Warning
This repository is in an early release state and is subject to breaking changes, faulty behavior, and/or incomplete functionality. Please use extra caution while in this state. There is no guarantee that the functionality currently provided will remain compatible/available in future revisions. With that said, feedback/suggestions/bug reports are very much welcome and should be issued via a GitHub issue. It is highly recommended to review the issues page prior to use to understand any known issues with the tool so you may assess the risk of using this while in this early release state.
vicon : (vī'con) Short for V-I-Console and a play on the pronunciation of viking.
A cross-platform CLI/TUI for controlling the AlienTek DP100 (ATK-DP100) over USB.
Below is a basic overview of vicon functionality:
- Built on .NET 9 for cross-platform support.
- CLI supported
- Serial processing of commands, allowing for complex control sequences.
- Normal-style and JSON-style output to provide option for human readability and tool integration.
- Text-UI (TUI) supported
- A streamlined text-based user interface providing control with minimal and intuitive keystrokes.
- Waveform Generator (AWG)
- A basic JSON file format is used to describe setpoint sequences for generating arbitrary waveforms (low speed).
- Wireshark USB dissector
- PowerShell tab-completions
- JSON output
- Providing a convenient way to integrate with other tooling.
- Serial command line processing
- For most options/commands, the order in which they are specified in the command argument list determine the execution order. This aids in simple scripting for automated workloads.
- Multi-device supported
- Mechanisms such as
--enumerateand--serialimprove user experience when working with multiple DP100s.
- Mechanisms such as
- Supports a TUI lock function to prevent accidental button presses
- Supports basic TUI theme option for user to select from one of the pre-defined color themes.
- .NET 9 SDK
winget install Microsoft.DotNet.SDK.9- NOTE: A system reboot is recommended after install.
- (Optional) Visual Studio 2022 / MSBuild / NuGet
- Visual Studio
.NET desktop environmentworkload. - Dedicated nuget install:
winget install Microsoft.NuGet.
- Visual Studio
- .NET 9 SDK
sudo apt install dotnet-sdk-9.0
- For user-level access install the provided udev-rule.
sudo cp ./udev/99-atk-dp100.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/99-atk-dp100.rulesThen either reboot the device or reload the rules rules (the device may need to be reconnected):
sudo udevadm control --reload
sudo systemctl daemon-reloadNote
This should work both for a Linux PC and Raspberry Pi (running bookworm).
If the application is consuming too many resources, consider setting the
polling interval in --interactive to a higher setting. This should
reduce the burden on the CPU but at the cost of responsiveness.
Checkout and configure the repository via:
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/jjcarrier/vicon.git
cd viconNote
If the --recurse-submodules option was skipped in the clone step, please run
the following prior to continuing:
git submodule update --init --recursive
Build the project via:
dotnet buildAdd the build directory to your PowerShell $PROFILE to make the command
available from any directory.
Run the follow command for help documentation:
vicon --helpRead Output Configs
This example shows how to read out the various configurable parameters of the device.
vicon --read-sys --read-out --read-pre 0 10 --json{"Command":"ReadSystem","Response":{"SystemParams":{"OPP":30,"OTP":60,"RPP":true,"AutoOn":false,"Backlight":1,"Volume":2}}}
{"Command":"ReadOutput","Response":{"Output":{"On":false,"Preset":0,"Setpoint":{"Voltage":3300,"Current":300,"OVP":8125,"OCP":250}}}}
{"Command":"ReadPreset","Response":{"Index":0,"Preset":{"Voltage":3300,"Current":300,"OVP":8125,"OCP":250}}}
{"Command":"ReadPreset","Response":{"Index":1,"Preset":{"Voltage":3300,"Current":200,"OVP":3500,"OCP":500}}}
...
{"Command":"ReadPreset","Response":{"Index":9,"Preset":{"Voltage":10000,"Current":5000,"OVP":30500,"OCP":5050}}}
Basic Control
This example sets the output to 3.3V and a max current of 500mA. Afterwards, delay for 500ms and then turn the output on, delay for 5 seconds and finally turn the output off. All commands and responses are output in JSON format.
vicon --mv 3300 --ma 500 --delay 500 --on --delay 5000 --off --json{"Command":"WriteVoltage","Response":{"Voltage":3300,"Current":500,"OVP":8125,"OCP":250}}
{"Command":"WriteCurrent","Response":{"Voltage":3300,"Current":500,"OVP":8125,"OCP":250}}
{"Command":"WriteOutputOn","Response":{"On":true}}
{"Command":"WriteOutputOff","Response":{"On":false}}
Monitoring Output
This example is a more involved example showing how one may read data from the JSON output and convert it into a tabular form using PowerShell cmdlets. This primarily serves to illustrate how PowerShell may be used as glue logic between two CLI utilities to perform a more complicated task.
