apthorpe/alicat

Python driver and command line tool for Alicat mass flow controllers.

alicat

Serial driver and command line tool for Alicat mass flow controllers.

If you are using Analyt-MTC flow controllers, go to this repository for more info.

Installation

pip install alicat

If you don't like pip, you can also install from source:

git clone https://github.com/numat/alicat.git
cd alicat
python setup.py install

Usage

Command Line

For basic tasks, this driver includes a command-line interface. Read the help for more.

alicat --help

Python

For more complex projects, use python to automate your workflow.

from alicat import FlowController
flow_controller = FlowController(port='/dev/ttyUSB0')
print(flow_controller.get())

If the flow controller is communicating on the specified port, this should return a dictionary of the form:

{
  'flow_setpoint': 0.0,  # Mass flow setpoint
  'gas': 'Air',          # Can be any option in `flow_controller.gases`
  'mass_flow': 0.0,      # Mass flow (in units specified at time of purchase)
  'pressure': 25.46,     # Pressure (normally in psia)
  'temperature': 23.62,  # Temperature (normally in C)
  'total_flow': 0.0,     # Optional. If totalizer function purchased, will be included
  'volumetric_flow': 0.0 # Volumetric flow (in units specified at time of purchase)
}

You can also set the gas type and flow rate.

flow_controller.set_gas('N2')
flow_controller.set_flow_rate(1.0)