Running the panel

pydobotlab-panel

python -m pydobotlab.panel is equivalent. Both require the gui extra (see Installation).

On launch, the panel:

1. Starts a broker on 127.0.0.1:8765 unless one is already running.
2. Discovers arms as discover_with_diagnostics does.
3. Opens the hub window.

Select an arm and click Open Control Panel. Each arm has its own window.

Options

Option	Default	Description
--simulator, -s	off	Use simulated arms instead of hardware.
--simulator-arms N	2	Number of simulated arms. Applies with --simulator.
--dev	off	Show each arm's port, alarm names, codes, and raw bytes, full error details, and the ports tried when no arm is found.
--create-shortcut	off	Create a desktop shortcut for the panel, then exit.

pydobotlab-panel --simulator --simulator-arms 3

Desktop shortcut

pydobotlab-panel --create-shortcut

Creates shortcuts that start the panel with the Python installation they were created from, for example a virtual environment or a system-wide installation.

System	Shortcuts
Windows	Desktop and Start menu.
Linux	Desktop and application menu. If the desktop icon shows a warning, right-click it and choose Allow Launching.
Linux, with sudo	Application menu of every user, in /usr/local/share/applications. Each user can add a desktop icon by running the command without sudo.

After the Python installation moves, run the command again. To remove a shortcut, delete it; on Linux, the menu entry of a user is ~/.local/share/applications/pydobotlab-panel.desktop.

Connection

Opening a control panel connects to the arm through the broker, starts the firmware queue without clearing it, and starts a pose stream for the readout. Closing the window disconnects it from the arm and leaves the queue unchanged. The broker closes the port when its last client disconnects.

Running scripts

Start the panel before a script, and quit it after the script ends. A script connects through the panel's broker. When the panel is not running, Magician.connect raises DobotConnectionError.

pydobotlab-panel          # terminal 1
python my_script.py       # terminal 2

• The arm's control panel window does not need to be open. Opening or closing it does not affect a running script.
• The panel's pose readout updates while the script moves the arm.
• Quitting the panel disconnects the connected scripts; their next command raises DobotConnectionError. The hub asks for confirmation while scripts are connected.
• A script created with Magician(require_panel=False), or run where the control panel is not installed, opens the serial port directly when the panel is not running. The panel cannot open that arm until the script ends.

examples/two_dobots_with_panels.py drives two arms from a script while one control panel is open for each.

Troubleshooting

• No arms listed. The hub says why when the cause is known: a permission problem, or a busy port. With --dev, it lists each port that could not be opened, with the reason (a permission problem, port is busy, or couldn't open), and the ports that answered, but not as a Dobot Magician, under Other devices (n). On Linux, see Linux setup. python -m serial.tools.list_ports shows the ports the operating system reports.
• Port busy. Another program holds the port: another panel, DobotStudio, or a script that opened the port directly before the panel started. Close it, then click Refresh. A process that has exited does not hold the port.