Synrad-UC2000

Wrapper to communicate with a Synrad UC-2000 Universal Laser Controller through the REMOTE port. A UC-2000 controller controls Synrad 48 Series CO₂ lasers.

Requirements

• Python >= 3.8.5
• [OPTIONAL] If using Synrad-UC2000 with a LabJack, then the LabJack-DAQ module is required. Please visit the repository for further installation guidelines.

Only written and tested with LabJack DAQ control and 48-2 and 48-5 lasers in mind.

Installation

To install simply clone the git directory using the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/TobyBi/Synrad-UC2000

Move the file uc2000 to your program location and import it.

Usage

The main points to interface with the laser and controller are

• percent for the % of the PWM width,
• lase for the lasing state of the laser, and
• shoot which fires a chosen number of shots at a given percent and shot_time .

The less frequently changed settings of the laser and controller are:

• PWM frequency,
• gate logic,
• max PWM percent,
• lase on power up,
• controller mode, and
• checksum.

Refer to the documentation for the available options of each.

For pwm_freq, gate_logic, lase, lase_on_power_up, max_pwm, mode, and percent are treated as class variables and are set with the following syntax

laser = UC2000Controller(25)
laser.pwm_freq = 5
laser.mode = "manual"

The shoot function is used like this

laser = UC2000Controller(25)
laser.shoot(
	percent=50 # in %
    shot_time=1000 # in ms
    num_shots=1
)

If you are using lase and percent functions with any other modules that include premature termination of the program, make sure to execute the commands within a context manager e.g.

laser = UC2000Controller(25)
with laser:
    laser.percent = 10
    laser.lase = True
    
    # Program is blocked

If the program is terminated using a KeyboardInterrupt, then the laser will always turn off. This is featured directly in the shoot function so using the context manager is not required there.

Refer to the documentation for more details.

TODO

• Lua scripting for better timings
• Default to PySerial without any DAQ