XIA PFCU library

This library is used to control basic features of XIA PFCU equipment. It is composed of a core library, an optional simulator and an optional tango device server.

It has been tested with PF4 model, but should work with other models too.

It can be used with either with a direct serial line (read below on the recommended way to setup a serial line connection) or remotely through TCP socket (either raw socket or rfc2217). In the latter case the master device to which the Julabo serial line is connected must provide a raw socket or rfc2217 interface.

Installation

From within your favorite python environment type:

$ pip install xia-pfcu

Library

The core of the library consists of PFCU object. To create a PFCU object you need to pass a connection object. A compatible connection object can be created using the companion connio library which should already be installed as a dependency.

Here is how to connect to a PFCU through a local serial line:

from connio import connection_for_url
from xia_pfcu import PFCU


async def main():
    conn = connection_for_url("serial://dev/ttyS0")
    dev = PFCU(conn)

    raw_status = await dev.raw_status()
    print(raw_status)

    status = await dev.status()
    if status['shutter_enabled']:
        shutter_status = (await dev.shutter_status()).name
    else:
        shutter_status = "Disabled"
    print(f"Shutter status: {shutter_status}")

    # open shutter
    await dev.open_shutter()


asyncio.run(main())

Serial line

To access a serial line based PFCU device it is strongly recommended you spawn a serial to tcp bridge using ser2net, ser2sock or socat

Assuming your device is connected to /dev/ttyS0 and the baudrate is set to 9600, here is how you could use socat to expose your device on the machine port 5000:

socat -v TCP-LISTEN:5000,reuseaddr,fork file:/dev/ttyS0,rawer,b9600,cs8,eol=10,icanon=1

It might be worth considering starting socat, ser2net or ser2sock as a service using supervisor or circus.

Simulator

A PFCU simulator is provided.

Before using it, make sure everything is installed with:

$ pip install xia-pfcu[simulator]

The sinstruments engine is used.

To start a simulator you need to write a YAML config file where you define how many devices you want to simulate and which properties they hold.

The following example exports 1 hardware device with a minimal configuration using default values:

# config.yml

devices:
- class: PFCU
  package: xia_pfcu.simulator
  transports:
  - type: serial
    url: /tmp/pfcu-1

To start the simulator type:

$ sinstruments-server -c ./config.yml --log-level=DEBUG
2020-09-14 10:42:27,592 INFO  simulator: Bootstraping server
2020-09-14 10:42:27,592 INFO  simulator: no backdoor declared
2020-09-14 10:42:27,592 INFO  simulator: Creating device PFCU ('PFCU')
2020-09-14 10:42:27,609 INFO  simulator: Created symbolic link "/tmp/pfcu-1" to simulator pseudo terminal '/dev/pts/3'
2020-09-14 10:42:27,609 INFO  simulator.PFCU[/tmp/pfcu-1]: listening on /tmp/pfcu-1 (baud=None)

(To see the full list of options type sinstruments-server --help)

You can access it as you would a real hardware. Here is an example using python serial library on the same machine as the simulator:

$ python
>>> from connio import connection_for_url
>>> from xia_pfcu import PFCU
>>> conn = connection_for_url("serial:///tmp/pfcu-cf31", concurrency="syncio")
>>> dev = PFCU(conn)
>>> conn.open()
>>> print(dev.status())
%PFCU15 OK PFCU v1.0 (c) XIA 1999 All Rights Reserved
CHANNEL IN/OUT (FPanel   TTL  RS232) Shorted? Open?
    1     OUT     OUT    OUT   OUT      NO      NO
    2     OUT     OUT    OUT   OUT      NO      NO
    3      IN     OUT    OUT    IN      NO      NO
    4     OUT     OUT    OUT   OUT      NO      NO
RS232 Control Enabled: YES
RS232 Control Only: NO
Shutter Mode Enabled: NO
Exposure Decimation:     1

Tango server

A tango device server is also provided.

Make sure everything is installed with:

$ pip install xia-pfcu[tango]

Register a PFCU tango server in the tango database:

$ tangoctl server add -s PFCU/test -d PFCU test/pfcu/1
$ tangoctl device property write -d test/pfcu/1 -p address -v "tcp://controls.lab.org:17890"

(the above example uses tangoctl. You would need to install it with pip install tangoctl before using it. You are free to use any other tango tool like fandango or Jive)

Launch the server with:

$ PFCU test