MeterFeeder & Parking Warden

MeterFeeder is a C++ driver library that allows you to read in random bytes simultaneously from Core Invention's MED (Mind-Enabled Drive) quantum random number generator USB devices. Read the comment in generator.h for more of a description or MED_DEVICES.md for a list of the different type of MED devices available.

Parking Warden is a work-in-progress (consider it in beta) Python wrapper around MeterFeeder library that graphs the output of these devices. The objective of this tool is to be able to compare the responsiveness of multiple types of MED devices in an MMI (mind/matter interaction) context.

TL;DR; I just want to run it!

So far I've tried running it on Mac and Windows (Linux to come). Environment details:

OS X: 10.15.7
Apple clang version 12.0.0 (clang-1200.0.32.21)
Python: tested with 2.7.16 and 3.8.2
Visual Studio Code: 1.49.3 with the various C++ development plugins installed

Windows 10 64-bit
Python: 3.9.0
Visual Studio: Community 2019 (16.0.30804.86 D16.8)
Compiler: cl /version
    Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 19.28.29335 for x64 
    Microsoft (R) Incremental Linker Version 14.28.29335.0

Note: On another Windows 10 machine I found I could compile the meterfeeder.exe but it was returning "No generators connected" even though I had some plugged in. I resolved this by right-clicking and choosing "Install" for the ftdiport.inf and ftdibus.inf files that come with the FTD2XX drivers (see inside the ftd2xx folder).

To build just MeterFeeder and a basic binary to read in random byte numers (unsigned char type):

On a Mac

Assuming you've got libusb 1.0.23 installed (with brew etc.) and have plugged in your USB MED devices:

$ ./build-mac-executable.sh 
$ ./meterfeeder
QWR4A003 (MED100K 100 kHz v1.0): 92
QWR4M004 (QNG Model PQ4000KU): 153

On a PC

C:\>build-win-executable.bat
C:\>meterfeeder.exe
QWR4A003 (MED100K 100 kHz v1.0): 92
QWR4M004 (QNG Model PQ4000KU): 153

If trying to build meterfeeder.dll:

Add C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build to the PATH environment variable, modifying it to match your Visual Studio Code installation.

To run Parking Warden

$ pip install numpy matplotlib
$ ./build-mac-dylib.sh
$ python parking_warden.py

To build a self contained EXE (to run on Windows)

We found that Python 3.9 wasn't supposed on Windows 7/64-bit, so we settled for 3.8.7. You will have to get your Visual Studio environment setup properly for C++ compiling like making sure the PATH environment variable is setup correctly.

C:>build-win-dylib.bat
C:>python parking_warden_setup.py py2exe

Copy meterfeeder.dll and ftd2xx.dll to dist\ and then run dist\parking_warden.exe.