Lifespec FL

Parse .FL files from a Lifespec TRPL machine.

Install with python -m pip install lifespec-fl

Parser

The lifespec_fl.parse(<file>) method is used to parse a .FL file. This is the main function of this package.

File format description

Parsing the .FL binary file uses the parse_binary_file package. This package uses configuration files to describe the structure of a binary file format for parsing.

You can find this configuration file at lifespec_fl/data/fl_descriptor.yaml.

CLI

Installs a command line interface (CLI) named lifespec_fl that can be used to convert .FL files to .csv.

Example

Library

import pandas as pd
import lifespec_fl as fl


# parse the 'my_trpl.FL' file
(counts, data) = fl.parse('my_trpl.FL')

# place counts into a pandas Series
df = pd.Series(counts[:, 1], index = counts[:, 0])

CLI

Convert all .FL files in the current directory to .csv.

lifespec_fl

Convert all .FL files ending in trpl in the current directly into a single .csv.

lifespec_fl --join *trpl.FL

File Format Notes

• 3 lines separated by \r\n (0d0a)
• Little Endian
• latin-1 encoded
• Heads of lines 1 and 2 follow similar pattern

Line 0 (0x00 - 0x14, 0x15 bytes)

EAI Multiple Scans null terminated (0x00) string followed by \r\n

Line 1 (0x15 - 0x60, 0x4d bytes)

head (0x34 bytes)

0. bytes 0x00 - 0x01 (0x02 bytes): dc05
1. bytes 0x02 - 0x05 (0x04 bytes): 0000 0033
2. bytes 0x06 - 0x09 (0x04 bytes): 0000 0096
3. bytes 0x0a - 0x10 (0x07 bytes): null
4. bytes 0x11 - 0x14 (0x04 bytes): Stop time as a float
5. bytes 0x15 - 0x19 (0x05 bytes): X axis label (e.g. 'Time') as a null terminated string
6. bytes 0x1a - 0x1c (0x03 bytes): Time scale (e.g. 'ns', 'us') as a null terminated string
7. bytes 0x1d - 0x20 (0x04 bytes): null
8. bytes 0x21 - 0x24 (0x04 bytes): ?, possibly no. of counts in 1000 as float
9. bytes 0x25 - 0x2b (0x07 bytes): Y axis label (e.g. 'Counts') as a null terminated string
10. bytes 0x2c - 0x33 (0x08 bytes): '1.4.5.0' null terminated string, version?

body

11. bytes 0x36 - 0x3d (0x08 bytes): Seems to always be 6400 0000 0100 0000
12. bytes 0x3e - 0x4c (0x0d bytes): Scan type as null terminated string
13. bytes 0x4d - 0x4e (0x02 bytes): \r\n to end line

Line 2 (0x61 - end)

head (0x34 bytes)

0. bytes 0x00 - 0x01 (0x02 bytes): 8813
1. bytes 0x02 - 0x06 (0x04 bytes): ?, float
2. bytes 0x07 - 0x09 (0x04 bytes): 0100 0096, control sequence?
3. bytes 0x0a - 0x10 (0x07 bytes): null
4. bytes 0x11 - 0x14 (0x04 bytes): Stop time as a float
5. bytes 0x15 - 0x19 (0x05 bytes): X axis label (e.g. 'Time') as a null terminated string
6. bytes 0x1a - 0x1c (0x03 bytes): Time scale (e.g. 'ns', 'us') as a null terminated string
7. bytes 0x1d - 0x24 (0x08 bytes): null
8. bytes 0x25 - 0x2b (0x07 bytes): Y axis label (e.g. 'Counts') null terminated string
9. bytes 0x2c - 0x33 (0x08 bytes): '1.4.5.0' null terminated string, version?

body

11. Original file name, null terminated
12. (0x01 bytes) 2c
13. (0x04 bytes) 0100 0000, control secquence?
14. (0x02 bytes) 0400
15. (0x02 bytes) null
16. (0x0f bytes) ?
17. (0x02 bytes) 4090, control sequence?
18. (0x04 bytes) 0100 0000, control sequence?
19. (0x04 bytes) ?, null terminated
20. (0x07 bytes) null
21. (0x04 bytes) f401 0000, control sequence?
22. (0x0c bytes) 'TCSPC Diode' string, null terminated
23. (0x0a bytes) null
24. (0x0a bytes) 'Reference' string, null terminated
25. (0x02 bytes) null
26. (0x03 bytes) 'HC' string, null terminated
27. (0x04 bytes) f6ff ffff, control sequence?
28. (0x02 bytes) 1000
29. (0x03 bytes) null
30. (0x02 bytes) 000c
31. (0x0c bytes) 'TCSPC Diode' sting, null t2rminated
32. (0x06 bytes) null
33. (0x01 bytes) fe, control sequence?
34. (0x04 bytes) 'K B' string, null terminated
35. (0x01 bytes) null
36. (0x0a bytes) 'HS PMT920' string, null terminated
37. (0x05 bytes) ?, float
38. (0x06 bytes) 00f6 ffff ff0d 00 control sequence?
39. (0x03 bytes) null
40. (0x0d bytes) '200nm-1000nm' string, null terminated
41. (0x01 bytes) 05, control sequence?
42. (0x12 bytes) 'High Speed PMT920' string, null terminated
43. (0x02 bytes) 0001
44. (0x16 bytes) null
45. 002c 0100 0001 0000 00 control sequence?
46. (0x04 bytes) ?, float?
47. (0x04 bytes) ?, float?
48. (0x0d bytes) c220 b043 2000 0000
49. Time scale string (e.g. '50ns', '100ns'), null terminated
50. (0x01 bytes) Data padding
    • If 30, skip next byte
    • If 31
      • If 2e39, skip next byte
      • if 392e, skip next 2 bytes

data

• Each 4 bytes should be interpreted as a float