Targetscanner Migration: LabVIEW -> Python

Main goal of the targetscanner application was a 3D profile measurement of FRS degrader targets with resolution better than 1µm in all three directions.

Development of the targetscanner application was started with LabVIEW 5.0 in 1999. It was upgraded several times due to Windows OS upgrades or replacement of PC. The latest version was built with LabVIEW 2021 SP1. The original design was not changed.

One two-axis motion controller is used to move the target in measurement position. Another device is used to measure the target thickness. Both devices support communication via RS232 serial line interface. One NI-PCI-DIO card was used for relais switching to move the distance sensors and one digital input for interlock monitoring. Measurement and meta data is stored in Oracle database.

The migrated project still uses the same hardware, but the PC is replaced with a Raspberry PI mounted on a relais-module. USB-RS232-Adapter connect the serial interfaces. The software has been migrated to Python 3.12 on Raspberry PI using an asyncio approach within to PyAcdaq   (https://git.gsi.de/EKS/Python/ACDAQ/PyAcdaq, branch develop). The database support is dropped, since there is not future demand for it.

This talk will review the LabVIEW project and describes the migration to python using an object-oriented design with asyncio. The application and device layer are seperated from the GUI using the MQTT - Eclipse Mosquitto Broker on Raspi. A simple GUI is based on tkinter which is built into Python. The new design is illustrated using some UML diagrams. Source code can be shown and discussed on request (https://git.gsi.de/EKS/Python/ACDAQ/TargetScanner, branch develop).