LaBunaPera is a program designed to drive a variety of laboratory instruments and perform complex measurement sequences, relying on an existing library of instrument drivers.
Its typical usage scenario is that of an experiment in which an arbitrarily complicated measurement protocol has to be carried on, by means of several instruments which can be, individually, controlled by computer. The experimental procedure may consist of preliminary steps, of parametric sweeps over any controllable physical quantity, of conditional actions depending on the result of the measurement. The procedure may be as simple as a scan over a control parameter, followed by the instrumental reading of a physical quantity, like e.g. when measuring I-V characteristics of electronic components, or arbitrarily more complex; it may involve mechanical movements by means of motor controllers, waiting times, repetitions, conditional decisions, and so on.
In its simplest operating mode, LaBunaPera allows the definition of the set of instruments to be used, of variables corresponding to each physical quantity to be measured or controlled, and the execution of multi-level loop cycles of measurement. Loop ranges can be fixed, or depending on other set or measured variables.
In the advanced mode, the operation of LaBunaPera is fully scriptable with the aid of programs written in the scripting language lua. Sequences of arbitrary complexity and structure can then be executed.
In both cases, the result of the measurements and their timing is displayed during the execution, and naturally stored on file for further analysis and postprocessing.
LaBunaPera is in use since 2004 in Israel Bar Joseph's labs, and has been continuously upgraded and expanded. It is transferable to other groups of the Faculty of Physics at no cost. New instrument drivers can be created as the need arises, and shared among users.
LaBunaPera is implemented in LabView, and has been tested and used under all versions of the package from 7.1 to 2015, on linux and window$ platforms.
The list of currently available instrument drivers includes:
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To these are added a few dummy drivers, used for simulation and testing. Further drivers can be created on request or by modification of existing ones. Some sketchy instructions are found in the file OhPeraDrivers/README.txt, within the installation directory, once the program has been installed.
User-contributed drivers are welcome, provided they comply with a minimal quality standard. In case you have something you'd like to share with the community of LaBunaPera users, please contact Enrico Segre.
Download and Installation instructions for LaBunaPera
About La bûna pera. Selected excerpts are available on youtube