Nerve’s RPC handlers do not carry source-level descriptions, so the response column only points to the Go handler that implements each method.

The messages which are send here consist of 32 bytes, and structured as show in table Table: Channel Unit message structure (WebSQ). Every measurement interval of 10ms, these messages will be bundled and send to the websocket as one byte string. These messages will have to be split up again for readout.

Every websocket frame starts with a single type byte (0 for counts, 1 for IV data, which is currently ignored by the controller), followed by a 12 byte header described in table Table: Counts header structure (Nerve), followed by one 9 byte record per channel unit as described in table Table: Channel Unit message structure (Nerve). A single frame can bundle records for multiple channel units and multiple measurement intervals.

Download the controller script: WebSQController.py

Download the controller script: NerveController.py

Collecting Counts¶

This example collects 20 counts messages for each channel from the websocket, at the driver’s current integration time. This should return, for each of the 20 samples, a list of the counts for every channel.

from WebSQController import WebSQController

# Please change this to be the IP address of the driver in your network
websq_domain = 'http://192.168.10.10/'

sq = WebSQController(websq_domain)

# Collects 20 counts messages for every channel.
counts = sq.getNCounts(20)
print(counts)

Download this example

IV Sweeping¶

This example performs and IV sweep and prints the result for the first channel.

from WebSQController import WebSQController

# Please change this to be the IP address of the driver in your network
websq_domain = 'http://192.168.10.10/'

sq = WebSQController(websq_domain)

traces = sq.sweepIv(0, 50, 1, 100)

channels = list(traces.keys())
first_channel = channels[0]

print(f"Data for channel {first_channel}:")
print("Bias Current (uA):")
print(traces[first_channel]['biasI'])
print("Monitor Voltage (V):")
print(traces[first_channel]['monitorV'])

Download this example

Setting the Bias Current¶

This is an example of how to set values on the driver for a specific channel.

from WebSQController import WebSQController

# Please change this to be the IP address of the driver in your network
websq_domain = 'http://192.168.10.10/'
sq = WebSQController(websq_domain)

print("Setting the bias current to 20 uA, for channel 1")

sq.setBiasI(20e-6, channels=[1])

print("Getting the bias current value of channel 1:")
print(sq.getBiasI(channels=[1]))

Download this example

Collecting Counts¶

This example collects 20 counts messages for each channel from the websocket, at the driver’s current integration time. This should return, for each of the 20 samples, a list of the counts for every channel.

from NerveController import NerveController

# Please change this to be the IP address of the driver in your network
nerve_domain = 'http://192.168.10.10/'

sq = NerveController(nerve_domain)

# Collects 20 counts messages for every channel.
counts = sq.getNCounts(20)
print(counts)

Download this example

IV Sweeping¶

This example starts an IV sweep, waits for it to finish, and prints the result for the first channel.

import time

from NerveController import NerveController

# Please change this to be the IP address of the driver in your network
nerve_domain = 'http://192.168.10.10/'

sq = NerveController(nerve_domain)

sq.startIv(0, 50, 1, 100)

# Wait for the sweep to finish: 51 steps of 100 ms, plus a bit of overhead.
time.sleep(6)
sq.stopIv()

traces = sq.getIvData()

channels = list(traces.keys())
first_channel = channels[0]

print(f"Data for channel {first_channel}:")
print("Bias Current (uA):")
print(traces[first_channel]['biasI'])
print("Monitor Voltage (V):")
print(traces[first_channel]['monitorV'])

Download this example

Setting the Bias Current¶

This is an example of how to set values on the driver for a specific channel.

from NerveController import NerveController

# Please change this to be the IP address of the driver in your network
nerve_domain = 'http://192.168.10.10/'
sq = NerveController(nerve_domain)

print("Setting the bias current to 20 uA, for channel 1")

sq.setBiasI(20e-6, channels=[1])

print("Getting the bias current value of channel 1:")
print(sq.getBiasI(channels=[1]))

Download this example

class WebSQController.WebSQController(domain=None)¶

Bases: JsonRpc

This class can send requests to the websq via the JSON RPC protocol. Set the domain of the websq in the initialization.

