starfeeder 0.2.6

Whisker Starfeeder (starling RFID/balance reader)

Purpose

Manages radiofrequency identification (RFID) readers and weighing balances, and talks to a Whisker client (http://www.whiskercontrol.com/).

Author/licensing

By Rudolf Cardinal. Copyright © 2015 Rudolf Cardinal. See LICENSE.txt.

Single-folder binary distribution

Unzip the distributed file and double-click the starfeeder program. That’s it.

Linux source installation

End users should opt for the single-folder binary distribution instead.

Install

From a command prompt:

sudo apt-get install python3 python3-pip  # install Python with pip
python3 -m virtualenv /PATH/TO/MY/NEW/VIRTUALENV  # make a virtualenv
source /PATH/TO/MY/NEW/VIRTUALENV/bin/activate  # activate the virtualenv

# pip install starfeeder --process-dependency-links  # install from PyPI -- NOT YET IMPLEMENTED

cd /MY/WORKING/DIR
git clone https://egret.psychol.cam.ac.uk/git/starfeeder  # Fetch code. Private for now.
pip install -e .  # Install from working directory into virtualenv.

Run

/PATH/TO/MY/NEW/VIRTUALENV/bin/starfeeder

Windows source installation

Deprecated, as it’s complex.

Install

1. You need to have Python 3 installed (which will come with pip, pyvenv, and sometimes virtualenv). Obtain it from https://www.python.org/ and install it. We’ll suppose you’ve installed Python at C:\Python34.

2. On Windows 10, install a copy of cmake, because PySide wants it. Also Qt. Also Git if you want to work with repositories directly. Possibly other things. (I have this working on Windows XP but not Windows 10; PySide is not building itself happily.)

3. Then fire up a Command Prompt and do:

   C:\Python34\Tools\Scripts\pyvenv.py C:\PATH\TO\MY\NEW\VIRTUALENV
   
   C:\PATH\TO\MY\NEW\VIRTUALENV\Scripts\activate
   
   pip install starfeeder --process-dependency-links

Run

Run the starfeeder program from within your virtual environment.

Windows: just the GUI

For normal use:

C:\PATH\TO\MY\NEW\VIRTUALENV\Scripts\pythonw.exe C:\PATH\TO\MY\NEW\VIRTUALENV\Scripts\starfeeder-script.py

Windows: to see command-line output

Use this for database upgrades, command-line help, and to see debugging output:

C:\PATH\TO\MY\NEW\VIRTUALENV\Scripts\starfeeder

You can append -v for more verbose output, or --help for full details.

If you use this method to run the graphical user interface (GUI) application, do not close the console window (this will close the GUI app).

Changelog

v0.1.2 (2015-12-23)

• Initial release.

• Hardware tested via Windows XP, Windows 10, and Ubuntu 14.04.

v0.1.3 (2015-12-26)

• Ugly moveToThread() hack fixed by declaring QTimer(self) rather than QTimer().

• More general updates to declare parents of QObject objects, except in GUI code where it just clutters things up needlessly. Note that QLayout.addWidget(), QLayout.addLayout(), and QWidget.setLayout() all take ownership.

• Bugfix related to using lambdas as slots (PySide causes a segmentation fault on exit; https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/PYSIDE-88).

• Launch PDF manual as help.

• Retested with hardware on Windows XP and Linux.

v0.1.4 (2015-12-26)

• callback_id set by GUI, not by derived classes of SerialOwner

v0.1.5 (2016-02-27)

• bugfix to BaseWindow.on_rfid_state()

v0.2.0 (2016-04-07)

• GUI log window, for PyInstaller environments.

• Uses Whisker Python library.

• Switch to Arrow datetimes internally.

• Bugfix in error handling when trying to open non-existent serial ports.

v0.2.3 (2016-04-19) v0.2.4 (2016-04-19)

• Bugfix.

v0.2.5

• Internal changes only?

v0.2.6 (2016-11-24)

• Python type hints.

• NOTE that to install Python 3.4 (required for this version of PySide) under Ubuntu 16.10, you need to: - download Python 3.4.4 source, then:

  $ tar xvf Python-3.4.4.tgz
  $ cd Python-3.4.4
  $ configure --enable-shared
  $ make
  $ sudo make install
  
      # now unbreak wrong symlink and replace with old:
  $ sudo rm /usr/bin/python3  # "make install" made this point to python3.4
  $ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python3.5 /usr/bin/python3
  
      # now set up library links
  $ sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libpython3.4m.so.1.0 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpython3.4m.so.1.0
  
      # this should now work:
  $ python3.4

• Upgraded from pyserial 3.0.1 to 3.2.1 … also allows the use of Linux pseudoterminals for testing; http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34831131

• Passwords obscured in debug-level database URLs.

• Top-level exception tracebacks go to log (like all others), not to print() using traceback.print_exc().

• BalanceController could send ‘ICRNone’, which is wrong; the frequency 10 Hz was offered in the dialogue, but should have been 12. Validity check added.

• Bug workaround: PROBLEM - sometimes, WeightWhiskerTask.on_mass() received something that was not a MassEvent. Not sure why (it doesn’t look like anything else is ever sent); could this be a PySide signals bug?

  ATTEMPT 1 - Workaround is to verify type on receipt (and complain loudly if wrong but ignore/continue). - … no; irremediable bug in PySide (see development notes); it fails to keep references to signal parameters, so sometimes they go AWOL.

  ATTEMPT 2 - Switched from PySide to PyQt5, and thus GPLv3 licensing. - Generally, this seems much better. - Even then, apparent corruption in “bytes” object passed from SerialController.process_data() -> SerialController.line_received -> [change thread] -> RfidController.on_receive Sometimes the received bytes object is b’’, not what was sent. PyQt does some sort of autoconversion to C++ objects; see http://pyqt.sourceforge.net/Docs/PyQt5/signals_slots.html ; and the problem appears to go away by using an encapsulating Python object… Not ideal! Does it also affect str? No, str seems OK. BUG REPRODUCED RELIABLY in pyqt5_signal_with_bytes.py. Reported to PyQt mailing list on 2016-12-01. SO FOR NOW: AVOID bytes OBJECTS IN PyQt5 SIGNALS.

PENDING

• 2017-03-21: thinking back to ClearCommError() failure, via inWaiting() function, called by SerialReader.start()… - See also https://github.com/pyserial/pyserial/blob/master/serial/threaded/__init__.py#L196