Easy recording/monitoring from Phidget 1048_1B USB-thermocouple devices directly from your comfy terminal
It aims at providing a fast, flexible and efficient way to record and monitor thermocouple data in situations where a computer (including a tiny and inexpensive one like the Pi Zero) is in reach. This saves the usual hassle of using GUI and/or proprietary software with limited features from commercial providers, having to set recording missions without live feedback, and then unload and view the data only when the experiment is over.
In addition to better portability and compatibility with headless machines, using command line tools allows easily automating execution for complex monitoring cycles, when combined with other tools such as crontab and ssh, for instance.
phidget-rec(Python)
$ phidget-rec -h
Usage: $ phidget-rec [options]
A program to record and monitor thermocouple data with Phidget 1048_1B
USB devices directly from the terminal
Options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-i, --interactive Enable interactive input prompts for all options
-m MODE, --mode=MODE [d]uration, scheduled end [t]ime, or [c]ontinuous
until manually stopped, default=d
-r RATE, --rate=RATE Poll rate in seconds (min 0.1), default=1
-n NAME, --name=NAME Your name; will be prefixed to the output file name to
facilitate sorting data on shared computers
-l LABEL, --label=LABEL
Label (experiment, species, etc.) to include in the
csv file name, default=Phidget S/N
-t TAG, --tag=TAG Add any relevant tags (keywords, etc.) or summary
information to the csv description; use quotes in case
of multiple words
-s SEP, --sep=SEP Column separator, either [c]omma, [t]ab, or [s]pace,
default=c
-f FILENAME, --file=FILENAME
Custom output file name (ignores --name and --label),
default=NAME_LABEL_RRATE_MODEDURATION_DATETIME.csv
-p PHIDGET, --phidget=PHIDGET
6-digit serial number of the Phidget to use, if
multiple Phidgets 1048_1B are connected
-d DAYS, --days=DAYS Number of days to record, meant for use in combination
with duration mode in a non-interactive and therefore
easily programmable way
-y, --yes Skip confirmation prompt before recording data, meant
to allow suppressing all interactive prompts when
options are set in command line to facilitate the
automatic execution of the program
-q, --quiet Hide sensor readings while recording
Improve me at https://github.com/mlaparie/phidget-toolsphidget-plot(Bash)
$ phidget-plot -h
phidget-plot (live) plots csv data from phidget-rec directly in the terminal.
Usage: $ phidget-plot [FILE] [CHANNEL(S)]
[FILE] path to input csv file
[CHANNEL(S)] space-separated list of channel(s) from 0 to 4 to plot, e.g., 0 1 2 3 4
Arguments are facultative, suppling none enables interactive mode (requires fzf).
Interactive mode looks for input csv files in present directory and takes no [CHANNEL] argument.
Refresh rate of live plots defaults to 0.5s but can be overriden with
an environment variable: 'phidgetplotrate=60 phidget-plot [ARGS]'
Improve me:
https://github.com/mlaparie/phidget-toolsgit clone https://github.com/mlaparie/phidget-tools && cd phidget-tools
ln -s phidget-rec ~/.local/bin/phidget-rec
ln -s phidget-plot ~/.local/bin/phidget-plot- Phidget libraries: follow "Part 1" instructions from the official website:
-
Install dependencies from your package manager, e.g.:
sudo apt install wget gcc make libusb-1.0-0-dev(Debian)
sudo eopkg it wget gcc make libsusb-devel(Solus) -
Download, unpack and install the Phidget library:
wget https://www.phidgets.com/downloads/phidget22/libraries/linux/libphidget22.tar.gz -O /tmp/libphidget22.tar.gz tar xvzf /tmp/libphidget22.tar.gz cd /tmp/libphdget22-* ./configure make sudo make install
-
A backup version of
libphidget22.tar.gzis provided in thelibs/folder of this repository in case the original source becomes unavalable in the future.
-
python3Phidget22Python library:pip3 install Phidget22
jpjpcan be installed with Go:go get -u github.com/sgreben/jp/cmd/jp- Alternatively, prebuilt binaries are available, just unzip the version for your architecture either in your
$PATH(mandatory if you symlinkedphidget-plotto your$PATHas described above and execute it from outsidephidget-tools/), or else simply in thephidget-tools/directory if you run the script from there only.
fzf, optional but phidget-tools will lose functionality without it.fzfis typically available in any distribution's package manager:- Debian:
sudo apt install fzf - Solus:
sudo eopkg it fzf - macOS:
brew install fzf
- Debian:
Using both scripts should be straightforward, check --help. In short, plug your Phidget device, run phidget-rec (try the --interactive ot -i option if in doubt) to collect data, and run phidget-plot to select and preview previously recorded data or view live plots for ongoing monitorings. You can run several instances of phidget-rec simultaneously if you want to record from multiple Phidget 1048_1B devices.
