Probe Station Manual and Software

Refer to docs/manual.pdf for detailed operation and usage instructions.

Usage

Usage: python gui.py [options] <default storage path>

If no default storage path is specified, the current directory is used.

Options: -h, --help show this help message and exit -d, --debug debug flag, enables more verbose console output

DESY FH E-Lab Probe Station PC

To run the probe station software, click on the Probestation link. This executes the command

C:\Programfiles\Anaconda3\python.exe gui.py D:\Measurements

running in the folder

D:\Probestation

This should start the software. cd

Installation on other PCs

The software has been tested to run on Ubuntu 18.04, Raspbian Strech, CERN CentOS 7 and Microsoft Windows 7. It is already preinstalled on fhlprobest.desy.de.

Ubuntu 18.04

Normal Installation

On Ubuntu 18.04 you first have to install git and pip for python

sudo apt-get install git python3-pip

Upgrade pip to the latest version with

sudo pip3 install --upgrade pip

You can then install the required python packages

sudo pip3 install pyvisa pyvisa-py numpy matplotlib pyserial pyqt5

For a serial connection, your user account has to be added to the dialout group

sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER

Then download the repository with

git clone https://github.com/thomaseichhorn/probestation.git /where/you/want/to/install

After logging off and logging in again to refresh the user permissions, you should be able to run the software from the directory you specified before with the command

python3 gui.py

Advanced Options

These commands should not be needed, but are listed here as reference.

• If you do not have sudo rights, append a --user to the pip3 commands to install the python packages for your user only.

• To use Python 2.7, run sudo apt-get install python-pip to get pip2. Then install the python packages, substituting pip2 for pip3 and run the program with the command python gui.py.

• The program automatically defaults back to Qt4 if Qt5 can not be found. The Qt4 packages can't be installed by pip, but have to be installed with sudo apt-get install python-qt4 for Python 2.7 and sudo apt-get install python3-pyqt4 for Python 3.

Raspbian Strech

Currently, Qt5 is not available via the package manager, so the easiest way to run the software is with Python 2 using Qt 4. You will need to install some packages

sudo apt-get install git python-qt4

Upgrade pip to the latest version with

sudo pip install --upgrade pip

You can then install the required python packages

sudo pip install pyvisa pyvisa-py numpy matplotlib pyserial

For a serial connection, your user account has to be added to the dialout group

sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER

Then download the repository with

git clone https://github.com/thomaseichhorn/probestation.git /where/you/want/to/install

After logging off and logging in again to refresh the user permissions, you should be able to run the software from the directory you specified before with the command

python gui.py

CERN CentOS 7

On CERN CentOS 7 you also first have to install git and python3. Open a root terminal and run

yum install centos-release-scl

to enable software collections and then run

yum install rh-python35 git

Then you can load the python3 environment

source /opt/rh/rh-python35/enable

and upgrade pip to the latest version

pip3 install --upgrade pip

You can then install the required python packages

pip3 install pyvisa pyvisa-py numpy matplotlib pyserial pyqt5

For a serial connection, your user account has to be added to the dialout group

usermod -a -G dialout <yourusername>

You can now close the root terminal. Then download the repository with

git clone https://github.com/thomaseichhorn/probestation.git /where/you/want/to/install

After logging off and logging in again to refresh the user permissions, load the python3 environment again

source /opt/rh/rh-python35/enable

You should be able to run the software from the directory you specified before with the command

python3 gui.py

Microsoft Windows 7

On Microsoft Windows 7 you need a Python environment, such as Miniconda. If you have a DESY Windows installation, use DSM to install Anaconda (Software Categories -> Programming). With the Anaconda prompt (or from the Windows command line) you can install the needed python packages with the command

conda install -c conda-forge pyvisa pyvisa-py numpy matplotlib pyserial pyqt

Otherwise you can select these packages with the Anaconda Navigator. Assuming you downloaded the software to C:\some\directory, you can then run the software with

python C:\some\directory\gui.py

from the Anaconda prompt or from the Windows command line.

Recompiling the User Manual

To recompile the user manual, you need a working latex installation with some additional packages.

Ubuntu 18.04 and Raspbian Strech

On Ubuntu 18.04 and Raspbian Strech you need to install several latex packages via

sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-base texlive-science texlive-latex-extra

You can then build the documentation with the command

cd doc && pdflatex manual.tex

CERN CentOS 7

On CERN CentOS 7 you will need to install several latex packages. Unfortunately, the easiest way is to install all available ones from a root terminal

yum install texlive-*

You then have to download some packages manually

cd doc
wget http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/misc/tex/common/teTeX-1.0/lib/texmf/tex/latex/misc/SIunits.sty
wget http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/misc/tex/common/teTeX-1.0/lib/texmf/tex/latex/misc/tocbibind.sty
wget http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/misc/tex/common/teTeX-1.0/lib/texmf/tex/latex/misc/stdclsdv.sty

Before you can then build the documentation

pdflatex manual.tex

Microsoft Windows 7

This is beyond the scope of this document, there are good step-by-step instructions on the internet.