second timer expiration, primary device hardware picks up and applies second updated values to the primary device outputs. In response to receiving the first updated values from the primary device, the secondary device applies the received first updated values to its outputs. The primary/secondary device combination provide a sufficient number of total outputs that they could not individually provide and further synchronize the outputs with small skew through the timers, which are programmable to also accommodate processing of inputs (e.g., from voice coil motor sensors) to compute the outputs.