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ADALM1000 Python tutorial materials

Objective:

This tutorial will introduce you to the libpysmu Python interface software layer to control the ADALM1000 active learning hardware module. Python is a general-purpose, object-oriented interpreted language you can use along with the ALM1000 hardware for countless standalone projects.

Required files:

These tutorial example programs are written in Python and requires that version 2.7.8 of Python be installed on the user's computer. The programs only import modules generally included with standard Python installation packages. The following files are required do these tutorials:

All OS:

pysmu.py
Extracted example Python scripts from alm1000_tutorial.zip

Windows:

libpysmu.pyd (needs to be in Python27\DLLs directory)

Linux:

libpysmu.so

Common Notes:

As in all the ALM activities we use the following terminology when referring to the connections to the ALM1000 connector and configuring the hardware. The green shaded rectangles indicate connections to the M1000 analog I/O connector. The analog I/O channel pins are referred to as CA and CB. When configured to force voltage / measure current -V is added as in CA-V or when configured to force current / measure voltage -I is added as in CA-I. When a channel is configured in the high impedance mode to only measure voltage -H is added as CA-H.

Scope traces are similarly referred to by channel and voltage / current. Such as CA-V , CB-V for the voltage waveforms and CA-I , CB-I for the current waveforms.

The digital I/O channel pins are referred to as D0 through D3. These correspond to the pins labeled PIO 0 – PIO 3 on the ALM1000 board silkscreen.

Controlling multiple LEDs
Reading push button switches
Using shift registers for more digital inputs/outputs
Using the CD4052 dual 4:1 analog Mux for more analog inputs
Reading an analog voltage from a potentiometer
Program the AD8402 dual digital potentiometer
Use photocell to measure ambient light
Read temperature values from an AD22100 sensor
Control a DC motor
Control a Stepper Motor
Control a Servo Motor
Drive a piezoelectric transducer and use as a vibration sensor
Use an electret microphone as a sound detector
How to read acceleration data from the ADXL327

Materials:

ADALM1000 hardware module

High Level Functions in libpysmu:

There is are a few pre-defined python functions that interface to the C++ libsmu library. Contained in the pysmu.py file they provide the high level access functions to configure and control the ALM1000 hardware. The pysmu.py file must be imported or cut and pasted into your python program. The following lists the functions currently implemented:

Smu()
Must be run first
Returns a list of the devices currently plugged into the computer
Example:
devx = Smu()

devx.devices[int]
takes a integer for the device, 0 for first device in list, 1 for second etc.
returns index to that device

Example:
Both = devx.devices[0]

devx.channels[string]
takes one of the following strings as input 'A' , 'B' for first device, 'C' , 'D' for second device etc.
returns index to that channel

Examples:
CHA = devx.channels['A']
CHB = devx.channels['B']

AllChan = Both.get_samples(n_samples):
query device for a list of samples from all channels
n_samples parameter is number of samples
n_samples is of type int
returns list of n samples from all the device's channels

AnalogInA = CHA.get_samples(20) get 20 readings and return them to list variable AnalogInA

CHA.set_mode(mode) or CHB.set_mode(mode):
mode can be one of the following strings:
'V' or 'v' sets channel to source voltage measure current ( SVMI )
'I' or 'I' sets channel to source current measure voltage ( SIMV )
'D' or 'd' set channel to high impedance mode, measure voltage

The following functions control the waveform of the analog output channels (could be CHA or CHB).

CHA.constant(value)
value is a floating point number from 0 to 5 representing the DC output voltage for that channel
or value is a floating point number from -0.200 to + 0.200 representing the DC output current for that channel

CHA.sine(value1, value2, periodvalue, delayvalue)

CHA.triangle(value1, value2, periodvalue, delayvalue)

CHA.sawtooth(value1, value2, periodvalue, delayvalue)

CHA.square(value1, value2, periodvalue, delayvalue, dutycyclevalue)

CHA.stairstep(value1, value2, periodvalue, delayvalue)

To better visualize how to specify a waveform look at figure 1 where:
value1 is the first peak value of the waveform, could be the minimum or the maximum peak.
value2 is the second peak value of the waveform, could be the minimum or the maximum peak.
If for example value1 is less than value 2 the apparent phase of the wave is 180 degrees from a wave where value1 is greater than value2.
dutycyclevalue is a fractional number from 0 to 1. dutycyclevalue only applies to the square waveform.

Figure 1 How to build a waveform.

