pyThorlabsKCubeKPC101

pyThorlabsKCubeKPC101 is a Python library/GUI interface to control the K-Cube® Piezo Controller and Strain Gauge Reader KPC101 from Thorlabs. The package is composed of two parts: a low-level driver to perform basic operations, and a high-level GUI, written with PyQt5, which can be easily embedded into other GUIs. The low-level driver can be used as stand-alone library.

The interface can work either as a stand-alone application (via either the high-level GUI or the low-level driver), or as a module of ergastirio.

Note: so far the code has only been tested with the translation stage NFL5DP20S connected to the KPC101.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage via the low-level driver
  • Examples
• Usage as a stand-alone GUI interface
• Embed the GUI within another GUI

Installation

Use the package manager pip to install,

pip install pyThorlabsKCubeKPC101

This will install pyThorlabsKCubeKPC101 together with all libraries required to run the low-level driver. In particular, the library pythonnet is required and it will be installed. If during the installation any error message appears related to pythonnet, try running again the command pip install pythonnet.

In order to use the GUI, it is necessary to install additional libraries, specified in the requirements.txt files,

pip install abstract_instrument_interface>=0.10
pip install "PyQt5>=5.15.6"
pip install "pyqtgraph>=0.12.4"
pip install numpy

Usage via the low-level driver

TO-DO

Usage as a stand-alone GUI interface

The installation sets up an entry point for the GUI. Just type

pyThorlabsKCubeKPC101

in the command prompt to start the GUI.

Embed the GUI within another GUI

The GUI controller can also be easily integrated within a larger graphical interface, as shown in the [TO DO]