A lot of funtionality requires the settings object. Function that rely on the settings object can be passed settings as a keyword argument to prevent retrieving the settings object multiple times.

Some functionality accepts the channels parameter. This parameter determines from which channels you pull the data. The channels parameter is a list of ranks or locations of the channels. Ranks can be given as integers, and locations can be given as either a tuple or a list formatted as [mcuId, cuId].

The rankMap specifies the exact location of these detectors. If this is not set (or None) all locations are returned.

close()¶

startRecording(channels=[])¶

Turns on recording mode, the data recorded will be returned by the stopRecording command

stopRecording()¶

Stops recording mode, will return the data which was collected while recording.

convertToRank(rank_or_location)¶

Takes a channel notation in either rank or location (‘mcuId.cuId’), and converts it to the corresponding rank.

convertToLocation(rank_or_location)¶

Takes a channel notation in either rank or location (‘mcuId.cuId’), and converts it to the corresponding location.

getChannelInformation(name, channels=[])¶

Gets the channel information for the quantity “name”.

Parameters:

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

a list containing the values read for the requested quantity

Return type:

list

setChannelConfiguration(name, value, channels=None)¶

Sets the channel configuration name to value.

Parameters:

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

setTriggerV(value, channels=None)¶

Sets the trigger level for the counters for each channel (all selected channels the same value). The trigger voltage is in Volts and must be in the range (-10, 10).

Parameters:

value : float¶

The trigger level to set (in V) for all channels. Supported range: (-10, 10)V.

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

updated_settings – The new and updated settings.

Return type:

dict

setBiasI(value, channels=None)¶

Sets the bias current level for each channel (all selected channels the same value).

Parameters:

value : float¶

The bias current to set (in A).

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

updated_settings – The new and updated settings.

Return type:

dict

setChannelValueMultiple(name, values)¶

Sets an array of values for parameter ‘name’ for all channels.

Parameters:

name : string¶

Name of the channelunit configuration parameter which you want to change.

values : array¶

Array of values which you want to assign for all channels. This is assumed to be sorted by rank.

Returns:

updated_settings – The new and updated settings.

Return type:

dict

setBiasIMultiple(values)¶

Sets the bias current level for each channel given by the array values.

Parameters:

values : array¶

Array of floats indicating the bias current to set in each channel (in A).

Returns:

updated_settings – The new and updated settings.

Return type:

dict

setTriggerVMultiple(values)¶

Sets the Trigger level for the counter for each channel given by the array values. The Trigger current for each channel is in V and must be in the range (-10,10) V.

Parameters:

values : array¶

Array of floats indicating the trigger level in each channel (in V).

Returns:

updated_settings – The new and updated settings.

Return type:

dict

getTriggerV(channels=None)¶

Gets the trigger level for each channel.

Parameters:

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

a list containing the trigger level for each requested channel

Return type:

list

getBiasI(channels=None)¶

Gets the bias current for each channel.

Parameters:

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

a list containing the bias current for each requested channel

Return type:

list

rebootSystem(**params)¶

getDevices()¶

getBackend()¶

getSettings() → dict¶

Gets the settings once, then caches it as a property. reloadSettings() can be called to get the most recent settings

reloadSettings() → dict¶

Clears chached settings requests settings from the api

setSettings(**params)¶

getIvFile(details='', datatype='txt', devicedetails=True)¶

Return a file with the latest iv measurement.

Parameters:

details : str¶

Optionally you can pass some extra details/comments in the file.

datatype : str¶

The export datatype, either txt, csv, json.

devicedetails : bool¶

Whether or not to include some extra details of the devices.

Returns:

A dictionary with ivData as the root element.

Return type:

dict

getLog(lines=1000)¶

getRankMap()¶

getRankByIds(mcuId, cuId)¶

getAllLocations()¶

getAllRanks()¶

getIntTime()¶

setIntTime(intTime)¶

intTime in (ms) should be in steps of 10ms.

getTemperatureData()¶

Returns all the stored temperature data.

getTemperatures()¶

Returns the latests temperatures measured

startIv(biasIStart, biasIStop, biasIStep, intTime, channels=None)¶

Start a IV measurement on the cus of selectedCus or if not provided all of them.

