3.4.1. DashBoard

This module is the heart of PyMoDAQ, it will:

• Help you declare the list of actuators and detectors to be used for a given experiment (Preset manager)

• Setup automatic data acquisition of detectors as a function of one or more actuators using its DAQ_Scan extension

• Log data into advanced binary file or distant database using its DAQ_Logger extension

The flow of this module is as follow:

• At startup you have to define/load/modify a preset (see Preset manager) representing an ensemble of actuators and detectors

• Define/load/modify eventual overshoots (see Overshoot manager)

• Define/load/modify eventual ROI (Region of interests) selections (see ROI manager)

• Use the actuators and detectors manually to drive your experiment

• Select an action to perform: automated scan (DAQ_Scan) and/or log data (DAQ_Logger)

3.4.1.1. Introduction

This module has one main window, the dashboard (Fig. 3.6) where a log and all declared actuators and detectors will be loaded as instances of DAQ_Move and DAQ_Viewer. The dashboard gives you full control for manual adjustments of each actuator, checking their impact on live data from the detectors. Once all is set, one can move on to different actions.

Fig. 3.6 Dashboard user interface containing all declared control modules (actuators/detectors) and some initialization info.

3.4.1.2. Menu Bar Description

Figure Fig. 3.7 displays the menu of the Dashboard window with access to all the Managers useful within PyMoDAQ and described below:

Fig. 3.7 Dashboard menu bar.

The file menu will allow you to quickly display, in a default text editor, the current log file (older logs can be found in the pymodaq_local folder, see Configuration. The user can also access and edit the general configuration file config.toml selecting the Show configuration file entry that will open a popup window (see Fig. Fig. 3.8) allowing the user to modify all its fields. Finally, the user can Quit the application or Restart it if changes have to be applied (for instance when modifying a Preset)

Fig. 3.8 Configuration popup window.

The Settings menu is allowing the user to save/load layouts of docked windows within the Dashboard.

Note

Docked Windows Layout: when a Preset has been loaded and if the arrangement of the Control Modules (their docked panels) is modified, then a layout configuration file whose name derive from the loaded preset filename will be created. At each later loading of this preset, the Control Modules arrangement will then be restored.

The Preset Modes menu enables to create or modify (using the Preset manager) presets that are XML files defining a set of actuators and detectors used for a given experiment. Each experiment has therefore a corresponding preset file. At startup, the program checks for existing preset files and create a menu entry for each of them.

The Overshoot Modes menu is used to configure actions like stoping the acquisition orseting hte value of a given actuator when a detected value (from a running detector module) gets out of range with respect to some predefined bounds. For details, see Overshoot manager.

The ROI Modes menu, see ROI manager, is used to save the state of all regions of interest defined by a user within the 1D or 2D viewers declared in the DAQ_Viewers control modules in the Dashboard. You can then, in one go, recall a particular complex configuration for data acquisition.

The Remote/Shortcuts Control menu, see Remote Manager, is used to define key sequences on a keyboard or buttons/joysticks on a gamepad to trigger specific actions from the Control modules, for instance jogging of the actuator values using a joystick or grabing data from a detector using a button.

The Extensions menu let the user load a specific installed extensions. Default ones are the DAQ_Scan and DAQ_Logger ones. More specific ones can be installed, for instance the package Pymodaq Femto

3.4.1.3. Multiple hardware from one controller

Sometimes one hardware controller can drive multiple actuators and sometimes detectors (for instance a XY translation stage). For this particular case the controller should not be initialized multiple times. One should identify one actuator referred to as Master and the other ones will be referred to as Slave. They will share the same controller address represented in the settings tree by the Controller ID entry. These settings will be activated within the plugin script where one can define a unique identifier for each actuator (U or V for the conex in Fig. 3.12). This feature can be enabled for both DAQ_Move and DAQ_Viewer modules but will be most often encountered with actuators, so see for more details: Multiaxes controller. This has to be done using the Preset Manager