Laser Controller

Small C++17 project for controlling two Necsel lasers with configurable devices, LUT files, and brightness behavior.

Project Layout

.
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── Makefile
├── config.ini
├── .github/workflows/
│   ├── publish-ci-image.yml
│   └── nightly.yml
├── docker/
│   ├── Dockerfile.dev
│   └── Dockerfile.ci
├── src/
│   ├── ConfigParser.cpp
│   ├── ConfigParser.h
│   ├── main.cpp
│   ├── LaserController.cpp
│   └── LaserController.h
└── test/
    ├── CMakeLists.txt
    ├── ConfigParserTests.cpp
    └── ParseFaultTests.cpp

How The Code Is Set Up

• src/main.cpp
  • Reads config.ini through ConfigParser
  • Parses CLI arguments with CLI11
  • Creates two LaserController instances and applies intensity
• src/ConfigParser.cpp / src/ConfigParser.h
  • INI parsing and config value conversion helpers (asString, asInt)
• src/LaserController.cpp / src/LaserController.h
  • Serial communication and command handling for laser hardware
  • LUT loading/interpolation for RGB current values
• CMakeLists.txt
  • Builds laser-controller with C++17
  • Uses FetchContent for:
    • nlohmann_json
    • CLI11
  • Enables testing via add_subdirectory(test)
• test/
  • GoogleTest-based unit tests discovered by CTest

Build Locally

Prereqs:

• CMake >= 3.16
• A C++17 compiler (g++/clang++)
• Make
• Internet access on first configure (for FetchContent dependencies)

Using Makefile:

make configure
make compile
make run

Run with CLI args:

make run ARGS="--intensity 40 --low-light-threshold 15"

Other useful targets:

make test          # Runs all unit tests through CTest
make lint          # Builds with strict warnings
make syntax-check  # Syntax check for src/main.cpp
make help          # Lists all targets

Direct CMake flow:

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
cmake --build build --parallel
./build/laser-controller

Build and Run In Docker

Dev image (docker/Dockerfile.dev)

Build image:

make build-dev

Start a long-running dev container with repo mounted into /workspace:

make start

Compile from inside container:

docker exec -it laser-controller-dev make compile

Open shell in container:

make shell

Stop/remove container:

make stop
make clean

CI runner image (docker/Dockerfile.ci)

This image is a runner/base environment (it does not build the project at image build time).

Build it:

make build-ci

Or build both images:

make build

Intended CI usage is to run make <target> (for example make test) against checked-out source inside this container.

GitHub Actions

• .github/workflows/publish-ci-image.yml

  • Builds docker/Dockerfile.ci
  • Publishes to GHCR as:
    • ghcr.io/<owner>/laser-controller-ci:<sha>
    • ghcr.io/<owner>/laser-controller-ci:<branch>
    • ghcr.io/<owner>/laser-controller-ci:latest (on main)

• .github/workflows/nightly.yml

  • Runs every day at 02:00 UTC
  • Uses the GHCR-hosted container image directly as the job container
  • Runs all unit tests with make test

Runtime Config and CLI

Config file defaults are read from config.ini, for example:

• laser0Device
• laser1Device
• lowLightThreshold
• laser0LUT
• laser1LUT

CLI options are available via:

./build/laser-controller --help

Common options:

• -c, --config
• --intensity
• --low-light-threshold
• --laser0-device
• --laser1-device
• --laser0-lut
• --laser1-lut

CLI values override config.ini values.