This package is a command line interface for controlling a Thorlabs Z812B actuator.
Make sure you have the Kinesis software installed.
Next add the Kinesis folder to the PATH environment variable. This is critical. Without this step, the software will not be able to locate the DLLs used to communicate with the actuator.
The motor is calibrated by storing <wavelength>, <motor position> pairs in a calibration file, and creating an environment variable that points to this file. You can use the Kinesis software to move the motor and record its position.
First create a calibration file somewhere, the location is not important. The file should have the following format:
<wavelength>,<motor position>
<wavelength>,<motor position>
<wavelength>,<motor position>
...
The last step is to create an environment variable THORLABSMOTORCAL and set it to the location of the calibration file.
Clone the repository:
$ git clone https://github.com/savikhin-lab/thorlabs_actuator.git
Enter the thorlabs_actuator directory, then use poetry to build the package.
$ cd thorlabs_actuator
$ poetry build
Finally, use pip to install the package. The package will be called etalon since it is used to control the position of an etalon in our system.
$ python -m pip install --user dist/etalon-<version>-py3-none-any.whl
Run etalon --help to see the available commands. You can see further help for individual commands via etalon <cmd> --help.