RBL

Desktop application for planning, simulating, controlling, and evaluating the right beam line in IBL at UW-Madison NEEP

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Requirements

Hardware

Device	Interface	Driver
Galil DMC-4103 motion controller	TCP/IP (port 23)	Built-in ASCII socket protocol
LabJack T7 analog input	USB or Ethernet	labjack-ljm Python package + LJM system library
LabJack CB37 terminal board	DB37 ribbon to T7	Passive breakout — no driver
4 x EEL5000.20.100 HV amplifier	BNC monitors -> CB37	Read as analog voltages
2 x Rigol DG1022Z function generator	USB (VISA)	pyvisa + NI-VISA Runtime backend
INFICON VGC083 vacuum gauge	RS-232 (USB-serial adapter)	pyserial + adapter driver
Agilent XGS-600 vacuum gauge	RS-232 (USB-serial adapter)	pyserial + adapter driver
Tektronix TDS 2012 oscilloscope	RS-232 (USB-serial adapter)	pyserial + adapter driver
USB camera	USB (UVC)	Built-in Windows UVC driver

LabJack T7 analog input map

There is one T7. MainWindow owns a single connection and a single poll thread that reads all 12 channels in one round trip at 10 Hz. Tabs subscribe and filter.

AIN	Where	Signal	Conversion
AIN0-AIN3	T7 body terminals	NEC log amps, slits X+/X-/Y+/Y-	log-amp curve -> A
AIN4, AIN5	CB37	spare	-
AIN6 / AIN7	CB37	Amp Y- current / voltage monitor	1 V = 10 mA / 1 V = 1 kV
AIN8 / AIN9	CB37	Amp Y+ current / voltage monitor	"
AIN10 / AIN11	CB37	Amp X- current / voltage monitor	"
AIN12 / AIN13	CB37	Amp X+ current / voltage monitor	"

Wiring notes. CB37 AIN0-AIN3 are electrically duplicated with the T7's own screw terminals - the log amps use the body terminals, so nothing may be landed on CB37 AIN0-AIN3. Land the eight amplifier BNC shields on AGND (DB37 pin 30), not GND: GND carries load current and will offset the ADC reference. All twelve channels run at +/-10 V single-ended. This is required, not merely convenient - the EEL5000 current monitor reaches +/-10 V during its rated 100 mA / 4 ms transient.

Sampling caveat. At 10 Hz these monitors report a time-average of a kHz-rate deflection waveform, not its peak. The HV Amplifiers tab is a DC-bias / drift / fault monitor, not a waveform capture.

Devices are optional - the Analysis tab and all simulation functions work without any hardware connected.

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Dependency bootstrapper (one-click driver install)

The app depends on several system-level libraries that PyInstaller cannot bundle. On a fresh control PC any of them may be missing, so the app includes a dependency bootstrapper that detects and resolves them automatically at startup.

When RBL launches, rbl/driver.py runs a preflight check on each system-level dependency. If anything is missing, a yellow warning bar appears below the tab bar listing every issue. When a bundled installer is available for a dependency, an "Install" button appears next to it. Clicking launches the vendor's own installer with a Windows UAC admin prompt. After the install finishes, restart RBL.

What gets checked

Dependency	What it serves	How the check works
LabJack LJM (LabJackM.dll)	T7 analog input (log amps, HV amp monitors)	Imports labjack.ljm and reads the library version — proves the DLL is present AND responding
NI-VISA Runtime	Rigol DG1022Z function generators (USB-TMC)	Creates a pyvisa.ResourceManager() — fails if no VISA backend is installed system-wide
USB-serial adapter driver	VGC083 / XGS-600 vacuum gauges, TDS 2012 oscilloscope	Checks that pyserial can enumerate COM ports. Since a missing adapter driver only shows up when the adapter is plugged in (no COM port appears), this is a softer check

What is NOT checked (works out of the box)

Dependency	Why it's fine
Galil DMC-4103	Pure TCP sockets — no driver beyond Windows networking
USB camera	Standard UVC driver — built into Windows

Setting up bundled installers

Drop installer .exe files into the vendor/ folder at the project root. The PyInstaller spec file automatically bundles anything in vendor/*.exe into the build. The bootstrapper uses filename patterns to match each installer to the right dependency:

Dependency	Filename pattern	Where to download
LabJack LJM	LabJack*.exe	LabJack LJM installer
NI-VISA Runtime	NI-VISA*.exe or ni-visa*.exe	NI-VISA Runtime (get the Runtime, not the full Development suite)
USB-serial (FTDI)	FTDI*.exe or CDM*.exe	FTDI VCP drivers
USB-serial (Prolific)	PL2303*.exe	Prolific PL2303 driver
USB-serial (CH340)	CH34*.exe	WCH CH340 driver

You can bundle as many or as few as you need. If no installer is bundled for a dependency, the warning bar still appears but directs the user to download it from the vendor's website.

Caveats

• The UAC admin prompt cannot be coded away — it is a Windows security boundary for anything installing system-wide.
• Each bundled installer adds its own size to the build: LabJack LJM ~18 MB, NI-VISA Runtime ~100-400 MB (online vs offline installer), USB-serial drivers ~5-10 MB each.
• Windows 10/11 auto-installs FTDI and CH340 USB-serial drivers via Windows Update in most cases, so you may not need to bundle those at all. Prolific PL2303 is the one most likely to need manual installation.

Reusing this pattern in another project

The dependency bootstrapper is the same technique as a game shipping the Visual C++ runtime (vcredist) — detect whether the dependency is present, then delegate to the vendor's own installer. To reuse it:

1. Copy rbl/driver.py into your project. It has no GUI code, so it drops in anywhere. Rewrite the check_*() functions to probe YOUR dependencies (an import, a DLL check, a subprocess version call — whatever proves the thing is alive).

2. Wire the GUI. Add a _refresh_driver_state() that calls check_all() and builds a row for each failure with a label and optional Install button. Call it on startup and on connection failure so the actionable message wins over any generic error.

3. Update your .spec file. Add the _vendor_datas() helper that globs vendor/*.exe into the PyInstaller datas list.

4. Create a vendor/ folder and drop the installer .exe files into it.

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Building

cd C:\Users\IGLeg\PycharmProjects\RBL
.venv\Scripts\activate
pyinstaller rbl.spec --clean

Or just run build.bat, which cleans, builds, and copies dist/ to D:\.

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License

MIT - see LICENSE file.

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If you have any questions, comments, or concerns email me - ilegault@wisc.edu