Parameters:

biasIStart : float¶

The current to start (in uA).

biasIStop : float¶

The current to stop (in uA)

biasIStep : float¶

The step size of the sweep (in uA).

intTime : float¶

The integration time (in ms) of a single step.

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

The the new updated settings you have send to the server.

Return type:

dict

stopIv()¶

Stop the current IV measurement that is running.

Returns:

Succes if the IV sweep was stopped succesfully.

Return type:

string

getIvData(channels=None)¶

Get the IV curves of the last measurement.

Parameters:

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

A dictionary that maps the location [mcuId, cuId] to a dictionary object that contains the biasI, counts, and monitorV.

Return type:

dict

sweepIv(biasIStart, biasIStop, biasIStep, intTime, overhead=1, channels=None)¶

Start a IV sweep and then return the measured data. Blocks the thread with a time.sleep.

Parameters:

biasIStart : float¶

The current to start (in uA).

biasIStop : float¶

The current to stop (in uA)

biasIStep : float¶

The step size of the sweep (in uA).

intTime : float¶

The integration time (in ms) which is the duration of each step.

overhead : float, default=1¶

Wait overhead seconds longer than necessary because of latency.

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

A dictionary that maps the location [mcuId, cuId] to a dictionary object that contains the biasI, counts, and monitorV.

Return type:

dict

getNMessages(n=1, channels=None, attribute=None)¶

Retrieves a N number of messages from the driver.

Parameters:

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

attribute : str, optional¶

Attribute can be passed here to only return a list with the value of this attribute. Options: mcuId, cuId, cuStatus, monitorV, biasI, counts, intSize, rank, time.

Returns:

List of N lists of requested attribute for each channel, or a list of N lists of the message dictionaries.

Return type:

list

getMessageNoDelay(channels=None, attribute=None)¶

Directly returns the latest received messages in the websocket without any delay. WARNING: channel unit messages can be send/received later/earlier then others, so your result can be slightly desynced.

Parameters:

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

attribute : str, optional¶

Attribute can be passed here to only return a list with the value of this attribute. Options: mcuId, cuId, cuStatus, monitorV, biasI, counts, intSize, rank, time.

Returns:

List of requested attribute for each channel, or a list of the message dictionaries.

Return type:

list

getCounts(channels=None)¶

Get the current counts measurement. The amount of counts during the current integration time.

Parameters:

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

List of current counts for each channel.

Return type:

list

getNCounts(n=10, channels=None)¶

Collects an n number of counts, for all the given channels.

Parameters:

n : int, optional¶

The number of counts to collect.

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

List of length n with counts for each channel.

Return type:

list

transformToArray(data, quantity)¶

Transform your iv data or counts data to a ‘a x b’ array for quantity

Parameters:

data : dict¶

Dictionary which is the iv data from getIvData or sweepIv or the counts data from getCounts or collectCounts

quantity : str¶

This is the name of quantity: biasI, counts, or monitorV for iv data counts, time, monitorV for count data

Returns:

result – list as ‘a x b’ data array where a is the amount of channels in order of the ranks. and b is the amount of data measured.

Return type:

list[list]

getIvHistory()¶

Gets the IV history for all channels and returns a list of lists with the bias current in the first list and the monitor voltage for each CU as the next.

Returns:

result – the first list is the bias current the other lists are the monitor voltages (V) of the channels sorted by rank.

Return type:

list[list]

getIcHistory()¶

Gets the IC history for all channels and returns a list of lists with the bias current in the first list and the monitor voltage for each CU as the next.

Returns:

result – the first list is the bias current the other lists are the counts of the channels sorted by rank.

Return type:

list[list]

setNetworkSettings(**params)¶

Sets the networking settings.

