Spektro-Control 🔬

Spektro-Control is a modern, cross-platform desktop application designed to interface with and control the Shimadzu UVmini-1240 spectrophotometer.

Built as an open-source alternative to legacy proprietary software, Spektro-Control focuses on a Plug-and-Play experience, providing a responsive interface and an optimized workflow for laboratory analysis.

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🚀 Key Features

• 🔌 Smart Auto-Connect: Say goodbye to manual COM port selection. The application silently scans all active USB/Serial ports in the background and automatically performs the ENQ/ACK handshake with the instrument. Just plug in the cable, and you're ready to go!
• 🌍 Bilingual Support: Full support for real-time language switching (English & Indonesian) without needing to restart the application.
• 🎨 Modern Theming: A beautifully designed interface with custom color palettes, fully supporting both Dark Mode (to reduce eye strain) and Light Mode.
• 📊 Real-Time Analysis:
  • Photometric Mode: Read absorbance and transmittance at a specific wavelength.
  • Wavelength Scan: Scan samples across a wavelength spectrum with live, high-framerate graph plotting.
  • Time Scan: Monitor reaction kinetics or absorbance changes over time.
• 📁 Data Management: Export spectrum and kinetics readings to Spreadsheet format (.csv) or save high-resolution graphs directly as images (.png).
• 🖨️ Direct Printing: Native detection of system printers, allowing you to send instrument logs or graphs directly to physical printers.
• 🛡️ Robust Error Handling: Every serial interaction (data transmission, GOTO Wavelength, Auto-Zero/Baseline calibration) is protected by an elegant Alert System. This prevents the application from freezing or hanging when the instrument fails to respond.

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💻 Tech Stack

Spektro-Control is developed entirely within the Python ecosystem, ensuring reliability and flexibility across operating systems (Windows, Linux, macOS).

• Language: Python 3.11+
• GUI Framework: PySide6 (Official Qt6 binding for Python), utilized for the entire UI architecture and robust multithreading (QThread, QTimer).
• Data Visualization: pyqtgraph (A fast, NumPy-based graphing library) for rendering live spectrum and kinetics graphs with high frame rates.
• Hardware Communication: pyserial (Manages low-level RS-232 / COM port communication using Shimadzu's ENQ/ACK protocol).

Repository Structure

• /ui/: Contains the presentation logic (MainWindow, Dialogs, Themes) and language localization dictionaries (strings.py).
• /protocol/: Contains the low-level serial communication implementation of the Shimadzu protocol (uv_protocol.py).
• main.py: The main entry point of the application.
• requirements.txt: Python dependency list.

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⚙️ Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/username/spektro-control.git
   cd spektro-control

2. Create a Virtual Environment (Highly Recommended):

   # Windows
   python -m venv venv
   venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

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🏃 Usage Guide

Ensure your Shimadzu UVmini-1240 instrument is powered on, connected to your PC via an RS-232/USB-to-Serial cable, and set to PC Ctrl mode (usually by pressing the F4 key on the instrument panel).

1. Run the application from your terminal:

   python main.py

2. The application will automatically scan, detect, and lock the connection with the instrument. You are now ready to analyze your samples!

(If you ever need to configure the COM port manually, the setting is available in the menu bar under Instrument > Advanced Connection...)

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Built to empower laboratory analysts — Happy Science! 🧪