Configuration

Essential settings are explained in the Quick Start Section. More advanced settings are detailed below. All parameters editable through Inlinino’s user interface are saved in the inlinino_cfg.json file. This file is located in Inlinino’s root directory on Windows and under Inlinino-v2.8.6.app/Contents/Resources/inlinino_cfg.json on macOS. The configuration file follows json syntax. The section instruments contains an array with the settings of each instruments configured to date. Some parameters are common to every instrument type while others are specific to each instrument. Example of configuration for each instrument type are listed at the end of the chapter.

Warning

Be careful when manually editing the configuration file. Breaking the json syntax might prevent Inlinino from starting. It’s recommended to backup the configuration file before making any modifications.

Table of Contents

• Configuration
  • Common parameters
  • Specific Parameters
    • Generic Instruments
    • Analog Instruments
    • Sequoia LISST
    • WET Labs ACS
  • Example of configurations
    • Generic Instruments
    • Analog Instruments
    • Sequoia LISST
    • WET Labs ACS

Common parameters

List of parameters common and required by every instrument type.

module: <string>

The module parameter refers to which parent-class needs to be loaded to communicate with an instrument. The modules/types of instrument implemented are:

• generic: Class used for most instruments outputting simple ascii frames.
• dataq: Specific to the DataQ DI-1100 data acquisition module to log analog instruments
• lisst: Specific to Sequoia LISST instrument
• acs: Specific to WET Labs AC-S and AC-9 instruments

manufacturer: <string>

Instrument manufacturer. This field can only contain the following characters: A-Z, a-z, 0-9.

model: <string>

Instrument model. This field can only contain the following characters: A-Z, a-z, 0-9.

serial_number: <string>

Instrument serial number. This field can only contain the following characters: A-Z, a-z, 0-9.

log_path: <string>

Path to the directory in which the data from the instruments is logged.

Note

On Windows, the path need to include two backslashes as they are special characters in JSON. For example: C:\\Data\\Inlinino.

log_raw: <boolean>

Indicate if log the raw data coming from an instrument.

Note

For the ACS this option logs the binary data received from the instrument. It is highly recommended to set it to True, as it allows to reprocess the raw data in case of parsing issues with Inlinino. By defaults it is enabled when using the user interface.

log_products: <boolean>

Indicate to log data received in a comma separated value file, easily read by data analysis software.

Note

For the ACS on long cruises (e.g. month, year), one might want to desable this parameter as the volume of data collected is significantly higher when enabled

Specific Parameters

List of parameters specific to an instrument type/module.

Generic Instruments

terminator: <dict>

Indicate the end of the frame, hence the beginning of the next frame. For example:

{"terminator": {
  "__bytes__": "ascii",
  "content": "\r\n"
}}

separator: <dict>

Element separating values in frame. For example:

{"separator": {
  "__bytes__": "ascii",
  "content": "\t"
}}

variable_names: <list>

List of variable names separated by commas.

variable_units: <list>

List of variable units separated by commas.

variable_columns: <list>

List of position of each variable in the frame.

variable_types: <list>

List of type of each variable. Can either be a floating number (float) or an integer (int).

variable_precision: <list>

List of string format used for each variables to write product log file. Typically %d for integers and %.3f for floating number with a precision of 3 decimal places.

Note

All list must have the same number of elements.

Analog Instruments

channels_enabled: < list >

List of analog channels to log data from.

{"channels_enabled": [1,2]}

Sequoia LISST

device_file: < string >

Path to device file, also referred as instrument file, from the manufacturer.

{"device_file": "cfg/LISST1183_20180119_InstrumentData.txt"}

ini_file: < string >

Path to initialization file (.ini) from the manufacturer.

{"ini_file": "cfg/LISST1183_20180119_Lisst.ini"}

WET Labs ACS

device_file: < string >

Path to device file from the manufacturer.

{"device_file": "cfg/acs301_20180129.dev"}

Example of configurations

Generic Instruments

Example of configuration for a WET Labs ECO-BB3.

{
  "manufacturer": "WetLabs",
  "model": "BB3",
  "serial_number": "349",
  "module": "generic",
  "terminator": {
    "__bytes__": "ascii",
    "content": "\r\n"
  },
  "separator": {
    "__bytes__": "ascii",
    "content": "\t"
  },
  "variable_names": ["beta470", "beta532", "beta660"],
  "variable_units": ["counts", "counts", "counts"],
  "variable_columns": [3, 5, 7],
  "variable_types": ["int", "int", "int"],
  "variable_precision": ["%d", "%d", "%d"],
  "variable_displayed": ["beta470", "beta532", "beta660"],
  "log_raw": false,
  "log_products": true,
  "log_path": "data"
}

Analog Instruments

Example of configuration for a DataQ DI-1100.

{
  "module": "dataq",
  "manufacturer": "WetLabs",
  "model": "WSCD",
  "serial_number": "859",
  "log_path": "data",
  "log_raw": false,
  "log_products": true,
  "channels_enabled": [2]
}

Sequoia LISST

Example of configuration for a Sequoia LISST.

{
  "manufacturer": "Sequoia",
  "model": "LISST",
  "serial_number": "1183",
  "module": "lisst",
  "ini_file": "cfg/LISST1183_20180119_Lisst.ini",
  "device_file": "cfg/LISST1183_20180119_InstrumentData.txt",
  "log_raw": true,
  "log_products": true,
  "log_path": "data"
}

WET Labs ACS

Example of configuration for a WET Labs ACS.

{
  "manufacturer": "WetLabs",
  "model": "ACS",
  "serial_number": "301",
  "module": "acs",
  "device_file": "cfg/acs301_20180129.dev",
  "log_raw": true,
  "log_products": true,
  "log_path": "data"
}