There is a crude mechanism for auto-connecting to hardware controllers on startup (startingControllers in the config file). This does not work for the (few) controllers which require multiple instances, distinguished by their names. Specifically cooler and cooler2 on the NIR cryostats. There used to be more (rough1 and rough2), but I think we are down to the coolers.

I will do something general if straighforward, but don't think it is worth much effort anymore: there will not be any more such instances.