Widget Utility Functions

hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets module

Qt widgets that are well integrate with Hardware Control.

Here you will find versions of Qt widgets, such as QLabel, QPushButton, etc. that can be connected to a certain instrument parameter and automatically be updated.

This module also provides some more additional widgets that do not have equivalent ones in Qt directly.

class hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.HCComboBox(app, instrument: str, parameter: str, label: str, items: list, label_align: str = 'left', lookuptable: dict | None = None, upper: bool = False, auto_update=True)

Bases: HCMixin, QComboBox

A simple control widget with a label (QLabel) and an input box (QComboBox).

Parameters:

  • items (list) – List of options to be place in the HCComboBox

  • lookuptable (dict) – An optional table that can be used to convert the items in the HCComboBox into values to be sent to the instrument

value_change() → None
widget_update(value) → None
class hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.HCDoubleSpinBox(app, instrument: str, parameter: str, label: str, label_align='left', auto_update=True)

Bases: HCMixin, QDoubleSpinBox

A simple control widget with a label (QLabel) and an input box (QDoubleSpinBox).

value_change() → None
widget_update(value) → None
class hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.HCDoubleSpinComboBox(app, instrument: str, parameter: str, label: str, units: dict[str, float], label_align: str = 'left', auto_update=True)

Bases: HCMixin

A simple control widget with a label (QLabel) and two input boxes (QSpinBox, QComboBox).

Parameters:

units (dict) – A dictionary with keys that are units (str) and values that are the corresponding scale factors (float) to convert to the fundamental unit

value_change() → None
widget_update(value) → None
class hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.HCFixedLabel(app, instrument: str, parameter: str, init_label: str = '', unit: str = '', use_prefix: bool = True, color: str = None, fontsize: int = 18, bold: bool = False, label_align: str = 'center', auto_update=True)

Bases: HCMixin, QLabel

A simple control widget with a label (QLabel)that fixes its width to the given initial string.

setText(self, a0: str | None)
widget_update(value) → None
class hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.HCGridLayout(HCwidgets: list, offset: int = 0, columns: int = 1)

Bases: QGridLayout

Places HCwidgets into a Gridlayout.

This is a 2*columns (columns=1 by default) column grid with the label of the HCWidget in the left column and the widget itself in the right column.

A special case is a HCDoubleSpinComboBox where an additional 3rd column is created.

class hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.HCHeader(icon_name)

Bases: QLabel

Display an image as a header.

class hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.HCLabel(app, instrument: str, parameter: str, label: str, unit: str = '', use_prefix: bool = True, label_align: str = 'left', min_width: int = 10, auto_update=True)

Bases: HCMixin, QLabel

A simple indicator widget for a label (QLabel) and a value (QLabel).

setText(self, a0: str | None)
widget_update(value) → None
class hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.HCLineEdit(app, instrument: str, parameter: str, label: str, label_align: str = 'left', return_set_value: bool = False, default_txt: str = '----', validator=<class 'PyQt6.QtGui.QDoubleValidator'>, auto_update=True)

Bases: HCMixin, QLineEdit

A simple control widget with a label (QLabel) and an input box (QLineEdit).

Parameters:

  • return_set_value – If True, retain the input in the HCLinEdit; if False, periodiccaly update the input with the parameter readout

  • validator – A QValidator object to be used to validate the lineedit input

value_change() → None
widget_update(value) → None
class hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.HCMixin(**kwargs)

Bases: object

Connect a Qt element to a setting or command in the app.

This mixin sets the app, instrument, and parameter values; connects to the app; and defines an hc_update function. The hc_update function still needs to be overwritten to connect to the actual widget since there might be custom code needed to do this.

HCwidgets generally inherit from this class.

