The operator frames a good spot, confirms the two DC levels the detector
reads there, and the rig then measures its own tilt: step 1.5 mm either side
on X and then on Y, and tilt the platform until those levels come back. The
correction that fixes an offset point is the correction that levels the whole
travel — height error and tilt effect are both proportional to the offset —
so the procedure ends by applying it and leaving it applied.
Both directions are measured from the same starting tilt and averaged, which
makes their disagreement a flatness read-out rather than something averaged
away silently.
core/auto_align.py holds the geometry and the search, Qt-free. The three
T-axes' azimuths are the whole geometry: T1 lies along +X so it alone tilts
along X, and T0/T2 move as an equal-and-opposite pair to tilt along Y without
touching X (tilt_response derives that, and the tests pin it — an axis map
that drifts would still converge, on the wrong axis). The search is a secant
null on the split-detector difference: probe once to learn what a microstep
is worth, sign included, then step at the null. It refuses to servo on a
scope that has not re-triggered, escalates a probe that reads as no response
before calling an axis dead, and stops at a per-axis travel limit.
gui/align_bridge.py runs it on a worker thread; stopping is a threading.Event
rather than a queued command, because the worker is inside a long handler for
the whole run. The camera window carries the button and the progress window,
and locks the scan panel and the jog pads while a run owns the stage.
Adds immediate MEAN measurements and an acquisition count to the scope
driver, and read_bias_mv to core/scope_inspect — the one scalar the
inspection state was missing.
KNOWN_ISSUES.md records what only the rig can settle: the probe step, the
travel limit, the hold current, and whether the piston the X phase applies
alongside its tilt matters.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Focusing the T-axis and framing the sample on the XY stage are both done
by eye, but the controls were in the main window and the T3R panel, so
the operator had to look away from the video to move anything.
Adds gui/jog_panel.py with two panels, laid out in a column to the right
of the camera image:
T3RJogPanel per-axis enable, hold-to-jog ◀/▶, live position, and a
per-channel microstep combo (SET_MICROSTEP is per channel
on this controller). Jog velocity and acceleration are
shared by the four axes.
BBDJogPanel an X/Y jog pad, step size, and velocity/acceleration.
The stage runs closed-loop servos, so there is no
microstepping to set — the panel says so rather than
offering a control that does nothing.
The T3R's JOG is a continuous velocity move, so the button holds it and
the release stops it; the BBD has no such command, so a held button
repeats a short relative move the way the main window already does.
Only axes this panel started are ever stopped — closing the window or
hitting "Stop jogging" can't cut a scan's rotation short.
Both panels take the driver and worker the main window already owns, so
a jog here is the same command as a jog there. The BBD202 worker grows
a set_velocity command, and its jog now carries the step with it instead
of the caller writing _jog_step onto the worker from the GUI thread.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Thomas Ales