Software

This site provides the instructions for setting up and using the software of SOCRAETES. The software is meant for being run on a host system, to which the SOCRAETES hardware is connected. The software, developed in Python, will communicate with the hardware and provide a user interface for functionalities such as data visualization and retention.

The current software provides the user a command line interface to either record or emulate energy harvesting traces of a solar cell. Either functionality can be used as follows.

Requirements

The dependencies of the Python code can be found in requirements.txt. The dependencies can be installed using the following command:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Recording

The following examples demonstrate how to record traces in different modes. To record a trace and visualize it using a 2D plot:

record.py --port <Serial Port>

The only necessary parameter is the serial port, on which the hardware is communicating with the host system. Not providing further parameters will record a trace in the default operation mode, which is 2D plotting of the trace.

The above example could also be run explicitly using the following command:

record.py --port <Serial Port> --mode plot-curve

Alternatively, the trace can be visualized with a 3D surface by using the following command:

record.py --port <Serial Port> --mode plot-surface

Furthermore, a trace can be captured for 30 seconds and saved on the local machine in an HDF5 file using the following command:

record.py --port <Serial Port> --mode commit-to-file --duration 30

The command above will automatically generate a unique file name for the output file. However, the file name can be chosen explicitly by the user using the following command:

record.py --port <Serial Port> --mode commit-to-file --file <File Name> --duration 30

Last but not least, the energy harvesting environment can be described by parameters that will be appended to the output file as metadata. Such data can be used for data analysis in later stages. For example, the following command will capture 30 seconds of data in an outdoor situation on a sunny day, in Berlin, Germany. The ambient light intensity of the environment is estimated to be 150 Lux:

record.py --port <Serial Port> --mode commit-to-file --duration 30 --environment indoor --lux 150 --weather sunny --country Germany --city Berlin

Emulation

The following examples demonstrate how to emulate energy harvesting traces using SOCRAETES. The emulation can be performed either by using a file containing previously-recorded traces or by using a user-defined array with arbitrary data.

The following command will emulate a trace from a file:

emulate.py --port <Serial Port> --source file --file <File Name>

On the other hand, the following command can be used for emulating a user-defined set of operation parameters:

emulate.py --port <Serial Port> --source array --array [[0.5, 0], [1, 1000], [2, 2000]]

The user-defined array has the following format: [[<DELAY BETWEEN CURVES (s)>,0],[OPEN CIRCUIT VOLTAGE (V)>,<SHORT CIRCUIT CURRENT (uA)>],...] In the previous example two curves will the emulated with a delay of 0.5 seconds between each. The first curve will have an open-circuit voltage of 1V and a short-circuit current of 1000uA. The second curve will have an open-circuit voltage of 2V and a short-circuit current of 2000uA.