Abstract
The emergence of fourth-generation synchrotrons is prompting the development of new systems for experimental control and data acquisition. However, asgeneral control systems are designed to cover a wide set of instruments andtechniques, they tend to become large and complicated, at the cost of experimental flexibility. Here we present Contrast, a simple Python framework for interacting with beamline components, orchestrating experiments and managing data acquisition. The system is presented and demonstrated via its application at the NanoMAX beamline of the MAX IV Laboratory.
Highlights
As next-generation light sources are being built around the world, the software systems that serve such machines are developing
We have presented the basic design of the Contrast acquisition system, as well as its implementation at the NanoMAX beamline with two examples of real-time analysis pipelines
Contrast could be installed and used at other instruments with relative ease, it serves as an example of how simple beamline-driven acquisition systems can improve the performance of an instrument
Summary
As next-generation light sources are being built around the world, the software systems that serve such machines are developing. Sardana allows building customized graphical interfaces using the Taurus and Qt toolkits, and provides generalized support for continuous scanning While compelling, these high ambitions necessarily mean that code bases grow as wide ranges of functionality are added. We present a new and lightweight orchestration and acquisition framework, named Contrast, which provides the experimentalist with an interface for interacting with the underlying control system, as well as with a simple way to define experimental procedures (Bjorling, 2020a). We suggest that Contrast could be used as-is at other instruments, and that its simplicity would be an asset compared with the alternatives It can well serve as inspiration for how similar tailored systems can be built, showing by example that simple and transparent systems can substantially improve data acquisition. Parallelization is avoided in the interest of simplicity, with the exception of data handling, which would otherwise slow down the light-weight acquisition loop
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