dtollib 0.1.0

Experiment-facing DT-Open Layers acquisition layer for scientific instrumentation.

dtollib

Experiment-facing DT-Open Layers acquisition layer for Python.

dtollib is a typed, lifecycle-managed acquisition layer over a hand-rolled ctypes binding to the Data Translation DataAcq SDK (oldaapi64.dll + olmem64.dll). It fits the same scientific-instrumentation ecosystem as alicatlib, sartoriuslib, watlowlib, and nidaqlib.

Hardware in scope: DT9805 (multi-sensor USB module — AI only) and DT9806 (adds D/A, DIO, counter/timer).

Platform support: Windows only (the DataAcq SDK is Windows-only). The package installs on Linux/macOS for type-checking and ecosystem composition, but the real backend raises DtolDependencyError at first SDK touch.

Status

The Phase 0–5 software surface has landed and is exercised end-to-end against FakeDtolBackend. Bound and working:

• Discovery + diagnostics — find_devices, dtol-discover, dtol-diag.
• Single-value analog input — TaskSpec, AnalogInputVoltage, ThermocoupleInput, open_device, session.poll.
• Continuous acquisition — record, record_polled, the driver-thread callback bridge, DaqBlock, and the CSV / JSONL / RawCounts sinks plus the .dt-raw replay tool.
• Single-value output + safety gates — session.write, dtol-read, dtol-info, analog/digital output channel specs.
• Counters, trigger/retrigger config, and DtolManager.start_synchronized.

Hardware acceptance on the maintainer bench is ongoing and some original roadmap targets have been revised to match DT9805/DT9806 capability findings — see docs/plan-hardware-functional.md. For the phased roadmap and architecture see docs/design.md and docs/implementation-plan.md.

Install

pip install dtollib
# or
uv pip install dtollib

Optional extras:

pip install "dtollib[parquet]"    # pyarrow for the Parquet sink
pip install "dtollib[postgres]"   # asyncpg for the Postgres sink

Quickstart

A single-value thermocouple read (see also docs/quickstart-async.md):

import anyio
from dtollib import TaskSpec, ThermocoupleInput, ThermocoupleType, open_device


async def main() -> None:
    spec = TaskSpec(
        name="surface_temperatures",
        channels=[
            ThermocoupleInput(
                physical_channel=0,
                name="surface_tc_K",
                thermocouple_type=ThermocoupleType.K,
                min_val_degc=-50.0,
                max_val_degc=200.0,
            ),
        ],
    )
    async with await open_device(spec) as session:
        reading = await session.poll()
        print(reading.values)


anyio.run(main)

On Linux/macOS (no SDK) this type-checks and runs against FakeDtolBackend; on Windows with the DataAcq SDK and a DT9805/DT9806 attached it reads real hardware.

Development

uv sync --all-extras --group dev
uv run pytest
uv run ruff check
uv run ruff format --check
uv run mypy
uv run pyright

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the binding verification gate, hardware test markers, and CI lanes.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.