While phidget -i will prompt the user for all available options, one advantage for CLI tools is to suppress all interactions to run them from other scripts and tools. Just make sure you provide the compulsory arguments -p SERIAL, -n NAME, -d DAYS (though inconvenient, it is a float, so fractions are possible: -d 0.25 is six hours) and -y to skip the final confirmation. -r RATE is not mandatory but will obviously be set by most users.
The example Bash script below cycles the execution of phidget-rec for ARG1 recording phases each separated by ARG2 days. These two arguments have to be given first and in that order, and followed by at least the options for phidget-rec described above (in any order) to suppress all input prompts and fully automate the routine. More complex scheduling could be achieved using crontab for instance.
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# This script should be given 2 arguments: number of iterations, wait time (in days) between recording phases.
# Both arguments should be separated by a space, and then followed by phidget-rec options
# Note that the script overrides the --label option of phidget-rec to name files after their iteration number
# example: sh cycle-rec.sh 6 0.0006944444 -nDoe -r0.2 -yd0.0001157407
# 0.0006944444 is 1 minute in days, 0.0001157407 is 10 seconds in days
TMPFILE="$(mktemp)"
PHASE=0
N="$1"
DELAY="$(echo $(bc <<< "$2 * 86400 + 0.5")/1 | bc)"
printf "\033[33;1mInitiated a cycle of "$N" recording phases each separated by "$2" days…\033[0m\n"
echo 0 > $TMPFILE
shift 2
while [ "$PHASE" -lt "$N" ]
do
PHASE=$[$(cat $TMPFILE) + 1]
phidget-rec "$@" -l"$PHASE""of""$N" 1>/dev/null # Remove "1>/dev/null" if you want to see phidget-rec output
printf "\033[33;1mRecording "$PHASE"/"$N" completed.\033[0m\n"
echo $PHASE > $TMPFILE
if [ ! "$PHASE" -eq "$N" ]; then sleep "$DELAY"; else sleep 0; fi
done
lastmod=$(($N+2))
tree Data -tU | head -n "$lastmod"$ sh cycle-rec.sh 6 0.0006944444 -nDoe -r0.2 -yd0.0001157407 -p647540
Initiated a cycle of 6 recording phases each separated by 0.0006944444 days…
Recording 1/6 completed.
Recording 2/6 completed.
Recording 3/6 completed.
Recording 4/6 completed.
Recording 5/6 completed.
Recording 6/6 completed.
Data
└── Doe
├── Doe_6of6_r0.2_D0.0d_20211108-144806.csv
├── Doe_5of6_r0.2_D0.0d_20211108-144656.csv
├── Doe_4of6_r0.2_D0.0d_20211108-144546.csv
├── Doe_3of6_r0.2_D0.0d_20211108-144435.csv
├── Doe_2of6_r0.2_D0.0d_20211108-144325.csv
└── Doe_1of6_r0.2_D0.0d_20211108-144215.csv
$ head Data/Doe/Doe_1of6_r0.2_D0.0d_20211108-144215.csv -n 14
"Hostname: xiaomimi-solus"
"Phidget: 647540"
"Name: Doe"
"Tag(s) or info: NA"
"Label: 1of6"
"Poll rate: 0.2s"
"Program initialization: 2021-11-08 14:42:15"
"Scheduled to record until: 2021-11-08 14:42:24.999996"
"chan0 to chan3: K-type thermocouples"
"chan4: internal temperature"
"time","chan0","chan1","chan2","chan3","chan4"
"2021-11-08 14:42:15.226581","25.7293","25.5439","25.6207","25.7548","27.2914"
"2021-11-08 14:42:15.426797","25.7333","25.5406","25.6207","25.7548","27.2914"
…This example does a stupidly short cycle for testing purposes, and expressing time for such short durations in days is ugly and inconvenient. However days are probably a realistic unit for most use cases, and similar routines could get useful over longer durations, e.g., if you are only interested in night temperatures or some days of the week.
- Add a safety in
phidget-recto prevent overwriting an existing csv file - Investigate implementing upcoming
jpupdate and associated new features