HVL Common Code Base

A unified Python framework, High Voltage Laboratory common code base (HVL CCB), for controlling devices used in high-voltage research. All implemented devices are used and tested in the High Voltage Laboratory HVL of the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich).

• Free software: GNU General Public License v3

• Copyright (c) 2019-2025 ETH Zurich, SIS ID and HVL D-ITET

Getting Started

Install hvl_ccb with uv:

  uv pip install hvl_ccb

More details about how to install, please refer to Installation.

Example code for each supported device can be found in examples.

Features

For managing multi-device experiments instantiate the ExperimentManager utility class.

Supported Devices

The device wrappers in hvl_ccb provide a standardised API with configuration dataclasses, various settings and options, as well as start/stop methods. Currently wrappers are available to control the following devices:

Function/Type	Devices
Bench Multimeter	Fluke 8845A and 8846A
	6.5 Digit Precision Multimeter
Data acquisition	LabJack (T4, T7, T7-PRO; requires LJM Library)
	Pico Technology PT-104 Platinum Resistance Data Logger (requires PicoSDK/libusbpt104)
Digital Delay Generator	Highland T560
Digital IO	LabJack (T4, T7, T7-PRO; requires LJM Library)
Electrometer	Keysight-B2985A
Experiment control	HVL Cube with and without Power Inverter
Filter	Precision Filters Inc. PFA-2
Gas Analyser	MBW 973-SF6 gas dew point mirror analyzer
	Pfeiffer Vacuum TPG (25x, 26x and 36x) controller for compact pressure gauges
	SST Luminox oxygen sensor
Laser	CryLaS pulsed laser
	CryLaS laser attenuator
Oscilloscope	Rhode & Schwarz RTO 1024
	TiePie (HS5, HS6, WS5)
Power supply	Elektro-Automatik PSI9000
	FuG Elektronik
	Heinzinger PNC
	Technix capacitor charger
	Korad Lab Bench DC Power Supply KA3000
Stepper motor drive	Newport SMC100PP
	Schneider Electric ILS2T
Temperature control	Lauda PRO RP 245 E circulation thermostat
Waveform generator	TiePie (HS5, WS5)

Each device uses at least one standardised communication protocol wrapper.

Communication protocols

In hvl_ccb by “communication protocol” we mean different levels of communication standards, from the low level actual communication protocols like serial communication to application level interfaces like VISA TCP standard. There are also devices in hvl_ccb that use a dummy communication protocol; this is because these devices are build on proprietary manufacturer libraries that communicate with the corresponding devices, as in the case of TiePie or LabJack devices.

The communication protocol wrappers in hvl_ccb provide a standardised API with configuration dataclasses, as well as open/close and read/write/query methods. Currently, wrappers for the following communication protocols are available:

Communication Protocol	Devices Using
Modbus TCP	Schneider Electric ILS2T stepper motor drive
OPC UA	HVL Cube with and without Power Inverter
Serial	CryLaS pulsed laser and laser attenuator
	FuG Elektronik power supply (e.g. capacitor charger HCK) using the Probus V protocol
	Heinzinger PNC power supply using Heinzinger Digital Interface I/II
	SST Luminox oxygen sensor
	MBW 973-SF6 gas dew point mirror analyzer
	Newport SMC100PP single axis driver for 2-phase stepper motors
	Pfeiffer Vacuum TPG (25x, 26x and 36x) controller for compact pressure gauges
	Technix capacitor charger
	Korad Lab Bench DC Power Supply KA3000
TCP	Digital Delay Generator Highland T560
	Fluke 8845A and 8846
	Lauda PRO RP 245 E circulation thermostat
	Technix capacitor charger
VISA TCP	Elektro-Automatik PSI9000 DC power supply
	Keysight-B2985A electrometer
	Rhode & Schwarz RTO 1024 oscilloscope
Proprietary	LabJack (T4, T7, T7-PRO) devices, which communicate via LJM Library
	Pico Technology PT-104 Platinum Resistance Data Logger, which communicates via PicoSDK/libusbpt104
	TiePie (HS5, HS6, WS5) oscilloscopes and generators, which communicate via LibTiePie SDK

Sensor and Unit Conversion Utility

The Conversion Utility is a submodule that allows on the one hand a unified implementation of hardware-sensors and on the other hand provides a unified way to convert units. Furthermore it is possible to map two ranges on to each other. This can be useful to convert between for example and 4 - 20 mA and 0 - 10 V, both of them are common as sensor out- or input. Moreover, a subclass allows the mapping of a bit-range to any other range. For example a 12 bit number (0-4095) to 0 - 10. All utilities can be used with single numbers (int, float) as well as array-like structures containing single numbers (np.array(), list, dict, tuple).

Currently the following sensors are implemented:

• LEM LT 4000S

• LMT 70A

The following unit conversion classes are implemented:

• Temperature (Kelvin, Celsius, Fahrenheit)

• Pressure (Pascal, Bar, Atmosphere, Psi, Torr, Millimeter Mercury)

Documentation

Note: if you’re planning to contribute to the hvl_ccb project read the contributing section in the HVL CCB documentation.

Do either:

• read HVL CCB documentation at RTD

or

• build and read HVL CCB documentation locally; install first Graphviz (make sure to have the dot command in the executable search path) and the Python build requirements for documentation::

  pip install docs/requirements.txt
  

  and then either on Windows in Git BASH run::

  ./make.sh docs
  

  or from any other shell with GNU Make installed run::

  make docs
  

  The target index HTML ("docs/_build/html/index.html") should open automatically in your Web browser.

Credits

This package was created with Cookiecutter and the audreyr/cookiecutter-pypackage project template.