Parameters:

**params¶

dhcpbool

Wether or not to enable DHCP.

addressstr

The static IP address, in case DHCP is off.

gatewaystr

The gateway IP.

setHostName(hostname)¶

decode_websocket_msg(msg, attribute=None)¶

Deconstructs a basic websocket message.

Parameters:

msg : bytes¶

A byte string of combined channel unit messages. Each channel message is 32 bytes.

attribute : str, optional¶

You can pass a specific attribute name. If this is given only a list of values for this attribute is returned.

Returns:

result – A list of decoded messages. If no attribute name is passed it will be a dict with all values. Otherwise it will be a list of values for just this attribute.

Return type:

list

class NerveController.NerveController(domain: str)¶

Bases: JsonRpc

This class can send requests to a SQ Nerve via the JSON RPC protocol. Set the domain of the SQ Nerve in the initialization. SQ Nerve is the latest control software for the Single Quantum Retina as of January 2026.

close()¶

getChannels() → dict[str, dict[str, Any]]¶

Returns a dictionary with the channels in the system, with the following structure:

{
    channel_number: {
        *channel_parameters*,
    },
    ...
}

getChannelInformation(parameter_name: str, channels: list[int] | None = None) → list[Any]¶

Gets the channel information for the parameter “parameter_name”.

Parameters:

parameter_name : str¶

The name of the parameter to get.

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given by their channel numbers.

Returns:

a list containing the retrieved values for the requested quantity.

Return type:

list

setChannelUnitsValue(parameter_name: str, value_or_values: Any | list[Any], channels: list[int] | None = None)¶

Sets the parameter ‘parameter_name’ to ‘value_or_values’ for all given channels. If no channels are provided it will set it for all channels.

Parameters:

parameter_name : str, optional¶

The name of the parameter to set.

value_or_values : list or float¶

The value or list of values to set for the parameter. If a single value is provided all channels will be set to that value. If a list is provided it is assumed to be sorted by channel number.

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channel numbers to set the parameter for. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

updated_settings – The new and updated settings.

Return type:

dict

getTriggerV(channels: list[int] | None = None)¶

Gets the trigger level for each channel.

Parameters:

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channel numbers to get the trigger level for. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

a list containing the trigger level for each requested channel

Return type:

list

setTriggerV(value_or_values: list[float | int], channels: list[int] | None = None)¶

Sets the trigger level for the counters for each channel (all selected channels the same value). The trigger voltage is in Volts and must be in the range (-10, 10).

Parameters:

value_or_values : float or list¶

The trigger level to set (in V) for all channels. Supported range: (-10, 10)V. If a list is provided it is assumed to be sorted by channel number. If a single value is provided all channels will be set to that value.

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channel numbers to set the parameter for. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

updated_settings – The new and updated settings.

Return type:

dict

getBiasI(channels: list[int] | None = None)¶

Gets the bias current for each channel.

Parameters:

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channel numbers to get the trigger level for. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

a list containing the bias current for each requested channel

Return type:

list

setBiasI(value_or_values: list[float | int], channels: list[int] | None = None)¶

Sets the bias current level for each channel (all selected channels the same value).

Parameters:

value_or_values : float or list¶

The bias current to set (in A). If a list is provided it is assumed to be sorted by channel number. If a single value is provided all channels will be set to that value.

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channel numbers to set the parameter for. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

updated_settings – The new and updated settings.

Return type:

dict

restartSoftware(delay: int = 0)¶

Restarts the software.

Parameters:

delay : int¶

Optionally a delay can be passed in seconds.

getSettings() → dict¶

Gets the current Retina driver settings.

setSettings(**params: Any) → dict¶

Set new Retina driver settings and overwrite only provided fields.

getIntTime() → int¶

Get the integration time in milliseconds.

setIntTime(intTime: int) → dict¶

Set integration time in milliseconds.

setStreamState(state: bool) → dict¶

Turn the counts stream on or off.

getLog(lines: int = 1000) → list[dict]¶

Returns the current log object.

Parameters:

lines : int¶

The number of lines/entries to get from the log

Returns:

log – The log structed as a list of dictionary objects.

