nidcpower 0.7.0

NI-DCPower Python API

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master branch status
GitHub status

Info	Python bindings for NI Modular Instrument drivers. See GitHub for the latest source.
Author	National Instruments

About

The nimi-python repository generates Python bindings (Application Programming Interface) for interacting with the Modular Instrument drivers. Currently, the following drivers are supported:

• NI-DCPower (Python module: nidcpower)
• NI-DMM (Python module: nidmm)
• NI-FGEN (Python module: nifgen)
• NI-SCOPE (Python module: niscope)
• NI-SWITCH (Python module: niswitch)
• NI-ModInst (Python module: nimodinst)

It is implemented as a set of Mako templates and per-driver metafiles that produce a Python module for each driver. The driver is called through its public C API using the ctypes Python library.

nimi-python supports all the Operating Systems supported by the underlying driver.

nimi-python supports Python 2.7, 3.4 and later using CPython or PyPy.

NI-DCPower Python API Status

NI-DCPower (nidcpower)
Driver Version Tested Against	17.6.0
PyPI Version
Supported Python Version
Open Issues
Open Pull Requests

Installation

As a prerequisite to using the nidcpower module, you must install the NI-DCPower runtime on your system. Visit ni.com/downloads to download the driver runtime for your devices.

The nimi-python modules (i.e. for NI-DCPower) can be installed with pip:

$ python -m pip install nidcpower

Or easy_install from setuptools:

$ python -m easy_install nidcpower

Contributing

We welcome contributions! You can clone the project repository, build it, and install it by following these instructions.

Usage

The following is a basic example of using the nidcpower module to open a session to a Source Meter Unit and measure voltage and current.

import nidcpower
# Configure the session.
session.measure_record_length = 20
session.measure_record_length_is_finite = True
session.measure_when = nidcpower.MeasureWhen.AUTOMATICALLY_AFTER_SOURCE_COMPLETE
session.voltage_level = 5.0

session.commit()
print('Effective measurement rate: {0} S/s'.format(session.measure_record_delta_time / 1))

samples_acquired = 0
print('  #    Voltage    Current    In Compliance')
row_format = '{0:3d}:   {1:8.6f}   {2:8.6f}   {3}'
with session.initiate():
    while samples_acquired < 20:
        voltage_measurements, current_measurements, in_compliance = session.fetch_multiple(count=session.fetch_backlog)
        samples_acquired += len(voltage_measurements)
        for i in zip(range(len(voltage_measurements)), voltage_measurements, current_measurements, in_compliance):
            print(row_format.format(i[0], i[1], i[2], i[3]))

Additional examples for NI-DCPower are located in src/nidcpower/examples/ directory.

Support / Feedback

The packages included in nimi-python package are supported by NI. For support, open a request through the NI support portal at ni.com.

Bugs / Feature Requests

To report a bug or submit a feature request, please use the GitHub issues page.

Information to Include When Asking for Help

Please include all of the following information when opening an issue:

• Detailed steps on how to reproduce the problem and full traceback, if applicable. Code samples are encouraged!

• The python version used:

  $ python -c "import sys; print(sys.version)"
  

• The module (i.e. nidmm) and its version:

  $ python -m pip list
  

• The version of the driver used (i.e. NI-DMM 17.1). Follow this KB article to determine the version you have installed.

• The operating system, version, and bitness. For example 64-bit Windows 7.

Documentation

Documentation is available here.

License

nimi-python is licensed under an MIT-style license (see LICENSE). Other incorporated projects may be licensed under different licenses. All licenses allow for non-commercial and commercial use.