more complete docu

README.md

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ for physics laboratory courses
 
 The RedPitaya is a small, credit-card sized single board computer with a dual-core ARM Cortex-A processor 
 and a XILINX Zynq 7010 FPGA. The board contains two fast ADCs and two DACs with 14 bit resolution running
-at a sampling frequency of 125 MHz. Extension connector provide general purpose IO pins with
+at a sampling frequency of 125 MHz. Extension connectors provide general purpose IO pins with
 slow analog inputs and outputs and support for serial bus interfaces like I²C, SPI and UART. 
 The system runs under Ubuntu Linux, which provides network access and supports a wide range of
 applications running on the board. 
@@ -22,13 +22,14 @@ well as an oscilloscope application capable of transferring large data reates re
 limit of the 1Gb port. The package consists of an FPGA image and a server process running on the
 RedPitaya board. A client script controls the server and pulls the data to the client computer.
 
-This package extends the original one by a possibity to record or export waveform data and
-provides helper scripts to analyze recordes spectra or to read exported waveform data. An
+This package extends the original one by a possibility to record or export waveform data and
+provides helper scripts to analyze recorded spectra or to read exported waveform data. An
 interface to the buffer manager *mimoCoRB* for buffering and parallel processing of large
 date volumes is also provided.
 
-This package is in use for spectrography experiments in physics laboratory courses at the
-faculty of physics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
+This package is in use for gamma-ray spectrography experiments in physics laboratory courses at
+the faculty of physics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
+
 
 ### Files:
 
@@ -59,7 +60,8 @@ faculty of physics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
 
 *mcpha.py* is a fork of the sub-directory *projects/mcpha* in a project by
 Pavel Demin, [red-pitaya-notes](https://pavel-demin.github.io/red-pitaya-notes),
-*redPaq.py* represents an extension of the oscilloscope class enabling fast restart and data export.  
+*redPaq.py* represents an extension of the oscilloscope class enabling fast restart
+and data export.  
 
 
 ## Multi-Channel Pulse-Height Analyzer for the RedPitaya FPGA board
@@ -108,7 +110,7 @@ of the *matplotlib*window to mark regions to zoom in for a detailed inspection o
 
 ## Oscilloscope and data recorder
 
-The script *redPdaaq.py* relies on the same server and FPGA image as the pulse-height analyzer,
+The script *redPdaq.py* relies on the same server and FPGA image as the pulse-height analyzer,
 providing the same functionality as *mcpha.py*. In addition, however, there is a button
 "*Start DAQ*" in the oscilloscope tab to run the oscilloscope in data acquisition mode,
 i.e. continuously. A subset of the data is shown in the oscilloscope display, together with
@@ -126,7 +128,7 @@ An examples of call-back functions callable from within redPdaq is provided with
 *redP_mimocorb.py* is script called  as sub-process within the *mimiCoRB* frame-work
 for more advanced data analysis tasks requiring multiple processes running in parallel.
 A *mimoCoRB* setup-file is also provided and can be started by *./run_daq setup.yaml*;
-modules and configuration files for a pulse-height analysis of tecorded signals are
+modules and configuration files for a pulse-height analysis of recorded signals are
 contained in the subdirectories *modules/* and *config/*, respectively. 
 
 
@@ -135,8 +137,8 @@ contained in the subdirectories *modules/* and *config/*, respectively.
 The sub-directory *RP-image* contains files to be transferred to a SD card for the RedPitaya board.
 Proceed as follows:
 
-  - copy the contents of the directory *RP-image* to an empty SD card formatted as VFAT32.
-  - connect the RedPitaya to the network via the LAN port 
+  - copy the contents of the directory *RP-image* to an empty SD card formatted as VFAT32;
+  - connect the RedPitaya to the network via the LAN port; 
   - insert the SD card in the RedPitaya and connect the power. 
 
 The RepPitaya directly starts the *mcpha* server application, requests an IP address via DHCP
@@ -144,9 +146,9 @@ and waits for the client program to connect via network.
 
 On the client computer, download the client software:  
 
-  - clone the *mcpha* repository via `git clone https://gitlab.kit.edu/guenter.quast/redpitaya-mcpha`
-  - change directory to the installation directory and start the graphical interface of the client
-    software via `python3 mcpha.py` on the command line. 
+  - clone the *redpitaya-mcpha* repository via `git clone https://gitlab.kit.edu/guenter.quast/redpitaya-mcpha`;
+  - change directory to the installation directory and start the graphical interface of the desired Python
+    client script on the command line. 
  
 The application programs *mcpha.py* or *redPdaq.py* take care of initializing the processes on the
 RedPitaya board through the server process, initiate data transfers from the RedPitaya board to 
@@ -174,21 +176,24 @@ and the server process on the RedPitaya board.
 
 Then, on the client side:
 
-  - start the client program via `python3 mcpha.py`
+  - start the client program from within a terminal via `python3 mcpha.py` or `python3 redPdaq.py`; 
   - in the graphical interface, enter the network address of the RedPitaya in the 
     field next to the orange button and click *connect*; 
     watch out for connection errors in the *Messages* tab!
-     The message "*IO started*" is displayed if everything is ok, and the address turns green. 
+    The message "*IO started*" is displayed if everything is ok, and the address turns green; 
   - click the *oscilloscope* tab, check the trigger level and then start the oscilloscope
-    to see whether signals are arriving at one or both of the RedPitaya inputs. 
-    Adjust the *decimation factor* in the top-right corner of the main display to ensure
+    to see whether signals are arriving at one or both of the RedPitaya inputs;
+    adjust the *decimation factor* in the top-right corner of the main display to ensure
     that the sampling rate is high enough for about 50 samples over the pulse duration. 
   - if no signal source is available, you may click the *generator* tab, set the desired
-    signal parameters and start the generator; connect *out1* of the RedPitaya to the  
-    input *in1* with a (short) cable and then check for the presence of signals in
-    the *oscilloscpe* tab. 
+    signal parameters and start the generator; connect *out1* of the RedPitaya to one of  
+    rhe inputs with a (short) cable and then check for the presence of signals in
+    the *oscilloscpe* tab;
   - now click the tab *spectrum histogram 1*; adjust the amplitude threshold and time
-    of exposure, then click the *Start* button and watch the spectrum building up.
+    of exposure, then click the *Start* button and watch the spectrum building up;
+  - if running `redPdaq.py`, threre is a buttton "StartDQQ"; click it to cintinuously transfer
+    waveform data to the client computer. If a filename was specified, data is recorded to disk
+    in *.npy* format; note that any active spectrum rab is put in paused mode if DAQ is active.
   - when finished, use the *Save* button to save the spectrum to a file with a 
     meaningful name.
 
@@ -215,6 +220,8 @@ Note that presently mcpha.py exports data in human-readable format using
  >  *read_osc.py* demonstrates how to read and plot waveform data exported from the 
     oscilloscope tab of mcpha.py.
 
+>  *read_npy.py*  illustrates how to read waveform recorded by `redPdaq.py`.
+
 ## Examples
 
 The directory *examples/* contains some spectra recorded with *mchph.py* and the Python