MicroDrop is a graphical user interface for the DropBot digital
microfluidics control system (described in detail in Fobel et al., Appl. Phys.
Lett. 102, 193513 (2013)).
If you use this information in work that you publish, please cite as
appropriate.
Table of Contents generated with DocToc
Installation
MicroDrop can be installed using any of the methods below.
No existing Python 2.7 32-bit Windows installation (recommended)
Download installer for latest MicroDrop 1.0 release.
This installer is a customized distribution of the popular Miniconda
Python.
Existing anaconda
(Python 2.7 32-bit Windows) installation (recommended)
Run:
conda install -c wheeler-microfluidics "microdrop>=1.0,<2.0" microdrop-launcher
Note the -c wheeler-microfluidics
flag allows installing conda packages
from the wheeler-microfluidics
channel.
Create a separate conda
environment for MicroDrop
Run:
conda create -n microdrop -c wheeler-microfluidics "microdrop>=1.0,<2.0" microdrop-launcher
To activate the MicroDrop conda
environment, run:
activate microdrop
To deactivate the MicroDrop conda
environment, run:
deactivate
See "Managing environments" section of Conda documentation for more
information.
Other Python 2.7 32-bit Windows installation (using pip
, not recommended)
-
Update pip
:
pip install -U pip
-
Install microdrop from PyPi:
pip install --find-links http://192.99.4.95/wheels --trusted-host 192.99.4.95 "microdrop>=1.0,<2.0"
Note 192.99.4.95
is the IP address of the official MicroDrop update
server where MicroDrop dependencies not available on PyPI are stored as
wheels.
Shortcuts
If MicroDrop is installed using a Conda Python distribution (including the official installer)
- Documentation: Open online MicroDrop documentation.
- GitHub project: Open MicroDrop GitHub project page.
- MicroDrop Profile Manager: Launch MicroDrop profile manager.
- MicroDrop environment prompt: Launch Windows command prompt with
MicroDrop Conda environment activated.
- MicroDrop: Launch MicroDrop if only one profile is available
(default). Otherwise, launch MicroDrop Profile Manager to select
profile to launch.
- Tip: Right-click on shortcut to pin to taskbar for easy
access.
Import profile
If existing profile directory is not automatically found, it can be
manually imported by launching the "MicroDrop Profile Manager"
shortcut.
See Profile Manager section below.
Profile Manager (new)
In environments where, for example, multiple users are using the same computer
to perform MicroDrop experiments, it can be helpful to create separate
MicroDrop profiles. Each MicroDrop profile contains devices and
plugins, as well as experiment logs.
The MicroDrop Profile Manager provides an interface to manage one or more
MicroDrop profiles. Initially, the default profile path (i.e.,
<Documents>\Microdrop
) is listed.
As shown below:
- Profiles are listed according when they were last launched, with the
most recently used profile first.
- Existing profiles may be imported.
- Listed profiles may be removed from the profile list (and optionally
deleted entirely).
- Listed profiles may be opened in the system file browser.
- MicroDrop may be launched using any of the listed profiles.
Import profile
When an existing profile is imported, plugin dependencies are installed
while the following dialog is displayed:
Remove profile
The following dialog is displayed when the Remove button for a listed
profile is clicked:
Clicking the Remove button in the dialog removes the corresponding
profile from the list, but does not delete any files. The profile
can be imported to add it back to the profile list.
Warning: Clicking the Remove with data button in the dialog removes the
corresponding profile from the list, and deletes the profile directory.
This cannot be undone.
Install plugins
Plugins can either be installed using the MicroDrop plugin
manager command-line
tool, or through the MicroDrop user
interface.
Featured plugin
dmf_control_board
- Control actuation parameters for the DropBot open-source Digital
Microfluidic (DMF) automation system.
Install plugins through MicroDrop plugin manager (mpm
)
The Microdrop plugin manager is a command-line tool (inspired by pip
) for
managing (e.g., install, uninstall) Microdrop plugins.
For full usage details, see the project home page.
Basic usage to install a plugin:
-
Start MicroDrop environment command prompt using the following shortcut:
-
In MicroDrop environment command prompt, run:
python -m mpm -c <microdrop settings directory>\microdrop.ini install plugin [plugin [plugin ...]]
To install featured plugin:
python -m mpm -c <microdrop settings directory>\microdrop.ini install dmf_control_board
Install plugins through MicroDrop GUI
-
Install plugins:
-
Relaunch MicroDrop.
Credits
Ryan Fobel ryan@fobel.net
Christian Fobel christian@fobel.net