Return type:

list[dict]

getTemperatureData() → dict¶

Returns all the stored temperature data.

getTemperatures() → tuple[float, float | None]¶

Return the latest measured temperatures for sensor 1 and sensor 2.

startIv(biasIStart: float, biasIStop: float, biasIStep: float, intTime: float, channels: list[int] | None = None)¶

Start a IV measurement on the selected channels or if not provided all of them.

Parameters:

biasIStart : float¶

The current to start (in uA).

biasIStop : float¶

The current to stop (in uA)

biasIStep : float¶

The step size of the sweep (in uA).

intTime : float¶

The integration time (in ms) of a single step.

channels : list, optional¶

A list of channels given as either their rank or their location. The location of a channel is given as ‘mcuId.cuId’. If this is not provided it will select all of them.

Returns:

The the new updated settings you have send to the server.

Return type:

dict

stopIv() → str¶

Stop the current IV measurement that is running.

Returns:

Success if the IV sweep was stopped successfully.

Return type:

string

getIvData(raw: bool = False) → dict¶

Get the data of the latest IV sweep.

Parameters:

raw : bool¶

If True, return the raw driver payload under data.

Returns:

A dictionary which either contains the raw data from the driver if raw is True, or a processed dictionary with lists of biasI, counts, monitorV and integration_time per channel. The keys in this dictionary are the channel numbers.

Return type:

dict

getNMessages(n: int = 1, channels: list[int] | None = None, attribute: str | None = None) → list[Any]¶

Retrieves a N number of messages from the driver.

Parameters:

n : int¶

Number of integration intervals to collect.

channels : list, optional¶

Channel numbers to include. If not provided, all channels are used.

attribute : str, optional¶

Optional field to extract from each message. Valid options are: intTime, status, channel_number, counts.

Returns:

List of N lists of requested attribute for each channel, or a list of N lists of the message dictionaries.

Return type:

list

getMessageNoDelay(channels: list[int] | None = None, attribute: str | None = None)¶

Directly returns the latest received messages in the websocket without any delay. WARNING: channel unit messages can be send/received later/earlier then others, so your result can be slightly desynced.

Parameters:

channels : list, optional¶

Channel numbers to include. If not provided, all channels are used.

attribute : str, optional¶

Attribute can be passed here to only return a list with the value of this attribute. Options: mcuId, cuId, cuStatus, monitorV, biasI, counts, intSize, rank, time.

Returns:

List of requested attribute for each channel, or a list of the message dictionaries.

Return type:

list

getCounts(channels: list[int] | None = None)¶

Get the current counts measurement. The amount of counts during the current integration time.

Parameters:

channels : list, optional¶

Channel numbers to include. If not provided, all channels are used.

Returns:

List of current counts for each channel.

Return type:

list

getNCounts(n: int = 10, channels: list[int] | None = None)¶

Collects an n number of counts, for all the given channels.

Parameters:

n : int¶

The number of counts to collect.

channels : list, optional¶

Channel numbers to include. If not provided, all channels are used.

Returns:

List of length n with counts for each channel.

Return type:

list

transformToArray(iv_data: dict, quantity: str)¶

Transform your iv data or counts data to an array for quantity

Parameters:

iv_data : dict¶

Dictionary which is the iv data from getIvData or sweepIv or the counts data from getCounts or collectCounts

quantity : str¶

This is the name of quantity: biasI, counts, or monitorV for iv data counts, time, monitorV for count data

Returns:

result – Two-dimensional array where the first row is biasI and each following row contains quantity values for one channel.

Return type:

list[list]

getIvHistory()¶

Gets the IV history for all channels and returns a list of lists with the bias current in the first list and the monitor voltage for each CU as the next.

Returns:

result – the first list is the bias current the other lists are the monitor voltages (V) of the channels sorted by rank.

Return type:

list[list]

getIcHistory()¶

Gets the IC history for all channels and returns a list of lists with the bias current in the first list and counts for each CU in following lists.

Returns:

result – the first list is the bias current the other lists are the counts of the channels sorted by rank.

Return type:

list[list]