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TOML Configuration

"Out-of-the-box" functionality of pyacquisition is configurable via an input .toml file that can be read in via the Experiment.from_config() classmethod as shown in the Getting Started page. Details of the .toml syntax can be found at toml.io. Strictly, there are no required sections or keys. An empty .toml will run (albeit with no instruments and no measurements). Reasonable defaults are provided.

Below is a breakdown of all of the sections and keys available for configuration:

[experiment] Section

General parameters for the experiment.

Parameter Name Description Default Value
root_path Root directory for the experiment. All other paths are relative to this directory. .

[rack] Section

Configuration of the rack object which manages the polling of instruments.

Parameter Name Description Default Value
period Time period for rack operations. How frequently measurement functions are polled in seconds. 0.25

[instruments] Section

The software and hardware instruments to connect to. Each instrument is configured in a single key-value entry. The key is the unqiue name ascribed to the instrument. The value is a dictionary-like entry configuring the instrument.

For software instruments only the instrument class name (eg Clock) needs to be provided. For example, to configure a software clock, the following .toml can be used:

[instruments]
my_clock = {instrument = "Clock"}
Parameter Name Description Example Value
instrument The name of the instrument class to be instantiated. Clock

For hardware instruments an additional adapter and resource string need to be provided. For example, to configure a Stanford Research SR830 lock-in amplifier connected using pyvisa on GPIB address 7, one could use:

[instruments]
my_lockin = {instrument = "SR_830", adapter = "pyvisa", resource = "GPIB0::7::INSTR"}
Parameter Name Description Example Value
instrument The name of the instrument class to be instantiated. SR_830, Lakeshore_350
adapter The communication adapter to use. Currently only pyvisa is implemented pyvisa
resource The resource string associated with the instrumeent GPIB0::10:INSTR

[measurements] Section

Define the instrument methods to poll. The key is a unique label assigned to the measurement (e.g. 'time', 'voltage', 'temperature'). The value is a dictionary encoding the instrument associated with the measurement, the method to be polled and any arguments that the method should be called with. The value assigned to instrument must be present as a key in the [instruments] section. The value assigned to method must be the name of a method of the instrument. Refer to the relevant instrument documentation for a list of available methods and their arguments.

Parameter Name Description Example Value
instrument The name of the instrument my_clock
method The method to poll timestamp_ms
args (optional) Arguments to call method with.

Note

If a method takes arguments that are members of an Enum, you can pass a string that will be resolved against the enum members. For example, one could use pass method = "instrument_method" and grouding = "FLOAT" if 

class InputGrounding(Enum):
    FLOAT = 0
    GROUND = 1

...

def instrument_method(grounding: InputGrounding):
    ...

[data] Section

The [data] section describes the configuration of the data files.

Parameter Name Description Default Value
path Directory for storing data (relative to the experiment root_path). .
extension The file extension to use for data files .data
delimiter Delimiter to use for data files ,

[api_server] Section

The [api_server] section defines the properties of the FastAPI backend that exposes functionality to the GUI that runs in a seperate process. This may be changed to avoid (for example) port conflicts with other services that are running.

Parameter Name Description Default Value
host Hostname for the API server. localhost
port Port for the API server. 8005

[logging] Section

This section defines the various logging levels and location of log files produced during program execution. Allowed values are DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR.

Parameter Name Description Default Value
console_level Logging level for console output. INFO
gui_level Logging level for output in the GUI. INFO
file_level Logging level for file output. DEBUG
file_name Name of the log file. debug.log