Pyafm
=====

Pyafm is a set of tools for controlling atomic force microscopes.  It
provides control of AFM postition using both short-range (piezo) and
long range (stepper) vertical positioning.  There are separate modules
for controlling the piezo (pypiezo_) and stepper (stepper_), this
module mostly contains methods that require the capabilities of both.

This module can optionally include temperature sensing via a pypid_
backend.

Packages
========

Gentoo
------

I've packaged pyafm for Gentoo.  You need layman_ and my `wtk
overlay`_.  Install with::

    # emerge -av app-portage/layman
    # layman --add wtk
    # emerge -av sci-physics/pyafm

Although it is not strictly required (thanks to `duck typing`_) you'll
probably also want my `stepper`_ package or an equivalent
stepper implementation.


Dependencies
============

Pyafm requires the following Python modules:

* Pycomedi_ (required directly, and via ``pypiezo``)
* Pypiezo_
* Stepper_ (or equivalent stepper implementation)
* Pypid_ (optional temperature monitoring and control)
* H5config_
* SciPy_

Getting the source
==================

Pyafm is available as a Git_ repository::

    $ git clone git://tremily.us/pyafm.git

There are also periodic bundled releases.  For example, get version
0.3 as a gzipped tarball with::

     $ wget 'http://git.tremily.us/?p=pyafm.git;a=snapshot;h=v0.3;sf=tgz'
     $ tar -xzvf pyafm-0.1.tar.gz


Installation
============

After downloading, change to the source directory and run::

    $ python setup.py install

to install pyafm.  Run::

    $ python setup.py install --help

to see a list of installation options you may want to configure.


Usage
=====

TODO


.. _layman: http://layman.sourceforge.net/
.. _wtk overlay: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/Gentoo_overlay/
.. _duck typing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_typing
.. _pycomedi: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/pycomedi/
.. _pypiezo: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/pypiezo/
.. _stepper: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/stepper/
.. _pypid: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/pypid/
.. _h5config: http://blog.tremily.us/posts/h5config/
.. _SciPy: http://www.scipy.org/
.. _Git: http://git-scm.com/