This software allows GUI (Graphical User Interface) driven live collection, plotting and analysis of digitized data inside a Jupyter notebook. The package was initially developed to provide an inexpensive laboratory system for teaching based on the Raspberry Pi. However, it now works on other hardware. Presently the working combinations are:
on Raspberry Pis
- Adafruit compliant ADS1115 boards (example, also available from other vendors);
- The π-Plates DAQC2 plate.
on Macs and Windows
- Vernier LabQuest USB A-to-Ds.
demo mode on anything Jupyter runs on
- A demo mode will run on any computer with a Jupyter notebook install and
Python 3.6+. You can try the demo mode without installing on your own
computer by launching an instance on the MyBinder servers:
The goal is for the user interface to be as close to self-explanatory as possible. However, documentation is being developed along with some example experiments.
Like many commercial educational packages the software knows about the properties of some sensors, so can collect data directly in the units appropriate for the sensor, in addition to the raw voltage signal returned by the sensor. Not all sensors are compatible with all boards. The developer(s) attempt to keep this list of known sensors up-to-date, but the code may provide additional sensors not listed here:
-
ADS1115 compatible (board can provide 3.3 V of power/reference to sensors):
- voltage reading (V, mV) from any sensor that puts out a voltage in the range +/-3.3 V.
- built-in thermistor (V, mV, K, C, F).
- Vernier SS temperature probe (V, mV, K, C, F).
-
DAQC2 compatible (board can provide 5.0 V of power/reference to sensors):
- voltage reading (V, mV) from any sensor that puts out a voltage in the range +/- 12 V.
- Vernier SS temperature probe (V, mV, K, C, F).
- Vernier old and new pressure sensors (V, Pa, kPa, Bar, Torr, mmHg, atm)
- Vernier standard pH probe (V, mV, pH).
- Vernier flat (tris compatible) pH probe (V, mV, pH).
- Compatible with standard Vernier analog probes. Default calibrations being added as time and sensors become available.
-
LabQuest compatible (board provides 5.0 V of power/reference to sensors):
- voltage reading (V, mV) from any sensor that puts out a voltage in the range +/- 10 V.
- Vernier SS temperature probe (V, mV, K, C, F).
- Vernier old and new pressure sensors (V, Pa, kPa, Bar, Torr, mmHg, atm)
- Vernier standard pH probe (V, mV, pH).
- Vernier flat (tris compatible) pH probe (V, mV, pH).
- Compatible with standard Vernier analog probes. Default calibrations being added as time and sensors become available.
With any of these interfaces, you can hook up your own sensors and manually convert the raw voltage readings or write and submit a new sensor definition to the project.
This software is distributed under the GNU V3 license. This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
Copyright - Jonathan Gutow, 2021, 2022, 2023.