Constellation is a package for simplifying instrument control. It is designed to build off of libraries like pyvisa and pyvisa-py and provide a complete ecosystem for instrument automation. As a brief example of what this can look like in its simplest form, here's an example script which connects to an instrument, resets it, then adjusts and reads some basic settings:

from constellation.all import *

# Create log object
log = plf.LogPile()

# Create NRX Driver
nrx = RohdeSchwarzNRX("TCPIP0::192.168.0.10::INSTR", log)

# Preset device
nrx.preset()

# Get meas frequency
nrx.set_meas_frequency(1e9)
fmeas = nrx.get_meas_frequency()

One of the key components of Constellation is a set of instrument drivers, one of which, the RohdeSchwarzNRX class, was seen above. However, Constellation is more than just a collection of driver classes. Some of its key features include:

• Instrument API standardization: Drivers inherit from category classes, guaranteeing that all instruments of the same category (ie. all oscilloscopes) will share a common API.
• Networking: In addition to directly connecting to and interfacing with your instruments, you can optionally use Constellation's networking classes to remotely access your instruments. This works by connecting multiple clients to a single server program over an AES-encrypted network. Typically one client would interface with the instrument drivers, while the other clients can be used to monitor or adjust experiments remotely.
• Autmoatic Rich Logging: Because Constellation's core use-case concerns scientific experiments, robust and thorough logging is crucial. Constellation automates this via the pylogfile library and records every command sent to the instruments. Logs can be saved in the binary and open-source HDF format, which can be viewed and analyzed usign the lumberjack command line tool.
• Ease of Creating New Drivers: The instrument category classes automate much of the work involved in creating a driver, meaning you only need to focus on finding the right SCPI commands to create any new drivers you need.
• (Work in progress) GUIs: GUI widgets for specific instrument categories make it easy to control or monitor your experiments.

Installation

Constellation can be installed via pip using

pip install constellation-py

TODO

Technical detail: Category system and Drivers

• How the categories work, with 0-n
• How they use ABCs to force correct usage
• They inherit RemoteInstrument so without the end user paying attention, they can be used across a network!

Include graphic of cateogry system, including remote access, drivers and GUIs.

Instrument Control Example

TODO = basic example

Networking

Technical Detail: Networking

• Mention TCPIP, AES, passwords, automatically setup database and server.
• Mention PyFrost (WIP)

Networking Example

TODO = Networking example

List of included drivers

Read The Docs

PyPI