psc_datalogger

Provide a GUI interface to allow logging measurements from one to three Multimeters. Supported multimeters are the Agilent 3458A and 34401A devices. Logging is done at a configurable interval. It can be also be configured to convert voltage readings into a temperature, if a Analog Devices AD8494 Thermocouple Amplifier is connected to the multimeter. The data is output in a CSV format.

Installation

The simplest way to install this program is to use pip to install it directly from this repository:

python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install git+https://github.com/DiamondLightSource/psc-datalogger.git

Then the application can be started:

psc-datalogger

Building Windows Executable

This project can be built and distriubted as a Windows .exe file. The tool used, pyinstaller, is included in the Dev dependencies.

To create the application follow these instructions:

git clone https://github.com/DiamondLightSource/psc-datalogger.git
cd psc-datalogger
python -m venv venv
venv\Scripts\activate
pip install .[dev]
pyinstaller --hidden-import pyvisa_py --noconfirm --log-level=WARN --onefile --name psc_datalogger src\psc_datalogger\__main__.py

The application will appear in the dist folder. Each parameter of the pyinstaller command line is:

• --hidden-import pyvisa_py - The PyVISA-py module is actually stored on disk as pyvisa_py, so tell the installer to include it explicitly
• --noconfirm - Don't warn when about to delete a previous build
• --log-level=WARN - Only print warning (or higher) log messages when building. Note a successful build does emit a warning about "sip" module not being found, and another saying "only basenames are supported with ctypes imports". These appear to be harmless.
• --onefile - Package the build into a single .exe file (as opposed to a single directory)
• --name psc_datalogger - Give a name to the build application (otherwise it copies the name of the start script)
• src\psc_datalogger\__main__.py - Specify the main entry point of the application

Lastly, move the built application to a known distribution location under "S:\Technical\Power_Supplies\Software\Python_datalogger"