Introduction - ad3ller/oskar GitHub Wiki

Introduction, acknowledgements, and excuses.

oskar [1] is a collection of tools written using LabVIEW 2013 [2]. The project is designed to assist in coordinating hardware and to provide a framework for acquired data using HDF5 [3].

Essentially, oskar is a tool for running experiments, with a focus on:

  • extensibility (it should be reasonably easy to add new control/ DAQ hardware)
  • structuring data
  • pairing data with metadata (attributes)

The code was written by Adam Deller at University College London for experiments in laser spectroscopy of positronium. Some features are conceptually based on a program he developed at Swansea University (openseq), which was inspired by a similar system invented by Aled Isaac. Many of the features were developed with feedback and help from Tim Mortensen. Much of the testing of oskar was done by Ben Cooper and Alberto Munoz Alonso.

oskar_15 is a fork of oskar. HDF5 support is provided by LIVE HDF5.

To make use of oskar some experience writing in G (LabVIEW code) is essential. The project is useless without control hardware and data acquisition devices, but no drivers have been included. Hardware drivers will need to be built into VAR controls that can accessed by oskar, however, this is fairly simple and examples are included.

Modder.vi is used to write sequence files that can be read by Sequencer.vi. Together these programs make it trivial to run experiments that cover large parameter spaces systematically and flexibly. What's happening behind the scenes (i.e., on the block diagrams) is not particularly sophisticated, nonetheless, you will need a decent grasp of LabVIEW to be able to inspect the code and to modify it to suit your needs.

Though I've found oskar is very reliable and easy to use (once you know the basics), be sure to test everything thoroughly for yourself and be vigilant for unexpected behavior!

  1. Tenuous acronym: Orchestrate Sequences. Keep Attribute Record.
  2. LabVIEW is a registered trademark of National Instruments.
  3. HDF (Hierarchical Data Format) is a trademark of the HDF group.