Python library for talking to test instrumentation (power supplies, multimeters, electronic loads, DAQs, oscilloscopes, PLCs) from a unified, typed API.
Quickstart
Talk to a simulated PSU. No hardware required.
# Terminal 1: start the in-process SCPI sim server:
python -m instro.psu.scpi_sim_server
# Terminal 2: run this:
from instro.psu import InstroPSU
from instro.psu.drivers import SimulatedPSU
with InstroPSU(
name="my-psu",
driver=SimulatedPSU("TCPIP0::127.0.0.1::5025::SOCKET"),
num_channels=2,
) as psu:
psu.set_voltage(3.3, channel=1)
psu.output_enable(True, channel=1)
print(psu.get_voltage(channel=1))
That's the flow. Construct, open(), configure, measure, close(). When you want to capture the data, attach a publisher to stream it to a file, a custom destination, or Nominal. For the full walkthrough (including the background polling daemon and publishers), see the official documentation.
Installation
pip install instro
Requires Python 3.10 to 3.14.
To work on instro itself, clone and install with uv:
git clone https://github.com/nominal-io/instro.git
cd instro
uv sync --extra all
This creates a virtual environment with the core library, all optional vendor drivers, and dev dependencies.
Run with uv run python your_script.py or activate via source .venv/bin/activate (Unix) / .venv\Scripts\activate (Windows).
For the full toolchain needed to run just check and just test (including the native Rust/CMake/LLVM dependencies their Rust recipes require), see Prerequisites in the contributing guide.
Optional Extras
Instro drivers that require a separate vendor sdk installation ship as separate packages so the heavy dependencies stay optional, and community-contributed drivers ship in their own package. Install only what you need:
| Extra | Pulls in |
Package |
|---|---|---|
instro[nidaq] |
NI-DAQmx (Linux + Windows) |  |
instro[labjack] |
LabJack LJM |  |
instro[mccdaq] |
MCC UL (Windows-only) |  |
instro[aardvark] |
Total Phase Aardvark (I2C) |  |
instro[ethernetip] |
EtherNet/IP support for Allen-Bradley PLCs |  |
instro[contrib] |
Community-contributed hardware drivers |  |
instro[unstable] |
In-development features whose API isn't settled |  |
instro[all] |
Everything above | — |
Pass the extra package name in brackets to pip install:
pip install "instro[labjack]"
pip install "instro[nidaq,contrib]"
Supported devices
| Category | Class | Vendors |
|---|---|---|
| Power Supply | InstroPSU |
B&K Precision (9115, 914X), Keysight (E36100-series), Rigol (DP800-series), Siglent (SPD3303), TDK Lambda (Genesys), simulated |
| Multimeter | InstroDMM |
Agilent 34401A, Keysight 34461A, Keithley 2400, Keithley 2750 (unstable), simulated |
| Arbitrary Waveform Generator | InstroAWG |
Keysight (33521B, unstable), Rigol (DG1022Z, unstable) |
| Electronic Load | InstroELoad |
B&K Precision (85xxB-series) |
| Oscilloscope | InstroScope |
Keysight (1200X-series), Tektronix (2-series), Siglent (SDS1000X-E) |
| Flow Controller | InstroFlowController |
Alicat MC-series |
| DAQ | InstroDAQ |
Keysight 34980A, NI-DAQmx, LabJack T-series, MCC USB-series |
| I2C | I2CInterface |
Total Phase Aardvark |
| Modbus | ModbusDevice |
Any Modbus TCP / RTU device |
| Motor Controller | InstroMotorController |
VESC 6 over CAN via python-can (unstable) |
| EtherNet/IP | EtherNetIPDevice |
Allen-Bradley / CompactLogix-class PLCs |
Don't see your vendor? Drivers we can't test directly land in instro-contrib.
Install them with instro[contrib]. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the verification expectations.
Contributing
- Humans: see
CONTRIBUTING.mdfor development setup, PR conventions, and where different kinds of contributions belong in the workspace. - AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot Workspace, …): see
AGENTS.mdfor codebase landmarks, conventions, and common workflows. The repo ships reusable skills and subagents for both Claude Code (.claude/) and Codex CLI (.agents/,.codex/). The existing skills areadd-instrument-driverwhich scaffolds a new vendor driver from a programming manual/API, andvalidate-driver-hardwarewhich smoke-tests an authored driver against the real instrument and self-corrects it. See Repo skills and subagents.
License
Apache License 2.0. Third-party dependency notices and proprietary vendor runtime requirements are documented in NOTICE.
1 maintainer
Metadata
1 maintainer
Release files for instro 1.17.0
For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.
Source distribution (sdist)
| File | Size | Uploaded | |
|---|---|---|---|
| instro-1.17.0.tar.gz | 8.0 MB | Details |
Built distribution (wheel)
| File | Interpreter | ABI | Platform | Reset |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| instro-1.17.0-py3-none-any.whl | Python 3 | none | any | Details |
Total release size: 8.2 MB
Release files / instro-1.17.0.tar.gz
| Download URL | instro-1.17.0.tar.gz |
|---|---|
| Size | 8.0 MB |
| Tags | Source |
|
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums |
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| Download URL | instro-1.17.0-py3-none-any.whl |
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| Tags | Python 3 |
|
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums |
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Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing? |
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| Uploaded via |
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|
Provenance
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