FTVC Solderless Microlab

An open source jacketed lab reactor made from off-the-shelf components you can buy online.

An introduction to the project is here: docs/index.md

Read the motivation behind the project here: docs/motivation.md

The full replication and assembly instructions here: docs/assembly.md

PLEASE NOTE: These docs are in pre-release for v0.6. They are not considered complete and we are still finalizing some hardware recommendations. That said, if tinkering is your thing, you should be fine.

Production vs Development

The instructions below are for a fresh install of the Microlab software (backend and GUI) on your development machine. If you intend to construct a full Microlab, we recommend using our pre-made disk images. There are two:

• A "production" image that runs all software on startup and includes the drivers for a goodtft-compatible 3.5 inch mini-display.
• A "development" image designed to be used with an external HDMI monitor and a USB mouse and keyboard.

If you wish to develop on a regular computer with emulated hardware, follow the instructions below.

Docker Development

For ease of setup/experimentation we added docker containers for both the GUI and the API. If you don't have docker-compose installed on your system you can install docker desktop following these docs

git clone https://github.com/FourThievesVinegar/solderless-microlab.git
cd solderless-microlab

## To run API & GUI
docker-compose up --build gui

## Alternatively
## To run just the API
docker-compose up --build api

If you're running docker with a hardware setup you'll need to edit docker-compose.yml and uncomment the lines specified in the file.

Setup

Clone the repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/FourThievesVinegar/solderless-microlab.git
$ cd solderless-microlab

API Server

Install dependencies:

Python

(for Debian / Ubuntu)

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install python3 python3-pip python-virtualenv python3-virtualenv

Note: some versions of Linux have dropped support for Python2 and python-virtualenv.

(for macOS)

$ brew update
$ brew install python3
$ pip3 install virtualenv

Set up a Python virtual environment: virtualenv -p python3 --system-site-packages env

$ cd backend
$ virtualenv -p python3 --system-site-packages env
$ source env/bin/activate
(env) $ pip install -r requirements.txt

Install needed packages

(on the Pi)

sudo apt -y install screen git python3-flask python3-pip python3-serial python3-libgpiod

Start the server:

(env) $ python main.py

Web GUI

Install dependencies:

(for Debian / Ubuntu)

Follow a guide to install yarn for Debian:

https://classic.yarnpkg.com/en/docs/install/#debian-stable

In summary:

$ curl -sS https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
$ echo "deb https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install yarn

(for macOS)

$ brew update
$ brew install yarn

Run the GUI:

$ cd gui
$ yarn install
$ yarn start

The GUI will now be listening on port 3000.

Hardware Emulation

To run the software without a functioning hardware environment, go to the settings menu and change the "Microlab Controller" setting to "simulation-pi" and "Lab Hardware Config" to "ftv_simulation_microlabv0.5.0"

Enabling SSH

For ease of remote development, you may want to enable SSH on the Pi. Instructions for doing so can be found here: https://itsfoss.com/ssh-into-raspberry/