CHEM10_Harvard

This is a package to interface with the spectrometer built in CHEM 10 at Harvard College. You can learn more about CHEM 10 here

Installation

First you have to have installed Python 3.13 or higher (here are instructions on how to install Python on Windows). Python is pre-installed on macOS and linux. We recommend you setup a virtual envrionment (venv) where you use the library. Before activating the virtual environment take care to deactivate all other environments (e.g. other venvs or conda environments). You are also free to use packaging managers (e.g. uv, conda, ...). This might be advantageous if you plan to work in STEM fields where conda is commonly used.

You also need to install arduino-cli. Instructions on its installation can be found here. Unless you have already installed the package manager brew we recommend that you use the installation script as explained on the linked page.

In the course you will use jupyter notebooks to execute code. In order to be able to use your virtual environment you will need to execute the following line of code (if you want to you can change the name of the kernel by replacing CHEM10_environment by your name)

python -m ipykernel install --user --name=CHEM10_environment

In order to check that all dependencies are present for the package to work you can install pytest and run

python -m pytest -m environment

If you see a green line at the end that says N passed in N.NNs you are ready to proceed.

[Optional] mamba installation

Should you use conda or one of its derivatives like mamba (reccomended), you can install from the .yml file included in the reference files. First, change the prefix line to the location of mamba in your system, e.g. /Users/johndoe/mamba/envs/chem10. Then, run the following to build the chem10 environment to that location.

mamba env create -f <INSERT>/CHEM10_Harvard/ref/chem10.yml

Alternatively, you can manually create the environment using the following commands. Note it is very important to install pip packages AFTER installing conda packages, otherwise you will reach dependenecy hell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_hell).

mamba create -n chem10 -c conda-forge python=3.12 numpy pandas matplotlib scipy dtw-python jupyter ipykernel pytest pytest-cov
mamba activate chem10
pip install telemetrix

Then, if you are using VSCode, Ctrl+Shift+P > "Select Interpreter" > choose your mamba env. If your env doesn't show up, go to Terminal and type mamba env list, then copy the path and add it as an env in VSCode.