Motivation
This project provides a very simple architecture to calibrate the spring constant of atomic force microscopy (AFM) cantilevers using the original Sader's method for rectangular cantilevers. Next releases of the software will support the more recent extension of the method to generic shape cantilevers.
Architecture
The project is aimed at implementing a modern acquisition strategy in which control logic and user interface are completely separated and set remotely, and the interaction is carried out through the network.
The current - beta - implementation comprises:
- using the audio input to acquire and convert the deflection signal, based on pyaudio python bindings for portaudio;
- a server, written in python on top of tornado, to manage the acquisition and deliver the data over the web;
- a javascript embedded in a web page served by tornado to implement the user interface .
Partners
The project is based on a curiosity driven collaboration between the Institute of Biophysics of the National Research Council, the electronics company Elbatech and the software house Dr Wolf