PyVISA-py 0.2

PyVISA-py

A PyVISA backend that implements a large part of the “Virtual Instrument Software Architecture” (VISA) in pure Python (with the help of some nice cross platform libraries python packages!).

Description

PyVISA started as wrapper for the NI-VISA library and therefore you need to install National Instruments VISA library 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.

Starting from version 1.6, PyVISA allows to use different backends. These backends can be dynamically loaded. PyVISA-py is one of such backends. It implements most of the methods for Message Based communication (Serial/USB/GPIB/Ethernet) using Python and some well developed, easy to deploy and cross platform libraries

VISA and Python

Python has a couple of features that make it very interesting for measurement controlling:

• Python is an easy-to-learn scripting language with short development cycles.
• It represents a high abstraction level, which perfectly blends with the abstraction level of measurement programs.
• It has a very rich set of native libraries, including numerical and plotting modules for data analysis and visualisation.
• A large set of books (in many languages) and on-line publications is available.

Requirements

• Python (tested with 2.6 and 2.7, 3.2+)
• PyVISA 1.6+

Optionally - PySerial (to interface with Serial instruments) - PyUSB (to interface with USB instruments) - linux-gpib (to interface with gpib instruments, only on linux)

Installation

Using pip:

$ pip install pyvisa-py

Documentation

The documentation can be read online at https://pyvisa-py.readthedocs.org

pyvisa-py is written and maintained by Hernan E. Grecco <[e-mail]>.

Other contributors, listed alphabetically, are:

• Alex Forencich <[e-mail]>
• Alexander Bessman <[e-mail]>
• Colin Marquardt <[e-mail]>
• Lance McCulley <[e-mail]>
• Martin Ritter <[e-mail]>
• Sebastian Held <[e-mail]>
• Thomas Kopp <[e-mail]>
• Thorsten Liebig <[e-mail]>
• Tobias Müller <[e-mail]>

(If you think that your name belongs here, please let the maintainer know)

PyVISA-py Changelog

0.2 (2015-08-25)

• Added support for TCPIP Socket. (Issue #38, thanks Thorsten Liebig)
• Added support for GPIB INSTR using linux-gpib. (Issue #24, thanks bessman)
• Added support for USB RAW. (Issue #18, kopp)
• Better error reporting when pyusb or pyserial is missing.
• Fixed logging of unicode strings. (Issue #54)
• Fixed timeout in SerialSession. (Issue #44)
• Moved resource name parsing to PyVISA.
• VXI11 protocol performance enhancement. (thanks alexforencich)
• Improved pyusb importing.
• Fixed large binary reads in TCPIP.
• Added backend information to logger.
• Use pyvisa compat/struct.py for python < 2.7.8 (thanks Martin Ritter)

0.1 (2015-02-08)

• Initial release. Preliminary support for: - USB INSTR - TCPIP INSTR - ASRL INSTR