Any parameter listed here will be automatically added to the app’s auto_update list

Parameters:

  • app – The main app

  • instrument – The name of the instrument

  • parameter – The name of the parameter

  • auto_update – Should the variable be added to the auto_update function. Set this to False in case you want to run this on a different schedule. In this case you need to create your own timer though and call the appropiate update function.

add_widget_hook(function: Callable[[Any], Any])

Add a hook function to be called when a value in a widgets gets updated from app._data.

hc_update()

Get the HC widget parameter value from the instrument and apply hooks to that value.

When this function finishes running it calls the widget_update function which should be written for each HC widget. If this function has not been defined the default widget_update function raises an AttributeError.

widget_update(value)
class hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.HCOnOffButton(app, instrument: str, parameter: str, label: str = '', label_align: str = 'left', show_text: bool = True, show_icon: bool = False, text_checked: str = 'On', text_unchecked: str = 'Off', icon_checked: str = 'button-power-on.svg', icon_unchecked: str = 'button-power-off.svg', show_set_text: bool = False, auto_update=True)

Bases: HCMixin, QPushButton

A simple control widget with a push-button (QPushButton) with graphical indicators for on/off state.

One also has the option of (only or additionally) introducing text to indicate on-off status.

Parameters:

  • show_text (bool) – Option to show a text indicator of the on-off status

  • show_icon (bool) – Option to show an icon indicator of the on-off status

  • text_checked (str) – Text to show when instrument parameter is ‘On’

  • text_unchecked (str) – Text to show when instrument parameter is ‘Off’

  • icon_checked (str) – Icon to show when instrument parameter is ‘On’

  • icon_unchecked (str) – Icon to show when instrument parameter is ‘Off’

is_true(value: bool | str) → bool

Handle multiple versions (of different data type and case) of the option ‘True’.

set_btn_state(value)

Change the icon and/or text display.

value_change() → None

Change value to opposite of current value.

widget_update(value)
class hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.HCOnOffIndicator(app, instrument: str, parameter: str, label: str = '', label_align: str = 'left', show_text: bool = False, show_icon: bool = False, text_checked: str = 'On', text_unchecked: str = 'Off', icon_checked: str = 'on-off-indicator-on.svg', icon_unchecked: str = 'on-off-indicator-off.svg', tooltip: str = '', auto_update=True)

Bases: HCMixin, QLabel

A simple control widget with a label (QLabel) image or text that indicates on/off state.

Parameters:

  • show_text (bool) – Option to show a text indicator of the on-off status; if show_text is True, the show_icon option will be ignored

  • show_icon (bool) – Option to show an icon indicator of the on-off status

  • text_checked (str) – Text to show when instrument parameter is ‘On’

  • text_unchecked (str) – Text to show when instrument parameter is ‘Off’

  • icon_checked (str) – Icon to show when instrument parameter is ‘On’

  • icon_unchecked (str) – Icon to show when instrument parameter is ‘Off’

  • tooltip (str) – Optional text to be displayed when mousing over the indicator

is_true(value: bool | str) → bool

Handle multiple versions (of different data type and case) of the option ‘True’.

set_state(value)

Change the icon and/or text display.

sizeHint(self) → QSize
widget_update(value)
class hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.HCPushButton(app, instrument: str, parameter: str, label: str = '', label_align: str = 'left')

Bases: HCMixin, QPushButton

A simple control widget with a push-button (QPushButton).

value_change() → None
widget_update(value) → None
class hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.HCSpinBox(app, instrument: str, parameter: str, label: str, label_align: str = 'left', auto_update=True)

Bases: HCMixin, QSpinBox

A simple control widget with a label (QLabel) and an input box (QSpinBox).

value_change() → None
widget_update(value) → None
hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.convert_prefix(value: str, decimals: int = 3) → list[str]

Handle units prefix conversions.

hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.icon_filename(name: str)

Get the icon filename from the installed package location.

hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.load_icon(name: str) → QPixmap

Load an icon from the installed package location as a QIcon.

hardware_control.gui.widgets.hc_widgets.load_pixmap(name: str) → QPixmap

Load an icon from the installed package location as a QPixmap.