To calculate the period from frequency ( in Hertz ) use the following formula:
periodvalue = SAMPLErate/freqvalue where SAMPLErate is generally fixed at 100,000 SPS

To calculate the delay from the phase ( in degrees ) use the following formula:
delayvalue = periodvalue * phasevalue / 360

Direct control over ADALM1000 functionality can be accomplished using the implemented control transfers, a synchronous and slow communication endpoint accessible regardless of the configuration of the device.

Note that the higher level functions libpysmu implements on top of LIBSMU make use of many of the control transfers to configure device state during normal operation. As such, using these low level control transfers while streaming data may not produce the expected results.

The ALM1000 implements many control transfers, including the following:

0x17 - read a number of bytes from the ADM1177 hot-swap controller
0x50 - Set a GPIO pin low
0x51 - Set a GPIO pin high
0x91 - Get a GPIO input pin value
0x53 - Set device Mode
0x59 - Set potentiometer state

M1000 microcontroller pin mappings are described below.

IO Name	Net Name	Net Description	Pin ID
——-	——--	—————	——
PA0	PIO0	user DIO 0-220Ω	0
PA1	PIO1	user DIO 1-220Ω	1
PA2	PIO2	user DIO 2-220Ω	2
PA3	PIO3	user DIO 3-220Ω	3
PA4	PIO0	user DIO 0-470Ω	4
PA5	PIO1	user DIO 1-470Ω	5
PA6	PIO2	user DIO 2-470Ω	6
PA7	PIO3	user DIO 3-470Ω	7
PB0	UA11-IN0	50Ω from ChA to 2v5	32
PB1	UA11-IN1	50Ω from ChA to GND	33
PB2	UA11-IN2	ChA close voltage sense loop	34
PB3	UA11-IN3	ChA connect output	35
PB5	UB11-IN0	50Ω from ChB to 2v5	37
PB6	UB11-IN1	50Ω from ChB to GND	38
PB7	UB11-IN2	ChB close voltage sense loop	39
PB8	UB11-IN3	ChB connect output	40
PB17	PWR_ENABLE	turn on power for analog components	49
PB19	SWMODE-A	ChA switch SVMI - SIMV	51
PB20	SWMODE-B	ChB switch SVMI - SIMV	52

Examples:

#
import libpysmu
import pysmu.py

devx = Smu()
DevID = devx.serials[0] # device ID for 1^st M1000 in list

# set PIO1 high
devx.ctrl_transfer(DevID, 0x40, 0x51, 1, 0, 0, 0, 100)

# set PIO1 low
devx.ctrl_transfer(DevID, 0x40, 0x50, 1, 0, 0, 0, 100)

# get state of PIO0
print devx.ctrl_transfer(DevID, 0xc0, 0x91, 0, 0, 0, 1, 100)

# get state of PIO1
print devx.ctrl_transfer(DevID, 0xc0, 0x91, 1, 0, 0, 1, 100)

# set CHA 2.5 V switch to open
devx.ctrl_transfer(DevID, 0x40, 0x51, 32, 0, 0, 0, 100)

# set CHA GND switch to open
devx.ctrl_transfer(DevID, 0x40, 0x51, 33, 0, 0, 0, 100)

# set CHB 2.5 V switch to open
devx.ctrl_transfer(DevID, 0x40, 0x51, 37, 0, 0, 0, 100)

# set CHB GND switch to open
devx.ctrl_transfer(DevID, 0x40, 0x51, 38, 0, 0, 0, 100)

# open CHA voltage sense loop
devx.ctrl_transfer(DevID, 0x40, 0x51, 34, 0, 0, 0, 100)

# open CHB voltage sense loop
devx.ctrl_transfer(DevID, 0x40, 0x51, 39, 0, 0, 0, 100)

For Further Reading:

Active Learning Interface (for) Circuits (and) Electronics (Python program)
ALICE-SA Spectrum Analyzer (Python program)
ADALM1000 Analog Inputs
ADALM1000 Digital Outputs

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Table of Contents

ADALM1000 Python tutorial materials

Objective:

Required files:

All OS:

Windows:

Linux:

Common Notes:

Table of Contents:

Materials:

High Level Functions in libpysmu:

Examples:

Analog Devices Wiki

Table of Contents

ADALM1000 Python tutorial materials

Objective:

Required files:

All OS:

Windows:

Linux:

Common Notes:

Table of Contents:

Materials:

High Level Functions in libpysmu:

Examples:

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