The Devices tab

One row per device this bench runs, and below it the selected device: its buttons and five panes.

The Devices card

Column	Shows
Fleet	Which of this bench’s fleets declares the device, and a check box. Checked devices are the working fleet: the ones Fleet up starts and a headless bench keeps running. Ticking it saves autostart in that fleet’s file. View ▸ Fleet chooses which fleets the table shows.
Name	The device’s name on this bench. It also names its log and its folder.
Host	this bench, or the name of the other bench it runs on — see Several benches.
Source	What it runs: package==version for a release, or the repository and ref for a checkout.
State	stopped, starting, running (answering on its port) or exited (it died — the Log says why).
Port	The TCP port experiments connect to.
PID, Started	The server process, and when it started.

Double-click a row to open Device config. Right-click for the same actions as the Device menu.

The buttons in the card’s header act on the whole bench:

Button	Icon	Does
Declare		Add a device to the fleet — see below.
Fleet up		Install what is missing and start every checked device.
Fleet down		Stop every server running here, checked or not.
Control		Open the Control window with a panel for every running device — see below.
Refresh		Re-read the bench now (F5).

Declare device

Declare , or Device ▸ Add device… (Ctrl+N), opens Declare device: a new device in the fleet file. On a bench with no module installed yet it first offers to open the Hub.

Field	Means
Name	The device’s name on this bench — proposed from the package. It names its log and folder, so it must be unique across all the bench’s fleets.
Package	Which installed module runs it. Only installed modules are listed, and of those only device modules and modules whose kind is not known yet.
Project	Where the module lives, its latest release and vendor — for reference.
Source — one of	Release (PyPI) with a version (empty = the newest), or Repository (git) with a repository and a ref (branch, tag or commit). The drop-downs list every release on PyPI and every release tag of the repository, newest first. Pick a repository when you want field tests — a release does not carry them.
Args	Passed to the device server — usually how it finds the instrument, such as --address. A port is chosen for you unless you add --tcp-port.
Env	KEY=VALUE lines for the server. They win over the device’s .env.
part of the working fleet	Ticked: Fleet up starts it.

OK writes the device into the fleet file that is open — on a new bench, <home>/fleets/default.yaml.

Control — the Control window

Control on this card, or View ▸ Control window, opens a window with a panel for every running device — driving instruments by hand: read their values, set them, press their operations. Control on a device’s own card, or Device ▸ Control… (Ctrl+D), opens that device alone, in a window of its own.

Each panel is built from what its device reports about itself — its parameters with their units, limits and choices, and its operations — so a power meter shows its wavelength and power range, a rotation stage its position and velocity, without anything written for either. Operations such as homing or a reset are left off.

1. Tick Take control. Until then the panel only reads: something may be measuring with that instrument right now, and the console would be a second client on it.

   

2. Change a value — the field will not go past what the instrument accepts — or press an operation’s button.

3. Refresh reads every value once.

The line at the top of each panel counts its controls and says whether it is read-only. Only a device whose server answers can be controlled; asking twice for one brings its panel forward rather than opening a second. A device that stops keeps its panel, marked as stopped. Panels dock, stack as tabs, or drag out onto a second screen; the Panels and Layout menus show, hide and reset them. The same panels open on another computer with plesty-bench control.

The device card

The buttons act on the selected device. A button that cannot act right now is greyed out, and hovering over it says why.

Button	Icon	Does	Available when
Start		Start the device server (Ctrl+R). Installs it first if needed, then waits until it answers.	it is not running
Stop		Stop it (Ctrl+T): asks it to close the instrument first, then insists.	it is running, or exited
Restart		Stop and start again.	it is installed
Control		This device’s panel, in a window of its own (Ctrl+D) — see the Control window.	the server answers
Edit		Its declaration and .env (Ctrl+E) — see below.	it is on this bench
Install		Create its environment, as a job.	always
Update		Pull a checkout and re-sync it, or reinstall a release, as a job.	it is installed
Field Test		Run its field test (Ctrl+F) — see below.	it is installed from a repository that has a field test
Clear log		Empty its log — and with it the Traffic pane.	it is on this bench
Uninstall		Stop it and remove its environment.	it is installed here
Remove		Drop it from the fleet. Its environment stays.	it is on this bench

Starting a device — select its row, press Start, and watch the state go from stopped to running as the log fills:

For a device on another bench, Edit, Clear log, Uninstall and Remove are done on that bench, and the five panes below are empty: each reads a file on the bench that runs the device.

Edit — Device config

Edit , Edit ▸ Device config… (Ctrl+E), or a double-click on the device’s row, opens Device config. Two tabs; Save writes both.

• Declaration — the same fields as Declare device. Changing the Name renames the device: its .env and its log move with it. Stop it first.

• .env — this device’s own settings, one KEY=VALUE per line: an address, a serial number, a calibration constant. It stays on this bench and is read by the server and by its field tests.

Field Test

Field Test , or Device ▸ Field Test… (Ctrl+F), opens Field test for a device installed from a repository. Run starts the test as a job and follows it; the result lands in the Reports pane. The walkthrough is Field-test a device.

Field	Means
Tier	host tests the module against the instrument: the device server is stopped for the run and started again afterwards. client tests through the running server, the way an experiment reaches it.
Address	The instrument to test — mock runs the module’s simulator and leaves the server alone.
Repetitions	How often each measuring gate repeats; script default leaves it to the script.
carry on after a failed gate	Run the remaining gates anyway.
host tier: leave a running server alone	Do not stop the server — only sensible with mock.
Extra	Further arguments for the module’s own script.
Gates	Which checks to run. All ticked is the full test. The line below lists what this module’s script accepts.

The panes

Log

The last 200 lines the device server printed. Each start writes a new log, which opens with a === plesty-server start … line naming the exact command; Clear log starts another while the server runs. The earlier files stay in logs/.

Jobs

This device’s installs, updates, field tests and Terminal commands — Job, State, Exit, Started. Double-click one to follow its log in a window with a Cancel job button.

Reports

The field-test reports published for this device — Report, Outcome, Modified. See Field-test a device.

Terminal

Runs one command inside the environment that serves this device, so python and the module’s own commands are that environment’s. The line above the output names the environment and the working folder — the checkout for a repository install, the device’s own folder for a release. Type a command and press Run (or Enter); Stop cancels it.

It is not a shell: there is no pipe, redirection or wildcard. A checkout is installed without its development tools, so plesty check and pytest are not there; python tests/field_test.py --help is.

Traffic

Each request the server handled — When, Request, Target, ms, Outcome. It records what was asked, not the data returned, and a failure shows its error type. answer lost marks a reply the client never received: it timed out and reconnected, while the device did the work anyway. The history reaches back as far as the log does.