SF8xxx-controller 1.2

Basic terminal-based software to control output current and temperature on an arbitrary number of Maiman SF8xxx laser diode/SOA controllers connected over UART, using the pySerial library for this.

To do

• Keep using it until there are bugs

Synopsis

Software for Maiman Electronics SF8xxx diode controllers.

Commands:

dial [devpath] [device] - Connect device at devpath, addressable by device, which is an aribtrary name describing the device at devpath. \ hangup [device] - Disconnect this device.

load [filename] - Load a JSON file with device names and devpaths.

qrd [device] - Quick RunDown of device status. \ qrrd [device] - QuickeR RunDown of device status.

configure [device] - Set device registers to use interlock and ignore external NTC thermistor. Good to run this initially. \ int [device] [on/off] - Allow/deny interlock.

tec set [device] [on/off] - Turn TEC on or off. (Interlock must be on.) \ tec temp [device] [temperature, C] - Set TEC temperature. \ tec stat [device] - TEC status register contents

dri set [device] [on/off] - Turn driver of on or off. \ dri cur(max) [device] [current, mA] - Set (max) driver current. \ dri stat [device] - Driver status register contents

lock [device] - Print register contents for lock status.

max [device] - Print current maxima (no pun intended).

list - Print a list of connected devices with ports.

exit - Exit program.

(device = "all" to perform the command for all devices (except for dial and driver current (dri cur(max)) routines, to prevent accidentally setting an incorrect maximum driver current for different devices).)

Usage and installation

If on Linux or whatever you need to add yourself to the dialout group in order to access serial devices.

The executable (currently main.py) contains the shebang necessary for execution on Linux or whatever but can still be run under python.

Files

SF8xxx.py - library to interface with Maiman SF8xxx controller boards.

Console.py - console object.

main.py - run this for now

devpaths.json - example json file for loading all at once

History

1.2 - Added load function. Added safety measure to turn off driver if temperature is too high. Have noticed TEC turning off independly of driver sometimes. Bug fixes.

Author: Douglas McCulloch, May 2024