Communicating with instruments using PyVISA but without NI-VISA
PyVISA is a Python frontend for the VISA library that enables controlling all kinds of measurement equipment
through GPIB, RS232, USB and Ethernet among others interfaces.
Starting form version 1.6, PyVISA allows to use different backends. The cool thing is that your code remains the same, except the line in which you instantiate the resource manager (which tells which backend to use).
A few days ago I blogged about one of such alternative backends called PyVISA-sim which allows your to mock the presence of instruments (in cased that you missed the announcement, is here). Today I am making public a second backend.
Until now, talking to instruments via PyVISA required that you had National Instruments VISA library installed in your system. This works most of the time, for most people. But NI-VISA is a proprietary library that only works on certain systems. That is when PyVISA-py jumps in. It is an implementation of message based communication (Serial/USB/Ethernet) using Python and some well developed, easy to deploy and cross platform libraries (PySerial/PyUSB/Python Standard Library). In the near future it will also use linux-gpib to provide access to GPIB instruments in linux.
Cool, right? PyVISA without NI-VISA.
It actually started with an issue in the PyVISA tracker. A user wanted to use the LibreVISA library: an open source alternative to NI-VISA. While in principle this could work, it does not as LibreVISA is still incomplete. That is when it became obvious ... why not implementing parts of the VISA library in Python + friends? It would be open source, should be much easier to hack and compatible with PyVISA.
PyVISA-py is still young. Some very basic functionality is there but there still things to be done in order to implement all VISA features for message based sessions. But you can give it a try and provide feedback and why not code:
Just install (or upgrade) PyVISA 1.6 which is currently only available from GitHub:
$ pip install -U pyvisa
And then install:
$ pip install -U https://github.com/hgrecco/pyvisa-py/zipball/master
and then just instantiate your ResourceManager
Notice that the rest of your code will be EXACTLY the same.
Remember that this is an early preview. We need your help to get it to the ready. Submit your bug reports, comments and suggestions in the Issue Tracker. We will address them promptly.
Or fork the code: https://github.com/hgrecco/pyvisa-py/
Starting form version 1.6, PyVISA allows to use different backends. The cool thing is that your code remains the same, except the line in which you instantiate the resource manager (which tells which backend to use).
A few days ago I blogged about one of such alternative backends called PyVISA-sim which allows your to mock the presence of instruments (in cased that you missed the announcement, is here). Today I am making public a second backend.
Until now, talking to instruments via PyVISA required that you had National Instruments VISA library installed in your system. This works most of the time, for most people. But NI-VISA is a proprietary library that only works on certain systems. That is when PyVISA-py jumps in. It is an implementation of message based communication (Serial/USB/Ethernet) using Python and some well developed, easy to deploy and cross platform libraries (PySerial/PyUSB/Python Standard Library). In the near future it will also use linux-gpib to provide access to GPIB instruments in linux.
Cool, right? PyVISA without NI-VISA.
It actually started with an issue in the PyVISA tracker. A user wanted to use the LibreVISA library: an open source alternative to NI-VISA. While in principle this could work, it does not as LibreVISA is still incomplete. That is when it became obvious ... why not implementing parts of the VISA library in Python + friends? It would be open source, should be much easier to hack and compatible with PyVISA.
PyVISA-py is still young. Some very basic functionality is there but there still things to be done in order to implement all VISA features for message based sessions. But you can give it a try and provide feedback and why not code:
Just install (or upgrade) PyVISA 1.6 which is currently only available from GitHub:
$ pip install -U pyvisa
And then install:
$ pip install -U https://github.com/hgrecco/pyvisa-py/zipball/master
and then just instantiate your ResourceManager
import visa
rm = visa.ResourceManager('@py')
Notice that the rest of your code will be EXACTLY the same.
Remember that this is an early preview. We need your help to get it to the ready. Submit your bug reports, comments and suggestions in the Issue Tracker. We will address them promptly.
Or fork the code: https://github.com/hgrecco/pyvisa-py/
Comments
Post a Comment