vicon --off --delay 1000 --mv 7500 --ma 400 --on --ra 50 1 --json | `
ForEach-Object { $_ | ConvertFrom-Json } | `
Where-Object { $_.Command -eq 'ReadActState' } | `
Select-Object -ExpandProperty Response | `
Select-Object -ExpandProperty ActiveState | `
Select-Object -Property Timestamp,FaultStatus,OutputMode,Voltage,Current | `
Format-TableTimestamp FaultStatus OutputMode Voltage Current
--------- ----------- ---------- ------- -------
11:50:50.6286131 0 0 285 61
11:50:50.6421596 0 1 6432 188
11:50:50.6574657 0 1 7087 148
11:50:50.6719755 0 1 7296 108
11:50:50.6871800 0 1 7399 79
11:50:50.7029259 0 1 7450 56
11:50:50.7182109 0 1 7472 41
11:50:50.7325633 0 1 7482 30
11:50:50.7484842 0 1 7486 23
11:50:50.7635261 0 1 7488 18
11:50:50.7795500 0 1 7490 14
11:50:50.7959834 0 1 7491 17
11:50:50.8123372 0 1 7492 19
...
A fully featured text user interface (TUI) is available via the --interactive
option.
vicon --interactive
Important
The Ctrl + C keystroke will immediately exit interactive-mode but will allow
for post-interactive commands to execute. This way, a safe series of operations
may be performed at conclusion of this mode regardless of whether the user
exits with q keystroke or Ctrl + C.
The Text-Based User Interface (TUI) consists of three primary columns of information.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Setpoint | Responsible for setting the desired voltage and current levels on the output. |
| Limit | Responsible for setting the desired limits for voltage (OVP), current (OCP), power (OPP), and temperature (OTP). OVP and OCP are applied at a per-preset level and are not automatically applied (i.e. the user must issue Alt + 0-9 to store/apply the value). When these values are modified, the data entry will blink to indicate that the modified value has not been applied to the device. For OPP and OTP, these are applied at the system-level and are applied immediately. If for whatever reason these are not applied, the value will also blink. |
| Actual | Reports the actual values sensed/reported by the device. |
Below the tabular data of the TUI is a row of numbers from 0-9. These
represent the presets. The one that is highlighted represents the currently
loaded preset, though the voltage and current values stored in this preset
may differ from the values currently set on the output. To load/recall a preset
simply involves pressing the corresponding number. If the output is currently ON
the output will switch to OFF.
Note
It is possible during transition from one preset to another that OVP/OCP
faults trigger. In favor of keeping the UI responsive only moderate delay
logic has been applied to mitigate the majority of these events, but the
time required for completely mitigating the issue is in the realm of seconds.
At the bottom of the interface are two bar graphs that represent the voltage
and current output levels in respect to their corresponding limits (OVP/OCP).
If V[max] is below OVP then this is considered the referenced voltage
limit.
This graph uses special characters to provide high-resolution display allowing the user to visually detect fluctuations in the outputs and how much margin there is between the corresponding limits.
When a fault occurs the corresponding fault status will be prominently displayed in the top left of the interface. Depending on the applied-theme, the UI color scheme may switch to further differentiate this state from the normal state.
The TUI supports a locked state enabled via Ctrl + Shift + L. This prevents
accidental modification of the output while LOCKED is displayed in the top right
of the interface. Depending on the applied-theme, the UI color scheme may switch
to further differentiate this state from the normal state.
Similar to the LOCKED state, the AWG will be presented in the top right of
the interface. While in the mode most interactive functionality is disabled.
The arbitrary waveform generation logic is solely driven by the loaded json
configuration.
When non-volatile parameters are modified, the corresponding elements in the TUI
will start to blink and remain in this state until the values have actually been
written to non-volatile memory. This is done automatically with system
parameters, but for presets the user must manually save the presets via the
corresponding Alt + 0-9 key stroke.
Currently themes are provided via predefined configurations. A future update may introduce customizable themes.
The below are the basic themes available. More may be defined in future updates,
see --help for more details on the --theme option.
classicThe (mostly) original theme used in this application. Offers mixed coloring to help convey operating status.black-and-whiteA (mostly) black-and-white option that is perhaps the best option for terminal compatibility.greyA monotone color palette, for those that like to keep things simple.- Various color-accented themes:
dark-red,dark-green,blue,blue-violet,dark-magenta,cyan,gold
A tab-completer is available in the completion folder, offering an improved
user-experience. This module leverages PS-HelpParser
to automatically parse the help documentation and provide tab-completion results
to the user.
The completion file is provided in:
./completion/VIConCompletion.psm1With the HelpParser module installed via
PSGallery import both
the parser and the completion module via:
Import-Module HelpParser
Import-Module <full_path_to_file>/VIConCompletion.psm1Add the above to your $PROFILE to make the changes persist between sessions.
A Lua dissector is provided in the ./wireshark/ directory.
This dissector offers a way to debug and investigate behavior of the ATK-DP100's
HID interface.
Copyright © Jon Carrier
This project is licensed under the MIT license. For more details please refer to LICENSE. This software depends on the following third party components: