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PyChilasLasers Quickstart Guide

This guide is meant as a starting point for new users to get accustomed to the library, it's usual operation and help become productive with it quickly. It briefly highlights the library's capabilities, then walks through installation, initialization, and a step‑by‑step demo.

Key Features

Operating Modes

  • Steady Mode (OperatingMode.STEADY) – Uses calibration table entries for precise wavelength tuning.
  • Manual Mode (OperatingMode.MANUAL) – Direct control of individual heater voltages.
  • Sweep Mode (OperatingMode.SWEEP) – High‑speed, high‑resolution sweeping across the calibrated wavelength range.

Warning

Sweep mode (and all sweeping operations) is only available on COMET devices.

Wavelength Control

  • Absolute tuning – Set a specific wavelength in nanometers.
  • Relative tuning – Apply an offset (step) from the current wavelength.

Other Features

  • Trigger pulse generation for synchronization with external equipment.

Installation

Example 
> pip install pychilaslasers
> uv add pychilaslasers

The pychilaslasers library can be installed into the project or computer using your python package manager of choice directly from the Python Package Index Pypi

Initialization

With the library installed, connect the laser to the computer and import the library into the python script to begin using it. The main use of the library is using the Laser class. This class is an abstraction of the laser as a python object and encapsulates all of the required logic for operation.

Info

The laser can also be initialized without a calibration file restricting it's operation to manual mode exclusively. Calibration can be performed later using Laser.calibrate().

How do you know what com ports are available?

The included utils module provides a list_comports() method that can be used to discover available comports.

Example

>>> from pychilaslasers import utils
>>> print(utils.list_comports())

Power the laser on by pressing the side button and turning the key to the right position. The yellow LED on the adapter should turn on! Then create a laser instance by supplying the COM port and calibration file path:

Example 
>>> from pychilaslasers import Laser
>>> laser = Laser(com_port="COM1", calibration_file="Path/to/calibration/file")

Quick Start Using the Demo File

The demo file file demonstrates a typical workflow for laser operation.

graph LR
  A[establish connection] -->  C[activate system];
  C --> D[perform operations];
  D --> E[shutdown safely];
User prompts are included between operations to allow step-by-step observation of the laser's behavior.

1. Initial Setup and Connection

The demo starts by creating an Laser object and configuring it to communicate with the hardware on a an available com port queried from the user. The path to the provided settings file must be provided by the user for the demo to work.

Mode selection flexibility

You can set the operating mode using the enum, a string, or a mode object—whichever is most convenient.

Example

# Instantiate laser
laser = Laser(com_port=address, calibration_file=fp_lut)

# Verify connection / system state
print(f"Connection state: {laser.system_state}")

2. Select Mode & Enable Output

Power the system and select SteadyMode via its LaserMode value. Steady Mode is the primary mode for ATLAS devices.

Example

# Turn system on
laser.system_state = True

# Enter steady mode
laser.mode = mode.LaserMode.STEADY

3. Wavelength Control Examples

Two approaches are demonstrated: setting an absolute wavelength and applying relative (incremental) adjustments.

Example

# Absolute set (example value)
laser.steady.wavelength = 1598.000  # nm

# Relative increase (+0.004 nm)
laser.steady.set_wl_relative(0.004)

# Relative decrease (-1.000 nm)
laser.steady.set_wl_relative(-1.000)

4. Monitor Current Wavelength

Access the current wavelength directly via the steady mode interface:

Example

print(f"Current wavelength: {laser.steady.wavelength} nm")

5. COMET‑Only Features (Sweep Mode)

On COMET devices, the script optionally runs the sweeping demo showcasing Sweep Mode.

Not using a COMET? You can skip this section.

Switch to Sweep Mode (string form shown here):

Example 
laser.mode = "sweeping"

Sweep Mode exposes two categories of wavelength bounds:

  1. Device limits (min_wavelength, max_wavelength)
  2. Active sweep range (start_wavelength, end_wavelength)

Both of these can be accessed as python proprieties

Example

start_wavelength: float = laser.sweep.start_wavelength
end_wavelength: float = laser.sweep.end_wavelength

laser.sweep.start_wavelength = 1508

# Device capability limits
min_wl = laser.sweep.min_wavelength
max_wl = laser.sweep.max_wavelength

You can also configure the sweep interval (time between successive wavelengths) and control execution with start() / stop().

Additional Capabilities

Beyond wavelength tuning and sweeping, PyChilasLasers provides:

  • Manual heater control
  • Trigger pulse generation
  • Anti‑hysteresis algorithms
  • Temperature monitoring

Continue exploring in the Package Reference section for comprehensive API documentation.